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diff --git a/old/55729-0.txt b/old/55729-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 97f9dac..0000000 --- a/old/55729-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1218 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bananas, by Edward Wilkin Perry - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Bananas - Nature's Institution for the Promotion of Laziness - -Author: Edward Wilkin Perry - -Release Date: October 10, 2017 [EBook #55729] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BANANAS *** - - - - -Produced by Cindy Horton, Turgut Dincer, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - BANANAS - - NATURE’S INSTITUTION FOR THE PROMOTION - OF LAZINESS - - - BY EDWARD W. PERRY - - - COPYRIGHTED - - 1903 - - BY HARRY WILKIN PERRY - - - - -REVISED EDITION - - -NOTE - -The chapter given in the following pages is from a work entitled: -“TROPICAL AMERICA: ITS PLANTERS AND PLANTATIONS,” now in preparation. -_Sports Afield_ said of the author: “Probably no American is more -competent to write of the country life than is this author, who, -because of his long-trained habits of observation, careful search for -the bottom facts and weighing of details, of deducing therefrom the -essentials and presenting them clearly and concisely, has made the best -possible use of his time and experience.” - - - - -CHAPTER III. - - NATURE’S INSTITUTION FOR THE PROMOTION OF LAZINESS. BANANAS: WHAT - THEY ARE, HOW THEY GROW, WHAT THEY COST, AND WHAT THEY GIVE TO - MAN. - - -Long before the dawn of history in the Old World, mayhap long before -that Old World arose from the waters, man lived on the fruit of the -_Musas_. There are those who would tell you that the banana is the -fruit which tempted Eve, to the downfall of Adam; and that evidence -of the truth of this may be found in the fact that if one will cut -across a banana, of the right kind, he may find in its heart the sign -of the cross; and in the other fact that men of learning have given to -a banana the name of _Musa paradisiaca_, which being interpreted means -the Fruit of paradise, and to another banana they have given the name -_Musa sapientum_, which the sapient know means the Fruit of knowledge. -Less evidence has served well enough to burn heretics at the stake. - -[Illustration: A BUNCH OF BANANAS] - -Man has carried this gigantic herb to every fertile spot in a belt that -girdles the waist of the globe--a girdle that is four thousand miles -and more in width. Millions uncounted have looked to it for the chief -of their diet, as other millions have looked to the cereals. And to -this hour puling babes and doddering ancients are fed with the fruit in -all its stages and conditions, green or over-ripe, raw or roasted, -baked or fried, liquid or dried. At least forty species of the _Musas_ -are known and described, and of these there are several sub-varieties. -They have been classed by Dr. Sagot into three groups, as follows: - - Giant bananas, of which _M. ensete_ is the type. In this group no - suckers are formed. Fruit leathery and not edible, with few seeds. - - Fleshy-fruited bananas; _M. sapientum_ the type. Stem produces - suckers; spike long and decurved; fruit fleshy and usually eatable. - - Ornamental bananas. Spike often erect, not pendant; bracts persistent, - brightly colored, each with a few flowers on its axil; suckers many; - fruit leathery. _M. rosacea_ furnish familiar examples of this group. - -When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for the single -man of the tropics to take unto himself a helpmeet for him, and to -provide for other events likely to come after, he selects some fertile -spot, usually on the border of waters over which his canoe may easily -carry the bulky harvests he will have; and there he cuts down tree and -vine, bush and bamboo, and lets them lie as they fall in tangled mass. -Every day the ardent sun helps the constant wind to shrivel leaf and -twig until, one day, the windward edge of that snarl is touched by the -torch, and in a moment a blazing hades is where a cool and shady grove -will soon rustle in the breeze. - -When the last flame has flickered out and coals lie dead beneath their -gray shroud, women paddle to that place with canoes laden with banana -sprouts. With machetes they dig little pits amid charred stumps and -trunks and branches, and in each hole they set a sprout. Then they -go away to wait, and rest; and the sun shines warmly down into that -clearing, breezes sift a gray veil of ashes over the wilted suckers -that look like black and ragged stakes; and at last come showers which -wash them clean. - -Those stakes are made up of sheathes of leaves tightly rolled one -around another, the inner ones narrow, cream-colored and tender; those -nearer the outer ones wider and yet wider, until the outer one is -reached. The outer one covers nearly or quite three-fourths of the -stem. When the warm rains fall, the tender leaves unroll and spread to -their widest, and the sun dries and the wind whips them until soon they -are split into narrow ribbons; and a few weeks after that planting a -sea of giant leaves waves and whispers in the breeze--a roof of bright -and tender green covering the moist, black ground. - -Not before the plant has grown to a height of ten to twenty, and in -some places to thirty feet, does the flower-stem begin pushing its -way up from the base through the middle of the stalk. In a short time -it sends out at the top one or more leaves, smaller than their older -fellows, as a signal that flower and fruit will quickly follow. Soon -every supporting column of those graceful arches ends in a cone of -red that deepens into purple and swells until its outer petals are -crowded off by the fatness of the fruit they hide, that these may have -air and light. Under those petals the baby bananas are packed close, -like fingers tightly gripping the parent stem. These closed ranks, -each separate hand or whorl reaching half way around the stalk, grow -so quickly that in six or eight weeks the bunch weighs fifty pounds or -more. - -To most people of northern climes bananas are merely--bananas. For -such folk know as little of the many varieties of bananas as they know -of the many and varied uses of that fruit. Perchance that is why they -fry the common yellow guineo which comes by millions of bunches each -year to the United States, and then wonder that folk who have dwelt -in the tropics, and who extol fried bananas, show nevertheless that -they cannot like the mushy, cloying mess set before them here. He -who grows bananas, and she who cooks them for him, select for frying -that thick-bodied, hard-fleshed and rather tart fruit which they call -plátano, and which is by blundering English-speaking tongues misnamed -plantain. And even among the plátanos there is room for choosing, for -there are of them several varieties. Best of these is that little -one which bears, on the Mosquito Shore whence good bananas come, the -Spanish name “miel,” or honey, coupled with the Waika word “silpe,” or -little. The name “maiden” plátano also is given to the “little honey,” -most fittingly, for it has just enough of piquant tartness to give -unfailing relish, yet is tender, plump and mighty comforting withal, -upon occasion. - -If he is so lucky as to live near a port where steamships stop, the -planter may sell his plátanos for a cent or even two cents for each -finger or fruit; and as the plants may be set only eight or ten feet -apart, and each will mature a bunch of thirty to fifty fingers every -nine months, it is clear that he who has an acre of plátanos may have -a tidy income of food or of cash. Usually the planter prefers to eat -this food, for which reason people in the North have few opportunities -for learning the superior virtues of the fruit. The planter is quite -right, for the plátano is the one banana fit to be cooked; and is by no -means bad to eat raw. - -Sometimes a planter may leave a bunch of bananas to ripen on the -standing stalk, but that will rarely be, for the fruit so ripened is -strong in flavor, dry and too soft to bear transportation; its skin -splits, and ants, bees and other insects gather about the exposed -flesh. Therefore the women lug home green bunches and hang them in the -house to ripen, where everybody who has the right--and that is every -visitor, every member of the family and every passing acquaintance--may -pluck and eat as the fruit turns yellow and becomes tender. Meanwhile -many of the fruits will have been taken from the bunch, peeled and -broken into bits, to be boiled with beef or pork, or flesh of the deer, -peccary or other game. - -Another sub-variety of plátanos bears, in Mosquitia, the name of -“butuco,” perhaps from the name of the River Patuca--or maybe the river -has taken its name from the banana. The butuco is perhaps rather more -tart than the miel silpe, and when fried reminds one of fried greening -apples, and when stewed has somewhat of the flavor of stewed peaches. -In either way it is most agreeable to the taste. There are other -plátanos, also, most of them giants among bananas, many being fifteen -or more inches long and some two or three inches in diameter. These are -firm in flesh, resist decay much longer than do the common guineos, and -will, therefore, much better bear transportation. They should become -known to the millions of northern lands, for they would afford a vast -supply of food much more convenient and palatable than, and equal in -value to, potatoes. - -Prof. Wynter Blythe, of London, is an analyst who tells us that the -relative values of bananas and sago, corn meal and wheat flour are as -follows: - - =========================+=========+===========+=========+============ - Constituents | Banana | Sago |Corn Meal|Wheat Flour - -------------------------+---------+-----------+---------+------------ - |Per Cent.| Per Cent. |Per Cent.| Per Cent. - Water | 8.05 | 13.00 | 11.09 | 15.08 - Soluble albumen dextrine | 4.45 | | | - Starch | 82.57 | 78.06 | 85.30 | 81.60 - Albumenoids | 2.28 | 2.57 | 2.37 | 2.11 - Fat | 0.77 | | | - Ash | 1.88 | 0.53 | 0.43 | 0.35 - =========================+=========+===========+=========+============ - -In a report on the constituents and food values of most articles -in common use on northern tables, the United States Department of -Agriculture gave, in the year 1903, very valuable figures which show -that nineteen vegetables and ten varieties of fruits which make up the -chief of our diet, have the following parts and values: - - ======================+==========+========+========= - Elements |Vegetables| Fruits | Bananas - ----------------------+----------+--------+--------- - Carbohydrates, parts | 8.9 | 11.1 | 14.3 - Fats | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.4 - Protein | 2.0 | 0.6 | 0.8 - Ash | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.6 - Water | 73.0 | 64.3 | 48.9 - Refuse | 14.8 | 23.1 | 35.0 - Fuel values | 203.9 | 204.0 | 260.0 - ======================+==========+========+========= - -This shows that while of valuable nutritive elements, the nineteen -fresh vegetables have 11.3 parts and the ten varieties of succulent -fruits have 12.1 parts, the bananas have 15.5 parts. From this it -appears, also, that if the fresh fruits and vegetables were actually -worth, as food, say $1.17, bananas of like weight would be worth 38 -cents more. - -[Illustration: HARD LABOR AMONG THE BANANAS] - -Statements made by other analysts seem to warrant the deduction that -the nutritive value of a ton of potatoes, at one cent per pound, is 19 -cents more than that of a ton of bananas at the same price. There is a -difference, too, in the cost of production of a ton of potatoes and the -cost of raising a ton of bananas. The field for potatoes must be plowed -and harrowed in the spring, the seed dropped in furrows, which are then -to be covered, after which comes cultivating again and again until the -time has come for digging and picking, carting, sacking and hauling, -often to a distant market. - -Luckily for the millions who have depended so largely on the banana for -sustenance, the plant has few, if any, insect enemies