The second year the increase would be in favor of the plantain, and the product has reached more than thirty-five thousand per acre. Of the fibre no account has been taken, although this bids fair to become an important by-product. The plantain contains more fibre than the banana,—the inner portion in both stems being much finer. At present the possible four pounds of fibre in each stem is wasted; and as the stems should be cut to the ground after the fruit is gathered, these large fibrous trunks are much in the way of cultivation. It will be remembered that the Manilla hemp is the product of a species of banana (_Musa textilis_). Usually bananas or plantains are planted in a cafétal or in a cacao or orange orchard, to shade the young plants, and after three or four years are removed as the more permanent trees attain their growth. All the fruit exported must be cut and shipped while quite green and not fully grown; and this, conjoined to the tar and bilge smell of the steamers, certainly gives the fruit a flavor it does not have in its native land when allowed to attain its full growth and then slowly ripened under shelter from the sun. Bananas, like some pears, should not be allowed to ripen on the trees. There are two articles of food and commerce which should certainly attract the attention of merchants, and so of the public, in our Northern States,—fresh plantains, as a most nutritious and delicious vegetable, more costly than the banana, though of easier transport; and the dried plantain, for which there is already an increasing market on the Pacific coast.