The flavor is acid, but not too much so. This fruit is more extensively used in the manufacture of cooling beverages than directly as a food, but it is also used very extensively for making preserves. The sweet-sop resembles the sour-sop in general character, but does not attain by any means to so large a size. The fruit is heart-shaped and deeply creased. The pulp contains more sugar and less acid than that of the sour-sop. This variety is eaten fresh and is also used for flavoring beverages, but is not extensively used for making preserves. The third variety, known as the custard apple, varies in color from light green to reddish brown, and is shaped something like a strawberry. It has a thick skin and black seeds, and a pulp very similar to that of sweet-sop in flavor. It is eaten chiefly raw, and is not very extensively used in the manufacture of preserves.

Composition of the Sour- and Sweet-sop Varieties.—

The above analyses show that the anona is a fruit which has about half the nutritive value of the banana. It has a much larger percentage of waste, especially the sweet-sop variety, where nearly three-fourths of the fruit is not edible.

Anona Preserves.-The anona preserves should be made exclusively with sugar and thus have the character of the fruit modified only by the amount of sugar added. In one sample of preserves analyzed the following data were obtained:

The above data show that the natural constituents of the fruit have been diminished in quantity in proportion to the amount of sugar added.

The Avocado (Persea persea).-The avocado is a fruit which has only lately been introduced into the United States. Its common name is alligator pear and it is already very highly prized.

The cultivation of the alligator pear was first undertaken as a novelty, and its real value as a dessert fruit is only beginning to be appreciated. It is evident that this fruit will have a great vogue in the near future, and will be in much demand as soon as its production is on a scale which makes it accessible to the people of ordinary means. The edible part of the fruit is a sweet,

BANANAS.

345 soft substance with an agreeable taste and of a semi-solid consistence. It has a nutty and peculiar flavor which is highly prized.

In the regions where the alligator pear is grown it is often used in the raw state or after having been treated with a little salt. It is highly prized when served in this manner. It is also often cut into small pieces and put into soup and is said to give a most agreeable odor and flavor thereto. The ripe fruit has different colors; it may be green, yellow, brown or dark purple or a combination of any of these colors. The alligator pear is particularly valued as a salad fruit.

The above data show that the alligator pear is not a fruit which is very highly nutritious. Its principle nutrient is fat, the next most important being starch and sugar, but it is extremely deficient in protein, and therefore could not be regarded as a balanced ration. Its principle value, therefore, is mostly on account of its condimental properties rather than for its nutrients. Bulletins 61 and 77 of the Bureau of Plant Industry, Department of Agriculture, give important information regarding the avocado. The accompanying illustration is taken from Bulletin 77, above mentioned.

From the amount of fat in the alligator pear it might be regarded as a nut instead of a fruit, but its paucity of nitrogenous constituents excludes it from that category.

Bananas (Musa).—One of the most abundant and most important of the tropical fruits, for food purposes, is the banana. The banana is not grown to any extent for food purposes in the United States, though it is produced on a limited scale in southern Florida. Immense quantities of bananas come into this country from the Central American states, particularly from Guatemala and Nicaragua. This fruit can be landed at New Orleans at very small expense for transportation, and for this reason can be distributed all over the country at a price which looks to be ridiculously small when it is considered that the fruit comes from so great a distance. It is also sent in large quantities to other ports, notably New York, Boston, and Baltimore. For shipping purposes the banana is gathered while still green, and often the ripening has not reached the stage when the ordinary yellow color which characterizes the ripe fruit is seen when it reaches the markets in the center of the country. The banana is not only valued for its peculiar flavor, which is pleasant and sweet, sometimes almost too much so, but it also has a high nutritive value, being a substance rich in carbohydrates and growing in such

abundance that its price is within the reach of the poorest classes. Great quantities of bananas are also grown in Cuba, but they are mostly consumed by the native population, forming one of the principal foods of the island.

The banana has perhaps less waste than almost any other fruit, as the whole of the inner portion is edible. In the green fruit there is a large proportion of starch, which gradually changes into invert sugar in the ripe fruit. In thoroughly mature bananas the quantity of sugar is relatively high and the quantity of starch correspondingly low. Bananas are not only eaten raw but also fried and in various other forms. The banana is a fruit which, when properly cared for, can be transported over long distances and kept for a long time. When properly prepared the banana forms a nutritious diet, probably equal in value to the same amount of solid matter contained in the common fresh fruits. One hundred grams may be taken as the average weight of the banana, although some of them are very much larger. About 70 percent of the banana is edible and 30 percent inedible, that is, the skin, which while not wholly inedible is usually rejected. The banana is essentially a carbohydrate food, the percentage of protein not usually rising above 1.3. Nearly all the carbohydrates in the ripe fruit consist of sugars which are present both as reducing and as cane sugars. The average total percentage of sugar present in the banana is a little over 20.

The composition of the banana is shown in the following table which contains the data of analyses of two samples bought in the open market in Washington.

The analytical data were obtained upon the edible portion and not upon the whole fruit.

The bananas which are imported from Jamaica and Central America are represented by the analyses given above. They are commonly known as the Johnson banana. Smaller fruits with better flavors are grown in Cuba,— some of them are of a red color like the oronoco and colorado. The indiano is a large, yellow, angular fruit with a salmon-colored pulp and a rather disagreeable acid flavor.

With reference to the banana as a food product it is seen that, including the starch and digestible cellulose, it consists of at least 25 percent, in its edible portion, of carbohydrates suitable for food purposes. Its low content of protein indicates that it is not a well balanced ration, but should be eaten

in connection with beans, peas, or other vegetables rich in protein, or with lean meat in order to secure a proper quantity of protein in the diet.

On account of the great abundance of the product and luxuriance of growth in the Central American states, it is evident that the banana might become a profitable source of industrial alcohol in that locality.

Cashew (Maranon) (Anacardium occidentale).—The cashew, of which the principal habitat is Cuba, is a small, oddly shaped, yellow and red fruit from two to three inches long and from to two inches in diameter at the bottom, decreasing gradually in diameter toward the top. The seed is small and kidneyshaped and grows outside of the fruit at the lower end. The seed is regarded as poisonous until it has been roasted, due probably to the presence of hydrocyanic acid. After roasting it is regarded as a delectable edible. The meat of the seed of the cashew resembles the roasted chestnut, but contains more oil. The pulp is of a dull yellow color, is tough and very juicy, with an acid astringent flavor and a disagreeable odor. The fruit is not eaten raw but chiefly in preserves. The composition of the cashew is shown in the following

The composition is somewhat like that of the hicaco, but the cashew contains a larger proportion of acid and hence is better suited for preserves. The sample of cashew preserves examined had the following composition:

Citrus Fruits. The term "citrus fruit" is applied to that class of fruits represented by the orange, lemon, grape fruit, and lime. In the United States extensive areas are devoted to the production of citrus fruits, and it is claimed by connoisseurs that some of the best varieties grown anywhere in the world are the products of this country. Florida and southern California are two localities where the development of the citrus fruit industry has been carried to the greatest extent. The phenomenally cold winter which occurred in Florida some ten years ago almost ruined the citrus fruit industry in that state for the time being. In the reëstablishment of it the center of production has been extended farther south than it was before. It is believed that at the present time the industry has been extended sufficiently far south in the Florida peninsula to avoid any repetition of the great disaster which ruined. the citrus groves in certain portions of the state at the time mentioned. The