and diseases, in -which they differ somewhat from some fruits and tubers of the North. - -Many times an assertion has been printed to the effect that Humboldt -said that an acre of bananas yields forty-four times as much food as -does an acre of wheat. In the year 1902 the average yield of wheat in -the United States equalled 12.79 bushels, or 767.4 pounds. This had -a food value equal to nearly one-third that of the average output of -bananas from an acre. It is often said that one pound of bananas has -as much nutrition as has a pound of beef. The truth is that one pound -of beef is worth three and one-third pounds of bananas. Bananas are -far enough ahead of the harvests the farmer of the North gets, without -making exaggerated claims for the fruit of the tropics. - -So the planter of bananas has each year four and a half times as much -palatable food from an acre as the farmer gets from his potatoes: -and there is the further difference that the one has bananas at no -other cost than that of keeping down bush and grass and vine, that -would quickly cover every spot to which the sunshine could penetrate, -along the edges of the plantation. For bananas yield year after year -without replanting. Each new stalk springs from the foot of its parent, -grows to a height of fifteen to thirty-five feet, bears its burden of -luscious fruit, and dies; but not before it has sent up from its own -root new stalks to fruit and die--and so on through the centuries. - -He who would grow bananas for market must plant on the border of -navigable waters giving access to some harbor or anchorage where ships -may safely lie while receiving the fruit. For it is easily bruised, and -wetting by salt water blackens the skins, thus injuring or preventing -the sale. Plantations are usually on the banks of rivers or of -estuaries, but some are beside railroads, to which the fruit is carried -by carts thickly carpeted with banana leaves. A cruder way is to hang a -few bunches over the back of a burro or of a mule, which plods along to -the shipping place. - -It is evident that the entire area which can so be devoted to banana -culture must be small, for most Central American and Mexican rivers -are obstructed at their mouths by sandbars, over which ships cannot -pass. Bluefields, Nicaragua, has been a most profitable field for -banana growing, because it has a river into which sea-going ships can -safely enter, and up which such ships may go fifty or sixty miles, and -receive their cargoes from landings on the plantations which border the -Rio Escondido. Yet millions of bunches of bananas have been shipped -from the open coast of Honduras, where the one good harbor is that at -Puerto Cortez. - -Other millions have been shipped from Port Limón and from Bocas del -Toro, in Costa Rica, whence a few hundred bunches were sent as a -beginning to the United States in the year 1883. Twenty years later -the port of Limón itself sent 4,174,200 bunches to the markets of the -world. They brought to Costa Rica credit for producing the best bananas -known. - -For ages the native of banana lands was content with the fact that he -got from his plantation more than enough food. Some thirty-five years -ago a few bold men ventured to pay twelve or fifteen cents a bunch -for a few cargoes in the Bay Islands, off the coast of Honduras, and -carried them to the Gulf States. There they found they could sell the -fruit, for there lived people who had traveled to the tropics, and -learned to eat their foods. To-day millions of bunches are each year -sold in the United States and even in Canada, and in 1902 ship-loads -were sent from Costa Rica direct to Europe. That little republic alone -received not less than $1,127,400 for bananas sold abroad during the -year that ended with September, 1902. - -The United Fruit Company, of Boston, was formed in the year 1888, and -ten years later was said to have a surplus of more than $6,000,000, -owned thousands of acres of bananas, and had built expressly for its -fruit carrying business four superb steamers, and employed many others. - -It is safe to assume that more than $6,000,000 was paid in the year -1902, in Central America alone, to planters of bananas. Nearly all of -that was paid by products of American farms, factories and forests. -Farmer, manufacturer and miner, lumberman, railroad man and sailor, -merchant and broker of this country, are all concerned in and benefited -by the work done in shady aisles beneath banana leaves on the banks of -tropic rivers. - -Bananas reach their best estate on the low, deep alluvium near the -Caribbean coast, where the temperature never sinks below 60° and is -seldom below 80° F. Such low lands serve all the better if flooded -two or three times in the year, for the banana will drink much water, -and such floods bring silt from the hills, and thus keep the ground -fertilized without cost to the owner. In 1897 famed banana fields of -the Rio Escondido were so deeply flooded that the steamship “Saga” -voyaged through the main streets of Rama, fully sixty miles from -the mouth of the river, to pick off from their roofs the dwellers -in that town. The bananas barely showed their tops above the yellow -flood. Along the coast flew reports that the plantations were ruined; -subscriptions were asked to help the planters: and three months -later they were harvesting better crops than in years before. Their -plantations had been so enriched that they bore most bountifully. - -Bananas may be grown wherever there is some moisture and no near -approach to the frost line; but a touch of frost cuts down the banana -as a breath from a fiery furnace would blight a tender lily. The city -of Tegucigalpa is 3,600 feet above the level of the sea, yet in that -town is a field some thirty feet above the current in the swift river -which it borders. It is very dry during months of each year, but in -that field are plátanos which reach a height of more than twenty feet -and bear bunches enough comfortably to support the owner. In narrow -cañon and wider valley near that place are many patches of bananas -which bring to their planters a sufficient income. And at that altitude -the mercury sometimes falls below 65° Fahrenheit. - -In the land of bananas, cats, dogs and pigs, mules, horses and cattle, -parrots, babies and all other domestic animals thrive on this perfect -nature-food, when they can get it. I have seen an Indian woman pry open -with her fingers the jaws of a baby peccary, and with a gruel of green -bananas choke off its incessant, rasping cry of “ma, ma!” And the next -instant she put that same calabash of gruel to the lips of her own babe -of three or four months. I’ve seen other Indians feed infant tapir, -suckling jaguar, skinny squabs of parrots and very young monkeys on -such pap, which those folk call wabool. I, myself, have safely carried -abandoned cardinals through from their infant days of a beggarly few -pin feathers to those of full regimentals of brilliant scarlet and -epaulets of jet; and they were as overflowing with joyful song and -saucy happiness as they could have been had worms and bugs been the -chief of their diet every day of their lives, instead of the bananas on -which they had been largely fed. - -Why not, indeed, when cakes and beer, brandy and sugar, pies, puddings -and sauce, and many another thing good for man to take for his -stomach’s sake, are made from bananas. So, too, are paper and laces, -brushes and cloth, and cordage enough to pull up the earth by its -roots, if only we had a place to hook the tackle. - -[Illustration: HARVESTING BANANAS] - -When he has set out an acre or two of bananas, the planter need have no -fears for the future. He has ample insurance against such privations -as come from illness, accident or old age: and they who by a little -labor pay for such insurance share each day its material benefits. No -need for them to die that others may enjoy the blessings of such wise -provision; nor need the planter toil with hoe or spade, cultivator or -plow. It may be he will slash away with machete such vine or sapling, -grass or weed as happens to obstruct his path; but as a whole he -interferes as little as possible with the operations of kindly Mother -Nature. She is more than ready to do his work: he is willing to let her -do it. - -He whose acre of bananas has been well planted has on it 225 hills, -or 900 stalks. Each stalk will give him a bunch which, on rich, new -ground, should weigh 60 pounds, say 54,000 pounds each 12 or 14 months. -That is the theory. The fact seems to be that the average yield is -really 175 to 300 full bunches to the acre per annum, say a mean of -270 bunches weighing about 16,000 pounds. The average yield reported -all along the Caribbean shore and from Jamaica, during a dozen years, -equaled 270.95 full bunches an acre per annum. - -In the year 1902 the average yield of potatoes in the United States was -80.44 bushels per acre, and the average farm value was 49 cents per -bushel, or $39.45 an acre. In Costa Rica the average price of bananas -on the plantation was equal to at least 27 cents a bunch. At that -figure 261 bunches would bring $70.47. In August, 1903, the price was -raised to 31 cents a bunch on contracts to run three to five years; -which should give $84.00 per acre each year. That is a cash difference -of $44.55 in favor of the man whose bananas raised themselves for him. -There was another difference in his favor, for his fruit may be eaten -green or ripe, raw or roasted, boiled or fried, with fish, flesh or -fowl, or with none of these. - -Those who dwell in the mountain regions, far from the ports whence -bananas are shipped, dip in lye and dry in the sun many a plátano. -It is then shriveled, moldy-looking and altogether unlovely; but if -kept dry it remains sweet and wholesome many a year. It may be eaten -uncooked, when it is a gummy, sugary paste; but drop it into scalding -water, put it into a hot oven, or stick it up beside the fire, and it -becomes mightily puffed up, tender and savory. It might be sent thus -dried to feed the people of the North or of Europe, for it would be -easily packed and carried. - -Naturally the intelligent planter concerns himself mainly with the -question: What is the cost, the yield and the profit of banana growing? -There are evidences that many people in the North feel a lively -curiosity about the same points. - -Before one can give a trustworthy reply to such question he must study -the evidence of those who have had opportunity to learn the truth, and -he should be able to present the general averages of the results shown -by many such witnesses. The planter of medium ability and industry -may confidently expect to attain the average results; he who has less -intelligence and thrift should not complain if he fails to get as -good returns; he who shows more than common skill, application and -energy will win greater reward than is shown by the average of the -banana-growing of the many, as in other occupations great skill and -industry bring the larger rewards. - -Reports covering years of experience by thousands of planters in the -West Indies and along the Atlantic coast of Mexico and of Central -America, indicate that the cost per acre of making banana plantations -and cultivating and harvesting the first crop therefrom, the yield in -bunches and the income, are as shown in the following table: - - ===========+=========+=========+=========+========= - Countries | Bunches | Income | Cost | Profit - Costa Rica | 250.0 | $ 70 67 | $ 28 84 | $ 41 83 - Guatamala | 267.5 | 124 36 | 42 80 | 81 56 - Honduras | 294.0 | 121 13 | 18 97 | 102 16 - Jamaica | 288.0 | 109 48 | 27 58 | 81 90 - Mexico | 280.0 | 123 61 | 28 12 | 95 49 - Nicaragua | 246.2 | 86 36 | 22 07 | 64 29 - -----------+---------+---------+---------+--------- - Averages | 270.95 |$ 105 94 | $ 28 06 | $ 77 87 - ===========+=========+=========+=========+========= - -From the foregoing it appears that the general average yield per acre -during the twenty years covered by the figures given, was 270.95 -bunches per acre; the average cost per acre was $28.06, which was only -10.3 cents per bunch. The profit per bunch was 28.7 cents, or 