althy portion of the community, the price
at which it can be sold being so low that it is within the reach of
everyone. A banana garden in full bearing is a very pretty sight, the
thousands of plants, each with their one or more bunches of fruit, as,
where there are several stems it is not at all uncommon to find two or
more bunches of fruit in different states of development on the same
plant, forming a mass of vegetation that must be seen to be appreciated.
This is the case even with dwarf-growing kinds, but with strong-growing
varieties, such as the Lady's Finger, the growth is so excessive that
the wonder is, how the soil can support it.

[Illustration: Bananas for shipment at Innisfail.]

Bananas do remarkably well in Queensland, and there is practically an
unlimited area of country suitable for their culture, much of which is
at present in a state of Nature. Only the more easily accessible lands
have been worked and of these only the richest. Manuring is unknown in
most parts, and as soon as the plantation shows signs of deterioration
it is abandoned, and a fresh one planted out in new land, the land
previously under crop with bananas being either planted in sugar-cane or
allowed to run to grass. This is certainly a very wasteful method of
utilising our land, and the time will come, sooner or later, when
greater care will have to be given to it, and that once land has become
impoverished by banana culture, it will have to be put under a suitable
rotation of crops, so as to fit it for being again planted to bananas.
The trouble is, as I have already stated, we have too much land and too
few people to work it, hence, so far, we are unable to use it to
anything like the best advantage. During the year 1904 the production of
bananas in Queensland was some 2,000,000 bunches, and when it is
considered that each bunch will average about 12 dozen fruit, it will be
seen that already we are producing a very large quantity. There is,
however, plenty of room for extension, and any quantity of available
country, but before this extension can be profitable, steps will have to
be taken to utilise the fruit in a manner other than its consumption as
fresh fruit, and this in itself will mean the opening up of new
industries and the employment of a considerable amount of labour. I have
mentioned 12 dozen as being the average quantity of fruit per bunch, but
it is frequently much more than this, and I have often seen bunches of
25 t