But there are other branches of tropical agriculture to which the settler
may devote himself. Rubber offers belated fortune. Cotton, rice, tobacco
and fibre--plants flourish exceedingly, and in the production of ginger
and some sort of spices and medicinal gums, profit may be possible. The
manufacture of manilla rope from the fibre of the easily cultivated MUSA
TEXTILIS may be a remunerative industry. It is amply demonstrated that
butter quite up to the standard of exportation is to be manufactured in
tropical Queensland.
No one need starve or pine for lack of wholesome appetising and
nutritious food while the banana grows as it does in North Queensland,
and common as it is, the banana is one of the curiosities of the
vegetable world. One writer says: "It is not a tree, a palm, a bush, a
vegetable, nor a herb; it is simply a herbaceous plant with the stature
of tree, and is perennial." He adds that the fruit contains no seed,
though he qualifies the latter statement by remarking that he has heard
of fully developed seeds occasionally appearing in the cultivated fruit
"when left to ripen on the tree," and further that wild varieties of the
banana which propagate themselves by seed are reported to be found in
some parts of Eastern Asia.
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