287.9 per -cent. - -A report dated August 1, 1903, by Las Haciendas de Santa Clara, Costa -Rica, which has 550 acres of bananas in full bearing, and where wages -are one colon or 47 cents per diem, gives the cost of cultivating and -delivering the fruit at the railroad, as $17.69 per acre, the yield -at 173 bunches and the income at $54.90 annually. That shows that the -bananas cost 10.2 cents per bunch, and that the profit was 20.8 cents -a bunch, or 200 per cent. But as the fruit is sold five years ahead -at those figures, the small percentage of profit may be regarded as a -fair return for the investment, combined as it is with an assurance of -continued gain. - -There are those who insist that the higher results shown in the -foregoing table may easily be obtained by any one who will give as much -thought and labor to growing bananas as are required for the successful -raising of corn or of potatoes. It is true that the figures on which -the averages shown are based were, in many cases, from the experience -of native and other planters of little diligence and skill, and that -they got smaller results than might easily have been obtained. It may -be possible that if one will allow two or three stalks to rise from -each stand of bananas, and together mature their fruit, he many get -444 to 780 bunches from an acre each of a few years, and that in such -a case he might get $185 to $278 for the crop; but it will be clear -to all that he who expects to make only 270 bunches per annum from an -acre, and get only $78 profit therefrom, will be safer than he who -invests his money with the expectation of making greater gains. - -The Hand Book of Nicaragua, published by the Bureau of American -Republics, which is under the direction of the U. S. Department of -State, says: - - There is, perhaps, no industry in Central America that is more - attractive to men of small capital than banana growing, from the fact - that the clearing of the land is effected cheaply, and from the small - cost of after-cultivation, which is limited only to such clearing of - weeds and undergrowth as may be sufficient to allow access to the - trees, and the short time necessary to produce a paying crop. When - the trees and brush that have been cut in clearing the land become - sufficiently dry, they are burned, and the banana suckers are then - planted among the charred remains and ashes, without any further - preparation of the soil. The best results are obtained by giving the - trees plenty of space, say from 15 to 18 feet apart. In about ten - months the first fruit can be gathered; but in the second year the - trees reach maturity, and by a proper management of the fruit stalks - in a fair sized plantation a constant succession in the crop may be - secured, and fruit gathered every week throughout the year. - - The only careful work necessary on a banana plantation is in handling - the heavy bunches so as to avoid bruising them, as any such injury - causes a black spot to appear, beneath which decay quickly begins as - the fruit ripens. The natives have learned by experience when they cut - into the fruit stalk so to gauge the strength of the blow as to cut - just deep enough to cause the stalk to bend slowly over until the end - of the bunch reaches the ground, when another slash with the machete - severs it, and it is loaded carefully into the cart. - - A plantation of 40 manzanas (about 69 acres) will, during and after - the second year, produce about 54,000 bunches. The lowest price paid - for bunches for some years past is 37½ cents per bunch, which would - give an annual value of the crop of $20,250, or more than double the - expenditure for purchase of land, clearing, cultivating and gathering - the crop, and all expenses to the end of the second year. - -As the cost of producing bananas after the first crop from a plantation -is confined to cultivating and harvesting, which may be done for $10 -per acre yearly, it is scarcely wonderful that Judge O’Hara, late U. -S. Consul at Greytown, Nicaragua, a lawyer whose acute mind is trained -to sifting evidence, reported to the Department of State at Washington -regarding banana-growing on the Atlantic coast of that republic, that: - - It seems reasonably certain that bananas on the Bluefields River pay - better than many crops in the United States. * * * * These figures - would seem to indicate that at the end of a year a planter having 36 - acres of bananas under cultivation would have $3,847.32 left after - paying for all necessary labor and provisions--figures apt to bring - discontent to an American farmer having but 36 acres of wheat or corn; - and especially so when he compares the price of his land, ranging from - $15 to $80 per acre, with that of land in eastern Nicaragua, where - cultivated lands may be said to have no established market value, few - improved plantations having ever been sold. - -[Illustration: BEGINNING OF A LONG JOURNEY] - -Such discontent might be aggravated by consideration of the differences -which exist between the results obtained from the chief eight crops of -the United States and those shown by the foregoing summary of banana -farming. These differences are illustrated by the following figures, -those for the crops of the North showing the yield and values for the -year 1897. The last column shows the difference in favor of bananas per -acre: - - =================+==========+==========+=================== - CROPS | Yield | Value | Difference, favor - | per acre | per acre | of Bananas - -----------------+----------+----------+------------------- - Barley, bushels | 23.11 | $12 34 | $93 59 - Buckwheat, 〃 | 16.08 | 9 69 | 96 25 - Corn, 〃 | 24.62 | 9 51 | 96 43 - Oats, 〃 | 27.19 | 8 29 | 97 65 - Potatoes, 〃 | 80.44 | 39 45 | 66 49 - Rye, 〃 | 13.30 | 8 22 | 97 72 - Wheat, 〃 | 12.78 | 10 11 | 95 83 - Hay, tons | 1.26 | 10 93 | 95 01 - Tobacco, pounds | 797.30 | 55 81 | 50 13 - -----------------+----------+----------+------------------- - General averages | | $18 28 | $87 66 - =================+==========+==========+=================== - -From this it is evident that bananas give five and one-half times as -much as the principal crops of the United States give the farmer for -his toil. - -Many native planters seem content with the returns their bananas give, -and appear to have no thought of increasing that income. - -“Why don’t you plant more bananas? See how well this little patch has -paid,” I have said to many of them. - -“Why should I do that? Have I not plenty to eat? I have enough money; -if I plant more I shall have to do more work to get more money which I -don’t need,” is the substance of their replies. - -Years ago U. S. Consul Burchard complained of the banana business of -the Honduras coast, that “A large proportion of the fruit-growers -were formerly vacqueros in the interior, working on a salary of $30 -to $40 a year. They are now owners of plantations, and have a steady -income of $30 to $300 a month. The large amount of money distributed -along this coast in exchange for fruit would make any civilized and -temperate community prosperous and happy. There would be public and -private schools, churches and banks, newspapers and libraries, parks -and carriages, and handsome dwellings supplied with every comfort and -luxury, surrounded by gardens of flowers, fruits and vegetables natural -to this climate of perpetual seedtime and harvest.” - -So it soon will be, for already Italian and German, Englishman and -American have accepted the invitation of a most kindly Nature, and the -sincere welcome of friendly natives, and cottages peep here and there -from out the glossy greenery, hammocks swing beneath the never-ceasing -rustle of the palms in the blessed trade winds, and the fruit of -Paradise gives to all a most generous support. - -But those who have good lands back from navigable water and remote from -railroads, are not without hope of profit from bananas. For they may -dry the fruit, pack it in dainty boxes with a liberal dusting of sugar -to fill vacant spaces, and send it to the hungry millions of Europe. -This has been successfully done by planters of Trinidad and of Jamaica, -who, in at least some instances, found that they could sell the dried -fruit at 16 to 20 cents a pound. Green bunches average nearly 60 pounds -in weight, two-thirds of which is lost in peeling and drying, leaving -about 20 pounds, which, at 15 cents, will give $3 per bunch. If the -production of the green bananas and the drying should cost $2 a bunch, -the income from an acre of bananas would be $288 yearly. In practice it -has been found that the total cost and income of dried bananas give a -net return of $2.72 per bunch, which equaled about $783 per acre. - -Both plátanos and guineos, or ordinary yellow bananas, may be -profitably dried or made into flour. This will utilize the surplus -fruit and such bunches as are too small to sell to advantage. Frequent -mention is made by Stanley, of banana flour in his “In Darkest Africa.” -He strongly indorses its nutritive qualities, and wonders that the -natives did not appear to have discovered what invaluable nourishing -and easily digested food they had in the plátano and banana. He -expressed the conviction that, “If only the virtues of banana flour -were publicly known, it is not to be doubted but it would be largely -consumed in Europe. For infants, persons of delicate digestion, -dyspeptics and those suffering from temporary derangement of the -stomach, the flour properly prepared would be of universal demand. -During my two attacks of gastritis a light gruel of this, mixed with -milk, was the only matter that could be digested.” - -It is interesting to note that such a high authority as the “Dictionary -of Economical Productions of India” says: - - The large crop of food produced by bananas and plantains may be - preserved for an indefinite period either by drying the fruit or - by preparing meal from it. When the nearly ripe fruit is cut into - slices and dried in the sun, a certain part of the sugar contained - in the fruit crystalizes on the surface and acts as a preservative. - The slices thus prepared, if made from the finer varieties, make an - excellent dessert preserve, and if from the coarser, may be used for - cooking in the ordinary way. They keep well if carefully packed when - dry, and ought to form a valuable antiscorbutic for long voyages. - The fruit may also be similarly preserved whole by stripping off the - skin and drying it in the sun. Plantain meal is prepared by stripping - off the husk and reducing it to powder, and finely sifting. It is - calculated that the fresh core will yield 40 per cent. of this meal, - and that an acre of average quality will yield over a ton. - - Plantain meal is of a slightly brownish color, and has an agreeable - odor, which becomes more perceptible when warm water is poured upon - it, and has a considerable resemblance to that of orris root. When - mixed with cold water it forms a feebly tenacious dough, more adhesive - than that of oatmeal, but much less so than that of wheaten flour. - When baked on a hot plate this dough forms a cake which is agreeable - to the sense of smell, and is by no means unpleasant to the taste. - When boiling water is poured over the meal it is changed into a - transparent jelly, having an agreeable taste and smell. Boiled with - water it forms a thick gelatinous mass, very much like boiled sago in - color, but possessing a peculiar pleasant odor. - -In this connection it may be interesting to note that, according to -an analysis published in the _American Analyst_, New York, February -15th, 1893, the chemical composition of bananas and potatoes is almost -identical, as shown by the following comparison: - - Banana Potato - Water 75.71 75.77 - Albumenoids 1.71 1.79 - Total carbonaceous matter (non-nitrogenous) 20.13 20.72 - Woody fibre 1.74 .75 - Ash .71 .97 - -Nor do the food elements in bananas and plátanos vary greatly, the sum -of each being about the same. - -In a communication to Kew by Mr. Louis Asser, of the Hague, Holland, -it was announced that a syndicate proposes to take up the manufacture -of banana and plantain meal and the preparation of