Note 4 — Chapter XIV · THE RICH COAST
Reading edition
In his Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, Book IV, Chap. IX, he asserts that for a given area of land “The produce of bananas is to that of wheat as 133:1, and to that of potatoes as 44:1.” These proportions, however, refer to the weights and not to the nutritive values of the products compared. The ratio of the nutritive value of bananas and wheat is, according to Humboldt, twenty-five to one in favor of bananas. Hence, he writes, “a European, newly arrived in the torrid zone is struck with nothing so much as the extreme smallness of the spots under cultivation round a cabin which contains a numerous family of Indians.” ↑