dried bananas on -a large scale in Dutch Guiana. The communication referred to gives -the following list of commercial preparations from the banana and the -plátano: - - 1. Dried slices of the entire fruit (pulp and peel) in the starchy - state suitable for the preparation of alcohol or for making into a - nourishing bread. - - 2. Meal in a starchy state from the pulp only for making into a - superior kind of bread or porridge. - - 3. Flakes and meal in a dextrinous state for use in breweries or for - making into nourishing soups, puddings, etc. - - 4. Dried peel and coarse meal prepared from it for feeding cattle and - pigs. - - 5. Banana marmalade. - - 6. Dried bananas entire without peel put up like dried figs in boxes. - - 7. Raw alcohol from fresh bananas, and also from dried banana meal. - - 8. Syrup of bananas for confectionery, for preparations of liquors and - for sweetening champagne. - - 9. Banana meal for the manufacture of glucose. - - 10. Fibre of banana and plantain prepared from the stems after - fruiting, and intended for the manufacture of paper and cordage. - -[Illustration: BEGINNING OF A GREAT TRAFFIC] - -Mr. Asser estimates the entire cost of a ton of banana meal, delivered -in Europe, at $23. This includes cost of cultivation, gathering the -crop, making the meal, and the freight. At that time the average market -value of Indian wheat in Liverpool was $30 per ton. Considering the -selling value of the meal to be no greater than that of the wheat, the -prices quoted would show a margin of profit equal to about 30 per cent. -on the capital invested. - -From British Guiana comes the following interesting information -about plátano flour, taken from a report by Dr. Shier on the -“Starch-producing Plants” of that country: - - The plantain is so abundant and cheap that it might, if cut and dried - in its green state, be exported with advantage. It is in this unripe - state that it is so largely used by the peasantry of this Colony as - an article of food. When dried and reduced to the state of meal, it - cannot like wheat flour, be manufactured into macaroni or vermicelli, - or, at least, the macaroni made from it falls into powder when put - into hot water. Plantain meal is prepared by stripping off the husk - of the plantain, slicing the core, and drying it in the sun. When - thoroughly dry it is powdered and sifted. It has a fragrant odor, - acquired in drying, somewhat resembling fresh hay or tea. It is - largely employed as the food of infants and invalids. In respect to - nutritiveness it deserves a preference over all the pure starches on - account of the proteine compounds it contains. The flavor of the meal - depends a good deal on the rapidity with which the slices are dried. - Above all, the plantain must not be allowed to approach too closely - to yellowness or ripeness, otherwise it becomes impossible to dry it. - The color of the meal is injured when steel knives are used in husking - or slicing, but silver or nickel blades do not injure the color. - Full-sized and well-filled bunches give 60 per cent. of core to 40 - per cent. of husk and top-stem; but in general it would be found that - the core did not much exceed 50 per cent. of dry meal, so that from - 20 to 25 per cent. of meal is obtained from the plantain, or 5 pounds - from the average bunch of 25 pounds; and an acre of plantain walk of - average quality, producing during the year 450 such bunches, would - yield 4 tons and 10 pounds of meal. - -In 1891, C. W. Meaden wrote from Trinidad to the following effect in -relation to a trial shipment of dried bananas: - - This experiment will prove of importance to banana growers, as drying - bananas seems to open a way no other means offers of utilizing fruit. - It overcomes the difficulty of bad roads, long hauls and other - drawbacks some planters have to face in marketing bananas. - - The result of drying six bunches, weighing an average of 52 pounds - per ripe bunch, was 97 pounds of dried fruit. There was a loss of - two-thirds in peeling and drying. The fruit sold for $19.40, or 20 - cents per pound. Deducting freight charges left $15.47, or a fraction - under 16 cents per pound. This was at the rate of $2.72 per bunch. The - cost was put at 53 cents, which covered purchase of land, clearing - woods and draining, planting, weeding and cutting, drying, fuel, boxes - and packing; but did not include cost of dryer, as that would be but - a fraction on each bunch dried. After deducting the above there was a - profit of $2.19 per bunch. - -Mr. Meaden said of this: - - I do not desire to set up as a teacher, but facts and figures speak - for themselves. The account shown is not an approximate one, but the - money has been received and the Canadians are asking for more at the - same price. An order is now in hand for 224 pounds for London at - 6d. per pound in bulk, the consignee to do the retail packing and - advertising. As the fruit is something new it is being sought, and - all that can be dried is being profitably disposed of. I may add that - the dryer does his work well, turning out the fruit in uniform color. - Attention must be paid to this, and also that fruit as nearly as - possible of one size be dried, as this facilitates packing. Small ones - can be used for stock, etc. Twelve good sized fruits weigh one pound. - -The _Daily Gleaner_, of Kingston, Jamaica, said in March, 1899, in -reference to an enterprise on the Montpelier estate of Hon. Evelyn -Ellis: - - As far as dried bananas are concerned the investment is a success. - Orders are already taken for more than can be supplied. The factory - will be duplicated as soon as possible. Every one who has tasted the - bananas is of the opinion that they are superior to figs in every way, - and there is likely to be a large home consumption as soon as the - factory can supply the market. - -Housewives who wish for novelties to lend new charm to their tables, -to tickle the palate of the epicure, or to coax the reluctant appetite -of the invalid, will find them in novel dainties made from bananas. -Excellent and nutritious bread may be made of the flour. Puddings, -fritters and sauce have already been mentioned; but bananas glacé are -new to most northern folk, and may be made a most delightful addition -to our desserts. They are superior to dried figs, for when split into -four slices, thickly covered with powdered sugar, and exposed to the -sun awhile they turn themselves into a jelly-like, delicious and -delicate confection, such as is at its best when made in the native -home of the fruit, and packed in pretty boxes to be sent to people of -fine taste in the cold North. - -Having in view all these facts, why should not multitudes make homes -where scorching heat and biting cold are never felt, and tornado and -deadly blizzard are unknown; where no destructive floods nor ruinous -droughts ever come, and never ceasing winds bring coolness from the -sea; where spring is eternal and harvests never end, and delicious -fruits yield profusely all the years; where the pine and palm together -shade the ground, and the coco and banana yield generous provision -for every need; where a little work insures against want and care, and -health and leisure make old age secure and content? - -[Illustration] - - - - - * * * * * - - -Transcriber’s Note - -Minor typographical errors (i.e. missing punctuation and “egiv” -changed to “give”) have been corrected. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bananas, by Edward Wilkin Perry - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BANANAS *** - -***** This file should be named 55729-0.txt or 55729-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/5/7/2/55729/ - -Produced by Cindy Horton, Turgut Dincer, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Bananas - Nature's Institution for the Promotion of Laziness - -Author: Edward Wilkin Perry - -Release Date: October 10, 2017 [EBook #55729] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BANANAS *** - - - - -Produced by Cindy Horton, Turgut Dincer, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="cover" /> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> - -<div id="titlepage"> - -<h1>BANANAS</h1> - -<hr class="r5 far" /> -<hr class="r5 close" /> - -<p class="ph3">NATURE’S INSTITUTION FOR THE PROMOTION OF -LAZINESS</p> - -<hr class="r5 far" /> -<hr class="r5 close" /> - -<p><span class="smcap">By EDWARD W. PERRY</span></p> - -<hr class="r5 far" /> -<hr class="r5 close" /> - -<p class="f70">COPYRIGHTED<br /> -1903<br /> -BY HARRY WILKIN PERRY</p> - -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span></p> - -<div id="verso"> - -<p class="ph4">REVISED EDITION</p> - -<hr class="r5" /> -<hr class="r5 close" /> - -<p class="ph3">NOTE</p> - -<p>The chapter given in the following pages is from a work entitled: -“<span class="smcap">Tropical America: Its Planters and -Plantations</span>,” now in preparation. <cite>Sports Afield</cite> said of -the author: “Probably no American is more competent to write of -the country life than is this author, who, because of his long-trained -habits of observation, careful search for the bottom facts and weighing -of details, of deducing therefrom the essentials and presenting them -clearly and concisely, has made the best possible use of his time and -experience.”</p> - -<div class="figright" style="margin-bottom: 6em;"> -<img src="images/verso.jpg" alt="publisher's logo" /> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="chapter"></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> - -<div class="hang"> - -<p><span class="smcap">Nature’s Institution for the Promotion Of -Laziness. Bananas: What they are, how they grow, what they cost, and -what they give to man.</span></p> - -</div> - -<p>Long before the dawn of history in the Old World, mayhap long before -that Old World arose from the waters, man lived on the fruit of the -<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Musas</i>. There are those who would tell you that the banana is the -fruit which tempted Eve, to the downfall of Adam; and that evidence -of the truth of this may be found in the fact that if one will cut -across a banana, of the right kind, he may find in its heart the sign -of the cross; and in the other fact that men of learning have given to -a banana the name of <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Musa paradisiaca</i>, which being interpreted means -the Fruit of paradise, and to another banana they have given the name -<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Musa sapientum</i>, which the sapient know means the Fruit of knowledge. -Less evidence has served well enough to burn heretics at the stake.</p> - -<div class="illus"> -<div class="figcenter handonly"> -<img class="border" src="images/i_p04_mob.jpg" alt="banana tree" /> -<div class="caption"><p>A BUNCH OF BANANAS</p></div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter screenonly"> -<a href="images/i_p04_full.jpg"> -<img class="border" src="images/i_p04_tn.jpg" alt="banana tree" /> -</a> -<div class="caption"> -<p>A BUNCH OF BANANAS</p> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Man has carried this gigantic herb to every fertile spot in a -belt that girdles the waist of the globe—a girdle that is four -thousand miles and more in width. Millions uncounted have looked to -it for the chief of their diet, as other millions have looked to -the cereals. And to this hour puling babes and doddering ancients -are fed with the fruit in all its stages and conditions,<span -class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a><br /><a -name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> green or over-ripe, raw or -roasted, baked or fried, liquid or dried. At least forty species of -the <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Musas</i> are known and described, and of these there are several -sub-varieties. They have been classed by Dr. Sagot into three groups, -as follows:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>Giant bananas, of which <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">M. ensete</i> is the type. In this group no -suckers are formed. Fruit leathery and not edible, with few seeds.</p> - -<p>Fleshy-fruited bananas; <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">M. sapientum</i> the type. Stem produces -suckers; spike long and decurved; fruit fleshy and usually eatable.</p> - -<p>Ornamental bananas. Spike often erect, not pendant; bracts -persistent, brightly colored, each with a few flowers on its axil; -suckers many; fruit leathery. <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">M. rosacea</i> furnish familiar examples of -this group.</p></div> - -<p>When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for the -single man of the tropics to take unto himself a helpmeet for him, -and to provide for other events likely to come after, he selects some -fertile spot, usually on the border of waters over which his canoe -may easily carry the bulky harvests he will have; and there he cuts -down tree and vine, bush and bamboo, and lets them lie as they fall -in tangled mass. Every day the ardent sun helps the constant wind to -shrivel leaf and twig until, one day, the windward edge of that snarl -is touched by the torch, and in a moment a blazing hades is where a -cool and shady grove will soon rustle in the breeze.</p> - -<p>When the last flame has flickered out and coals lie dead beneath -their gray shroud, women paddle to that place with canoes laden with -banana sprouts. With machetes they dig little pits amid charred stumps -and trunks and branches, and in each hole they set a sprout.<span -class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> Then they -go away to wait, and rest; and the sun shines warmly down into that -clearing, breezes sift a gray veil of ashes over the wilted suckers -that look like black and ragged stakes; and at last come showers which -wash them clean.</p> - -<p>Those stakes are made up of sheathes of leaves tightly rolled one -around another, the inner ones narrow, cream-colored and tender; those -nearer the outer ones wider and yet wider, until the outer one is -reached. The outer one covers nearly or quite three-fourths of the -stem. When the warm rains fall, the tender leaves unroll and spread to -their widest, and the sun dries and the wind whips them until soon they -are split into narrow ribbons; and a few weeks after that planting a -sea of giant leaves waves and whispers in the breeze—a roof of -bright and tender green covering the moist, black ground.</p> - -<p>Not before the plant has grown to a height of ten to twenty, and -in some places to thirty feet, does the flower-stem begin pushing its -way up from the base through the middle of the stalk. In a short time -it sends out at the top one or more leaves, smaller than their older -fellows, as a signal that flower and fruit will quickly follow. Soon -every supporting column of those graceful arches ends in a cone of -red that deepens into purple and swells until its outer petals are -crowded off by the fatness of the fruit they hide, that these may have -air and light. Under those petals the baby bananas are packed close, -like fingers tightly gripping the parent stem. These closed ranks, -each separate hand or whorl reaching half way around the stalk, grow -so quickly that in six or eight weeks the bunch weighs fifty pounds or -more.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p> - -<p>To most people of northern climes bananas are merely—bananas. -For such folk know as little of the many varieties of bananas as they -know of the many and varied uses of that fruit. Perchance that is why -they fry the common yellow guineo which comes by millions of bunches -each year to the United States, and then wonder that folk who have -dwelt in the tropics, and who extol fried bananas, show nevertheless -that they cannot like the mushy, cloying mess set before them here. -He who grows bananas, and she who cooks them for him, select for -frying that thick-bodied, hard-fleshed and rather tart fruit which -they call plátano, and which is by blundering English-speaking -tongues misnamed plantain. And even among the plátanos there -is room for choosing, for there are of them several varieties. Best -of these is that little one which bears, on the Mosquito Shore whence -good bananas come, the Spanish name “miel,” or honey, -coupled with the Waika word “silpe,” or little. The name -“maiden” plátano also is given to the “little -honey,” most fittingly, for it has just enough of piquant -tartness to give unfailing relish, yet is tender, plump and mighty -comforting withal, upon occasion.</p> - -<p>If he is so lucky as to live near a port where steamships stop, -the planter may sell his plátanos for a cent or even two cents -for each finger or fruit; and as the plants may be set only eight -or ten feet apart, and each will mature a bunch of thirty to fifty -fingers every nine months, it is clear that he who has an acre of -plátanos may have a tidy income of food or of cash. Usually -the planter prefers to eat this food, for which reason people in the -North have few opportunities for learning<span class="pagenum"><a -name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> the superior virtues of the -fruit. The planter is quite right, for the plátano is the one -banana fit to be cooked; and is by no means bad to eat raw.</p> - -<p>Sometimes a planter may leave a bunch of bananas to ripen on the -standing stalk, but that will rarely be, for the fruit so ripened is -strong in flavor, dry and too soft to bear transportation; its skin -splits, and ants, bees and other insects gather about the exposed -flesh. Therefore the women lug home green bunches and hang them in -the house to ripen, where everybody who has the right—and -that is every visitor, every member of the family and every passing -acquaintance—may pluck and eat as the fruit turns yellow and -becomes tender. Meanwhile many of the fruits will have been taken from -the bunch, peeled and broken into bits, to be boiled with beef or pork, -or flesh of the deer, peccary or other game.</p> - -<p>Another sub-variety of plátanos bears, in Mosquitia, the -name of “butuco,” perhaps from the name of the River -Patuca—or maybe the river has taken its name from the banana. The -butuco is perhaps rather more tart than the miel silpe, and when fried -reminds one of fried greening apples, and when stewed has somewhat of -the flavor of stewed peaches. In either way it is most agreeable to the -taste. There are other plátanos, also, most of them giants among -bananas, many being fifteen or more inches long and some two or three -inches in diameter. These are firm in flesh, resist decay much longer -than do the common guineos, and will, therefore, much better bear -transportation. They should become known to the millions of northern -lands, for they would afford a vast supply<span class="pagenum"><a -name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> of food much more convenient -and palatable than, and equal in value to, potatoes.</p> - -<p>Prof. Wynter Blythe, of London, is an analyst who tells us that the -relative values of bananas and sago, corn meal and wheat flour are as -follows:</p> - -<div class="center"> -<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="relative values of various produce"> - -<tr> - <td class="tdc bt2 br">Constituents</td> - <td class="tdc bt2 br">Banana</td> - <td class="tdc bt2 br">Sago</td> - <td class="tdc bt2 br">Corn Meal</td> - <td class="tdc bt2">Wheat Flour</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl bt br"></td> - <td class="tdc bt br">Per Cent.</td> - <td class="tdc bt br">Per Cent.</td> - <td class="tdc bt br">Per Cent.</td> - <td class="tdc bt">Per Cent.</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Water</td> - <td class="tdr br pr1">8.05</td> - <td class="tdr br pr1">13.00</td> - <td class="tdr br pr1">11.09</td> - <td class="tdr pr1">15.08</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Soluble albumen dextrine</td> - <td class="tdr br pr1">4.45</td> - <td class="tdc br"></td> - <td class="tdc br"></td> - <td class="tdc"></td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Starch</td> - <td class="tdr br pr1">82.57</td> - <td class="tdr br pr1">78.06</td> - <td class="tdr br pr1">85.30</td> - <td class="tdr pr1">81.60</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Albumenoids</td> - <td class="tdr br pr1">2.28</td> - <td class="tdr br pr1">2.57</td> - <td class="tdr br pr1">2.37</td> - <td class="tdr pr1">2.11</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Fat</td> - <td class="tdr br pr1">0.77</td> - <td class="tdc br"></td> - <td class="tdc br"></td> - <td class="tdc"></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl bb2 br">Ash</td> - <td class="tdr bb2 br pr1">1.88</td> - <td class="tdr bb2 br pr1">0.53</td> - <td class="tdr bb2 br pr1">0.43</td> - <td class="tdr bb2 pr1">0.35</td> -</tr> -</table></div> - -<p>In a report on the constituents and food values of most articles -in common use on northern tables, the United States Department of -Agriculture gave, in the year 1903, very valuable figures which show -that nineteen vegetables and ten varieties of fruits which make up the -chief of our diet, have the following parts and values:</p> - -<div class="center"> -<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="elements of various articles of food"> -<tr> - <td class="tdc bt2 br">Elements</td> - <td class="tdc bt2 br">Vegetables</td> - <td class="tdc bt2 br">Fruits</td> - <td class="tdc bt2">Bananas</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl bt br">Carbohydrates, parts</td> - <td class="tdr bt br pr2">8.9</td> - <td class="tdr bt br">11.1</td> - <td class="tdr bt pr1">14.3</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Fats</td> - <td class="tdr br pr2">0.4</td> - <td class="tdr br">0.4</td> - <td class="tdr pr1">0.4</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Protein</td> - <td class="tdr br pr2">2.0</td> - <td class="tdr br">0.6</td> - <td class="tdr pr1">0.8</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Ash</td> - <td class="tdr br pr2">0.9</td> - <td class="tdr br">0.5</td> - <td class="tdr pr1">0.6</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Water</td> - <td class="tdr br pr2">73.0</td> - <td class="tdr br">64.3</td> - <td class="tdr pr1">48.9</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Refuse</td> - <td class="tdr br pr2">14.8</td> - <td class="tdr br">23.1</td> - <td class="tdr pr1">35.0</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdc bt bb2 br">Fuel values</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb2 br pr2">203.9</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb2 br">204.0</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb2 pr1">260.0</td> -</tr> -</table></div> - -<p>This shows that while of valuable nutritive elements, the nineteen -fresh vegetables have 11.3 parts and the ten varieties of succulent -fruits have 12.1 parts, the bananas have 15.5 parts. From this it -appears, also, that if the fresh fruits and vegetables were actually -worth, as food, say $1.17, bananas of like weight would be worth 38 -cents more.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p> - -<div class="illus"> -<div class="figcenter handonly"> -<img class="border" src="images/i_p11_mob.jpg" alt="group of men sitting beside a grove of banana trees" /> -<div class="caption"><p>HARD LABOR AMONG THE BANANAS</p></div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter screenonly"> -<a href="images/i_p11_full.jpg"> -<img class="border" src="images/i_p11_tn.jpg" alt="group of men sitting beside a grove of banana trees" /> -</a> -<div class="caption"> -<p>HARD LABOR AMONG THE BANANAS</p> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p> - -<p>Statements made by other analysts seem to warrant the deduction that -the nutritive value of a ton of potatoes, at one cent per pound, is 19 -cents more than that of a ton of bananas at the same price. There is a -difference, too, in the cost of production of a ton of potatoes and the -cost of raising a ton of bananas. The field for potatoes must be plowed -and harrowed in the spring, the seed dropped in furrows, which are then -to be covered, after which comes cultivating again and again until the -time has come for digging and picking, carting, sacking and hauling, -often to a distant market.</p> - -<p>Luckily for the millions who have depended so largely on the banana -for sustenance, the plant has few, if any, insect enemies and diseases, -in which they differ somewhat from some fruits and tubers of the -North.</p> - -<p>Many times an assertion has been printed to the effect that Humboldt -said that an acre of bananas yields forty-four times as much food as -does an acre of wheat. In the year 1902 the average yield of wheat in -the United States equalled 12.79 bushels, or 767.4 pounds. This had -a food value equal to nearly one-third that of the average output of -bananas from an acre. It is often said that one pound of bananas has -as much nutrition as has a pound of beef. The truth is that one pound -of beef is worth three and one-third pounds of bananas. Bananas are -far enough ahead of the harvests the farmer of the North gets, without -making exaggerated claims for the fruit of the tropics.</p> - -<p>So the planter of bananas has each year four and a half times -as much palatable food from an acre as the farmer gets from his -potatoes: and there is the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" -id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> further difference that the one has -bananas at no other cost than that of keeping down bush and grass and -vine, that would quickly cover every spot to which the sunshine could -penetrate, along the edges of the plantation. For bananas yield year -after year without replanting. Each new stalk springs from the foot of -its parent, grows to a height of fifteen to thirty-five feet, bears its -burden of luscious fruit, and dies; but not before it has sent up from -its own root new stalks to fruit and die—and so on through the -centuries.</p> - -<p>He who would grow bananas for market must plant on the border of -navigable waters giving access to some harbor or anchorage where ships -may safely lie while receiving the fruit. For it is easily bruised, and -wetting by salt water blackens the skins, thus injuring or preventing -the sale. Plantations are usually on the banks of rivers or of -estuaries, but some are beside railroads, to which the fruit is carried -by carts thickly carpeted with banana leaves. A cruder way is to hang a -few bunches over the back of a burro or of a mule, which plods along to -the shipping place.</p> - -<p>It is evident that the entire area which can so be devoted to -banana culture must be small, for most Central American and Mexican -rivers are obstructed at their mouths by sandbars, over which ships -cannot pass. Bluefields, Nicaragua, has been a most profitable field -for banana growing, because it has a river into which sea-going ships -can safely enter, and up which such ships may go fifty or sixty miles, -and receive their cargoes from landings on the plantations which -border the Rio Escondido. Yet millions of bunches of bananas have been -shipped from the open coast<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" -id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> of Honduras, where the one good harbor is -that at Puerto Cortez.</p> - -<p>Other millions have been shipped from Port Limón and from -Bocas del Toro, in Costa Rica, whence a few hundred bunches were sent -as a beginning to the United States in the year 1883. Twenty years -later the port of Limón itself sent 4,174,200 bunches to the -markets of the world. They brought to Costa Rica credit for producing -the best bananas known.</p> - -<p>For ages the native of banana lands was content with the fact that -he got from his plantation more than enough food. Some thirty-five -years ago a few bold men ventured to pay twelve or fifteen cents a -bunch for a few cargoes in the Bay Islands, off the coast of Honduras, -and carried them to the Gulf States. There they found they could sell -the fruit, for there lived people who had traveled to the tropics, and -learned to eat their foods. To-day millions of bunches are each year -sold in the United States and even in Canada, and in 1902 ship-loads -were sent from Costa Rica direct to Europe. That little republic alone -received not less than $1,127,400 for bananas sold abroad during the -year that ended with September, 1902.</p> - -<p>The United Fruit Company, of Boston, was formed in the year 1888, -and ten years later was said to have a surplus of more than $6,000,000, -owned thousands of acres of bananas, and had built expressly for -its fruit carrying business four superb steamers, and employed many -others.</p> - -<p>It is safe to assume that more than $6,000,000 was paid in the -year 1902, in Central America alone, to planters of bananas. Nearly -all of that was paid by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" -id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> products of American farms, factories and -forests. Farmer, manufacturer and miner, lumberman, railroad man and -sailor, merchant and broker of this country, are all concerned in and -benefited by the work done in shady aisles beneath banana leaves on the -banks of tropic rivers.</p> - -<p>Bananas reach their best estate on the low, deep alluvium near -the Caribbean coast, where the temperature never sinks below 60° -and is seldom below 80° F. Such low lands serve all the better -if flooded two or three times in the year, for the banana will drink -much water, and such floods bring silt from the hills, and thus keep -the ground fertilized without cost to the owner. In 1897 famed banana -fields of the Rio Escondido were so deeply flooded that the steamship -“Saga” voyaged through the main streets of Rama, fully -sixty miles from the mouth of the river, to pick off from their roofs -the dwellers in that town. The bananas barely showed their tops above -the yellow flood. Along the coast flew reports that the plantations -were ruined; subscriptions were asked to help the planters: and -three months later they were harvesting better crops than in years -before. Their plantations had been so enriched that they bore most -bountifully.</p> - -<p>Bananas may be grown wherever there is some moisture and no near -approach to the frost line; but a touch of frost cuts down the banana -as a breath from a fiery furnace would blight a tender lily. The city -of Tegucigalpa is 3,600 feet above the level of the sea, yet in that -town is a field some thirty feet above the current in the swift river -which it borders. It is very dry during months of each year, but in -that field are plátanos<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" -id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> which reach a height of more than twenty -feet and bear bunches enough comfortably to support the owner. In -narrow cañon and wider valley near that place are many patches -of bananas which bring to their planters a sufficient income. And at -that altitude the mercury sometimes falls below 65° Fahrenheit.</p> - -<p>In the land of bananas, cats, dogs and pigs, mules, horses and -cattle, parrots, babies and all other domestic animals thrive on this -perfect nature-food, when they can get it. I have seen an Indian woman -pry open with her fingers the jaws of a baby peccary, and with a gruel -of green bananas choke off its incessant, rasping cry of “ma, -ma!” And the next instant she put that same calabash of gruel to -the lips of her own babe of three or four months. I’ve seen other -Indians feed infant tapir, suckling jaguar, skinny squabs of parrots -and very young monkeys on such pap, which those folk call wabool. I, -myself, have safely carried abandoned cardinals through from their -infant days of a beggarly few pin feathers to those of full regimentals -of brilliant scarlet and epaulets of jet; and they were as overflowing -with joyful song and saucy happiness as they could have been had worms -and bugs been the chief of their diet every day of their lives, instead -of the bananas on which they had been largely fed.</p> - -<p>Why not, indeed, when cakes and beer, brandy and sugar, pies, -puddings and sauce, and many another thing good for man to take for his -stomach’s sake, are made from bananas. So, too, are paper and -laces, brushes and cloth, and cordage enough to pull up the earth by -its roots, if only we had a place to hook the tackle.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p> - -<div class="illus"> -<div class="figcenter handonly"> -<img class="border" src="images/i_p16_mob.jpg" alt="banana trees beside a railroad track" /> -<div class="caption"><p>HARVESTING BANANAS</p></div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter screenonly"> -<a href="images/i_p16_full.jpg"> -<img class="border" src="images/i_p16_tn.jpg" alt="banana trees beside a railroad track" /> -</a> -<div class="caption"><p>HARVESTING BANANAS</p></div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p> - -<p>When he has set out an acre or two of bananas, the planter need have -no fears for the future. He has ample insurance against such privations -as come from illness, accident or old age: and they who by a little -labor pay for such insurance share each day its material benefits. No -need for them to die that others may enjoy the blessings of such wise -provision; nor need the planter toil with hoe or spade, cultivator or -plow. It may be he will slash away with machete such vine or sapling, -grass or weed as happens to obstruct his path; but as a whole he -interferes as little as possible with the operations of kindly Mother -Nature. She is more than ready to do his work: he is willing to let her -do it.</p> - -<p>He whose acre of bananas has been well planted has on it 225 hills, -or 900 stalks. Each stalk will give him a bunch which, on rich, new -ground, should weigh 60 pounds, say 54,000 pounds each 12 or 14 months. -That is the theory. The fact seems to be that the average yield is -really 175 to 300 full bunches to the acre per annum, say a mean of -270 bunches weighing about 16,000 pounds. The average yield reported -all along the Caribbean shore and from Jamaica, during a dozen years, -equaled 270.95 full bunches an acre per annum.</p> - -<p>In the year 1902 the average yield of potatoes in the United States -was 80.44 bushels per acre, and the average farm value was 49 cents -per bushel, or $39.45 an acre. In Costa Rica the average price of -bananas on the plantation was equal to at least 27 cents a bunch. -At that figure 261 bunches would bring $70.47. In August, 1903, the -price was raised to 31 cents a bunch on contracts to run three to -five years; which should give<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" -id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> $84.00 per acre each year. That is a -cash difference of $44.55 in favor of the man whose bananas raised -themselves for him. There was another difference in his favor, for his -fruit may be eaten green or ripe, raw or roasted, boiled or fried, with -fish, flesh or fowl, or with none of these.</p> - -<p>Those who dwell in the mountain regions, far from the ports -whence bananas are shipped, dip in lye and dry in the sun many a -plátano. It is then shriveled, moldy-looking and altogether -unlovely; but if kept dry it remains sweet and wholesome many a year. -It may be eaten uncooked, when it is a gummy, sugary paste; but drop it -into scalding water, put it into a hot oven, or stick it up beside the -fire, and it becomes mightily puffed up, tender and savory. It might be -sent thus dried to feed the people of the North or of Europe, for it -would be easily packed and carried.</p> - -<p>Naturally the intelligent planter concerns himself mainly with the -question: What is the cost, the yield and the profit of banana growing? -There are evidences that many people in the North feel a lively -curiosity about the same points.</p> - -<p>Before one can give a trustworthy reply to such question he must -study the evidence of those who have had opportunity to learn the -truth, and he should be able to present the general averages of the -results shown by many such witnesses. The planter of medium ability and -industry may confidently expect to attain the average results; he who -has less intelligence and thrift should not complain if he fails to -get as good returns; he who shows more than common skill, application -and energy will win greater reward than is shown by the<span -class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> average -of the banana-growing of the many, as in other occupations great skill -and industry bring the larger rewards.</p> - -<p>Reports covering years of experience by thousands of planters in -the West Indies and along the Atlantic coast of Mexico and of Central -America, indicate that the cost per acre of making banana plantations -and cultivating and harvesting the first crop therefrom, the yield in -bunches and the income, are as shown in the following table:</p> - -<div class="center"> -<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="economics of banana plantations in various countries"> - -<tr> - <td class="tdc bt2 br">Countries</td> - <td class="tdc bt2 br">Bunches</td> - <td class="tdc bt2 br">Income</td> - <td class="tdc bt2 br">Cost</td> - <td class="tdc bt2">Profit</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Costa Rica</td> - <td class="tdr br pr1">250.0</td> - <td class="tdr br">$ 70 67</td> - <td class="tdr br">$ 28 84</td> - <td class="tdr">$ 41 83</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Guatamala</td> - <td class="tdr br pr1">267.5</td> - <td class="tdr br">124 36</td> - <td class="tdr br">42 80</td> - <td class="tdr">81 56</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Honduras</td> - <td class="tdr br pr1">294.0</td> - <td class="tdr br">121 13</td> - <td class="tdr br">18 97</td> - <td class="tdr">102 16</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Jamaica</td> - <td class="tdr br pr1">288.0</td> - <td class="tdr br">109 48</td> - <td class="tdr br">27 58</td> - <td class="tdr">81 90</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Mexico</td> - <td class="tdr br pr1">280.0</td> - <td class="tdr br">123 61</td> - <td class="tdr br">28 12</td> - <td class="tdr">95 49</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Nicaragua</td> - <td class="tdr br pr1">246.2</td> - <td class="tdr br">86 36</td> - <td class="tdr br">22 07</td> - <td class="tdr">64 29</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdc bt bb2 br">Averages</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb2 br pr05">270.95</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb2 br">$ 105 94</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb2 br">$ 28 06</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb2">$ 77 87</td> -</tr> -</table></div> - -<p>From the foregoing it appears that the general average yield per -acre during the twenty years covered by the figures given, was 270.95 -bunches per acre; the average cost per acre was $28.06, which was only -10.3 cents per bunch. The profit per bunch was 28.7 cents, or 287.9 per -cent.</p> - -<p>A report dated August 1, 1903, by Las Haciendas de Santa Clara, -Costa Rica, which has 550 acres of bananas in full bearing, and where -wages are one colon or 47 cents per diem, gives the cost of cultivating -and delivering the fruit at the railroad, as $17.69 per acre, the yield -at 173 bunches and the income at $54.90 annually. That shows that the -bananas cost 10.2 cents per bunch, and that the profit was 20.8 cents -a bunch, or 200 per cent. But as the fruit is sold five years<span -class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> ahead -at those figures, the small percentage of profit may be regarded as a -fair return for the investment, combined as it is with an assurance of -continued gain.</p> - -<p>There are those who insist that the higher results shown in the -foregoing table may easily be obtained by any one who will give as much -thought and labor to growing bananas as are required for the successful -raising of corn or of potatoes. It is true that the figures on which -the averages shown are based were, in many cases, from the experience -of native and other planters of little diligence and skill, and that -they got smaller results than might easily have been obtained. It may -be possible that if one will allow two or three stalks to rise from -each stand of bananas, and together mature their fruit, he many get -444 to 780 bunches from an acre each of a few years, and that in such -a case he might get $185 to $278 for the crop; but it will be clear -to all that he who expects to make only 270 bunches per annum from an -acre, and get only $78 profit therefrom, will be safer than he who -invests his money with the expectation of making greater gains.</p> - -<p>The Hand Book of Nicaragua, published by the Bureau of American -Republics, which is under the direction of the U. S. Department of -State, says:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>There is, perhaps, no industry in Central America that is more -attractive to men of small capital than banana growing, from the fact -that the clearing of the land is effected cheaply, and from the small -cost of after-cultivation, which is limited only to such clearing -of weeds and undergrowth as may be sufficient to allow access to -the trees, and the short time necessary to produce a paying crop. -When the trees and brush that have been cut in clearing the land -become sufficiently dry, they are burned, and the banana suckers -are then planted among the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" -id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> charred remains and ashes, without any -further preparation of the soil. The best results are obtained by -giving the trees plenty of space, say from 15 to 18 feet apart. In -about ten months the first fruit can be gathered; but in the second -year the trees reach maturity, and by a proper management of the fruit -stalks in a fair sized plantation a constant succession in the crop may -be secured, and fruit gathered every week throughout the year.</p> - -<p>The only careful work necessary on a banana plantation is in -handling the heavy bunches so as to avoid bruising them, as any such -injury causes a black spot to appear, beneath which decay quickly -begins as the fruit ripens. The natives have learned by experience when -they cut into the fruit stalk so to gauge the strength of the blow as -to cut just deep enough to cause the stalk to bend slowly over until -the end of the bunch reaches the ground, when another slash with the -machete severs it, and it is loaded carefully into the cart.</p> - -<p>A plantation of 40 manzanas (about 69 acres) will, during and -after the second year, produce about 54,000 bunches. The lowest price -paid for bunches for some years past is 37½ cents per bunch, -which would give an annual value of the crop of $20,250, or more than -double the expenditure for purchase of land, clearing, cultivating -and gathering the crop, and all expenses to the end of the second -year.</p></div> - -<p>As the cost of producing bananas after the first crop from a -plantation is confined to cultivating and harvesting, which may be -done for $10 per acre yearly, it is scarcely wonderful that Judge -O’Hara, late U. S. Consul at Greytown, Nicaragua, a lawyer whose -acute mind is trained to sifting evidence, reported to the Department -of State at Washington regarding banana-growing on the Atlantic coast -of that republic, that:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>It seems reasonably certain that bananas on the Bluefields River -pay better than many crops in the United States. * * * * These figures -would seem to indicate that at the end of a year a planter having 36 -acres of bananas under cultivation would have $3,847.32 left after -paying for all necessary labor and provisions—figures<span -class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a><br /><a -name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> apt to bring discontent to -an American farmer having but 36 acres of wheat or corn; and especially -so when he compares the price of his land, ranging from $15 to $80 -per acre, with that of land in eastern Nicaragua, where cultivated -lands may be said to have no established market value, few improved -plantations having ever been sold.</p></div> - -<div class="illus"> -<div class="figcenter handonly"> -<img class="border" src="images/i_p22_mob.jpg" width="700" height="352" alt="man driving a cart loaded with bananas and pulled by a mule" /> -<div class="caption"><p>BEGINNING OF A LONG JOURNEY</p></div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter screenonly"> -<a href="images/i_p22_full.jpg"> -<img class="border" src="images/i_p22_tn.jpg" alt="man driving a cart loaded with bananas and pulled by a mule" /> -</a> -<div class="caption"><p>BEGINNING OF A LONG JOURNEY</p></div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Such discontent might be aggravated by consideration of the -differences which exist between the results obtained from the chief -eight crops of the United States and those shown by the foregoing -summary of banana farming. These differences are illustrated by the -following figures, those for the crops of the North showing the yield -and values for the year 1897. The last column shows the difference in -favor of bananas per acre:</p> - -<div class="center"> -<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="comparison of values between bananas and other crops"> -<tr> - <td class="tdc bt2 br">CROPS</td> - <td class="tdc bt2 br">Yield<br />per acre</td> - <td class="tdc bt2 br">Value<br />per acre</td> - <td class="tdc bt2">Difference,<br />favor of<br />Bananas</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl bt br">Barley,<span class="pl2">bushels</span></td> - <td class="tdr bt br">23.11</td> - <td class="tdr bt br">$12 34</td> - <td class="tdr bt pr1">$93 59</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Buckwheat,<span class="pl1">〃</span></td> - <td class="tdr br">16.08</td> - <td class="tdr br">9 69</td> - <td class="tdr pr1">96 25</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Corn,<span class="pl35">〃</span></td> - <td class="tdr br">24.62</td> - <td class="tdr br">9 51</td> - <td class="tdr pr1">96 43</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Oats,<span class="pl35">〃</span></td> - <td class="tdr br">27.19</td> - <td class="tdr br">8 29</td> - <td class="tdr pr1">97 65</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Potatoes,<span class="pl2">〃</span></td> - <td class="tdr br">80.44</td> - <td class="tdr br">39 45</td> - <td class="tdr pr1">66 49</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Rye, <span class="pl35">〃</span></td> - <td class="tdr br">13.30</td> - <td class="tdr br">8 22</td> - <td class="tdr pr1">97 72</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Wheat, <span class="pl25">〃</span></td> - <td class="tdr br">12.78</td> - <td class="tdr br">10 11</td> - <td class="tdr pr1">95 83</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Hay, tons</td> - <td class="tdr br">1.26</td> - <td class="tdr br">10 93</td> - <td class="tdr pr1">95 01</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl br">Tobacco, pounds</td> - <td class="tdr br">797.30</td> - <td class="tdr br">55 81</td> - <td class="tdr pr1">50 13</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdc bt bb2 br">General averages</td> - <td class="tdl bt bb2 br"></td> - <td class="tdr bt bb2 br">$18 28</td> - <td class="tdr bt bb2 pr1">$87 66</td> -</tr> -</table></div> - -<p>From this it is evident that bananas give five and one-half times as -much as the principal crops of the United States give the farmer for -his toil.</p> - -<p>Many native planters seem content with the returns their bananas -give, and appear to have no thought of increasing that income.</p> - -<p>“Why don’t you plant more bananas? See how<span -class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> well -this little patch has paid,” I have said to many of them.</p> - -<p>“Why should I do that? Have I not plenty to eat? I have enough -money; if I plant more I shall have to do more work to get more money -which I don’t need,” is the substance of their replies.</p> - -<p>Years ago U. S. Consul Burchard complained of the banana business of -the Honduras coast, that “A large proportion of the fruit-growers -were formerly vacqueros in the interior, working on a salary of $30 -to $40 a year. They are now owners of plantations, and have a steady -income of $30 to $300 a month. The large amount of money distributed -along this coast in exchange for fruit would make any civilized and -temperate community prosperous and happy. There would be public and -private schools, churches and banks, newspapers and libraries, parks -and carriages, and handsome dwellings supplied with every comfort and -luxury, surrounded by gardens of flowers, fruits and vegetables natural -to this climate of perpetual seedtime and harvest.”</p> - -<p>So it soon will be, for already Italian and German, Englishman and -American have accepted the invitation of a most kindly Nature, and the -sincere welcome of friendly natives, and cottages peep here and there -from out the glossy greenery, hammocks swing beneath the never-ceasing -rustle of the palms in the blessed trade winds, and the fruit of -Paradise gives to all a most generous support.</p> - -<p>But those who have good lands back from navigable water and -remote from railroads, are not without hope of profit from bananas. -For they may dry the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" -id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> fruit, pack it in dainty boxes with a -liberal dusting of sugar to fill vacant spaces, and send it to the -hungry millions of Europe. This has been successfully done by planters -of Trinidad and of Jamaica, who, in at least some instances, found -that they could sell the dried fruit at 16 to 20 cents a pound. Green -bunches average nearly 60 pounds in weight, two-thirds of which is lost -in peeling and drying, leaving about 20 pounds, which, at 15 cents, -will give $3 per bunch. If the production of the green bananas and the -drying should cost $2 a bunch, the income from an acre of bananas would -be $288 yearly. In practice it has been found that the total cost and -income of dried bananas give a net return of $2.72 per bunch, which -equaled about $783 per acre.</p> - -<p>Both plátanos and guineos, or ordinary yellow bananas, -may be profitably dried or made into flour. This will utilize the -surplus fruit and such bunches as are too small to sell to advantage. -Frequent mention is made by Stanley, of banana flour in his “In -Darkest Africa.” He strongly indorses its nutritive qualities, -and wonders that the natives did not appear to have discovered what -invaluable nourishing and easily digested food they had in the -plátano and banana. He expressed the conviction that, “If -only the virtues of banana flour were publicly known, it is not to -be doubted but it would be largely consumed in Europe. For infants, -persons of delicate digestion, dyspeptics and those suffering from -temporary derangement of the stomach, the flour properly prepared would -be of universal demand. During my two attacks of gastritis a light -gruel of this, mixed with milk, was the only matter that could be -digested.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" -id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p> - -<p>It is interesting to note that such a high authority as the -“Dictionary of Economical Productions of India” says:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>The large crop of food produced by bananas and plantains may be -preserved for an indefinite period either by drying the fruit or by -preparing meal from it. When the nearly ripe fruit is cut into slices -and dried in the sun, a certain part of the sugar contained in the -fruit crystalizes on the surface and acts as a preservative. The slices -thus prepared, if made from the finer varieties, make an excellent -dessert preserve, and if from the coarser, may be used for cooking in -the ordinary way. They keep well if carefully packed when dry, and -ought to form a valuable antiscorbutic for long voyages. The fruit may -also be similarly preserved whole by stripping off the skin and drying -it in the sun. Plantain meal is prepared by stripping off the husk and -reducing it to powder, and finely sifting. It is calculated that the -fresh core will yield 40 per cent. of this meal, and that an acre of -average quality will yield over a ton.</p> - -<p>Plantain meal is of a slightly brownish color, and has an agreeable -odor, which becomes more perceptible when warm water is poured upon it, -and has a considerable resemblance to that of orris root. When mixed -with cold water it forms a feebly tenacious dough, more adhesive than -that of oatmeal, but much less so than that of wheaten flour. When -baked on a hot plate this dough forms a cake which is agreeable to -the sense of smell, and is by no means unpleasant to the taste. When -boiling water is poured over the meal it is changed into a transparent -jelly, having an agreeable taste and smell. Boiled with water it forms -a thick gelatinous mass, very much like boiled sago in color, but -possessing a peculiar pleasant odor.</p></div> - -<p>In this connection it may be interesting to note that, according to -an analysis published in the <cite>American Analyst</cite>, New York, February -15th, 1893, the chemical composition of bananas and potatoes is almost -identical, as shown by the following comparison:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" -id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p> - -<div class="center"> -<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="comparison of composition of bananas and potatoes"> - -<tr> - <td class="tdc"></td> - <td class="tdc pr2">Banana</td> - <td class="tdc">Potato</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl">Water</td> - <td class="tdr pr2">75.71</td> - <td class="tdr">75.77</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl">Albumenoids</td> - <td class="tdr pr2">1.71</td> - <td class="tdr">1.79</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl">Total carbonaceous matter (non-nitrogenous)</td> - <td class="tdr pr2">20.13</td> - <td class="tdr">20.72</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl">Woody fibre</td> - <td class="tdr pr2">1.74</td> - <td class="tdr">.75</td> -</tr> - -<tr> - <td class="tdl">Ash</td> - <td class="tdr pr2">.71</td> - <td class="tdr">.97</td> -</tr> -</table></div> - -<p>Nor do the food elements in bananas and plátanos vary -greatly, the sum of each being about the same.</p> - -<p>In a communication to Kew by Mr. Louis Asser, of the Hague, Holland, -it was announced that a syndicate proposes to take up the manufacture -of banana and plantain meal and the preparation of dried bananas on -a large scale in Dutch Guiana. The communication referred to gives -the following list of commercial preparations from the banana and the -plátano:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>1. Dried slices of the entire fruit (pulp and peel) in the starchy -state suitable for the preparation of alcohol or for making into a -nourishing bread.</p> - -<p>2. Meal in a starchy state from the pulp only for making into a -superior kind of bread or porridge.</p> - -<p>3. Flakes and meal in a dextrinous state for use in breweries or for -making into nourishing soups, puddings, etc.</p> - -<p>4. Dried peel and coarse meal prepared from it for feeding cattle -and pigs.</p> - -<p>5. Banana marmalade.</p> - -<p>6. Dried bananas entire without peel put up like dried figs in -boxes.</p> - -<p>7. Raw alcohol from fresh bananas, and also from dried banana -meal.</p> - -<p>8. Syrup of bananas for confectionery, for preparations of liquors -and for sweetening champagne.</p> - -<p>9. Banana meal for the manufacture of glucose.</p> - -<p>10. Fibre of banana and plantain prepared from the stems -after fruiting, and intended for the manufacture of paper and -cordage.</p></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p> - -<div class="illus"> -<div class="figcenter handonly"> -<img class="border" src="images/i_p28_mob.jpg" alt="workers standing behind larges piles of bananas" /> -<div class="caption"><p>BEGINNING OF A GREAT TRAFFIC</p></div> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter screenonly"> -<a href="images/i_p28_full.jpg"> -<img class="border" src="images/i_p28_tn.jpg" alt="workers standing behind larges piles of bananas" /> -</a> -<div class="caption"><p>BEGINNING OF A GREAT TRAFFIC</p></div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span></p> - -<p>Mr. Asser estimates the entire cost of a ton of banana meal, -delivered in Europe, at $23. This includes cost of cultivation, -gathering the crop, making the meal, and the freight. At that time the -average market value of Indian wheat in Liverpool was $30 per ton. -Considering the selling value of the meal to be no greater than that -of the wheat, the prices quoted would show a margin of profit equal to -about 30 per cent. on the capital invested.</p> - -<p>From British Guiana comes the following interesting information -about plátano flour, taken from a report by Dr. Shier on the -“Starch-producing Plants” of that country:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>The plantain is so abundant and cheap that it might, if cut and -dried in its green state, be exported with advantage. It is in this -unripe state that it is so largely used by the peasantry of this -Colony as an article of food. When dried and reduced to the state of -meal, it cannot like wheat flour, be manufactured into macaroni or -vermicelli, or, at least, the macaroni made from it falls into powder -when put into hot water. Plantain meal is prepared by stripping off -the husk of the plantain, slicing the core, and drying it in the sun. -When thoroughly dry it is powdered and sifted. It has a fragrant -odor, acquired in drying, somewhat resembling fresh hay or tea. It -is largely employed as the food of infants and invalids. In respect -to nutritiveness it deserves a preference over all the pure starches -on account of the proteine compounds it contains. The flavor of the -meal depends a good deal on the rapidity with which the slices are -dried. Above all, the plantain must not be allowed to approach too -closely to yellowness or ripeness, otherwise it becomes impossible to -dry it. The color of the meal is injured when steel knives are used -in husking or slicing, but silver or nickel blades do not injure the -color. Full-sized and well-filled bunches give 60 per cent. of core -to 40 per cent. of husk and top-stem; but in general it would be -found that the core did not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" -id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> much exceed 50 per cent. of dry meal, so -that from 20 to 25 per cent. of meal is obtained from the plantain, or -5 pounds from the average bunch of 25 pounds; and an acre of plantain -walk of average quality, producing during the year 450 such bunches, -would yield 4 tons and 10 pounds of meal.</p></div> - -<p>In 1891, C. W. Meaden wrote from Trinidad to the following effect in -relation to a trial shipment of dried bananas:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>This experiment will prove of importance to banana growers, as -drying bananas seems to open a way no other means offers of utilizing -fruit. It overcomes the difficulty of bad roads, long hauls and other -drawbacks some planters have to face in marketing bananas.</p> - -<p>The result of drying six bunches, weighing an average of 52 pounds -per ripe bunch, was 97 pounds of dried fruit. There was a loss of -two-thirds in peeling and drying. The fruit sold for $19.40, or 20 -cents per pound. Deducting freight charges left $15.47, or a fraction -under 16 cents per pound. This was at the rate of $2.72 per bunch. The -cost was put at 53 cents, which covered purchase of land, clearing -woods and draining, planting, weeding and cutting, drying, fuel, boxes -and packing; but did not include cost of dryer, as that would be but -a fraction on each bunch dried. After deducting the above there was a -profit of $2.19 per bunch.</p></div> - -<p>Mr. Meaden said of this:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>I do not desire to set up as a teacher, but facts and figures -speak for themselves. The account shown is not an approximate one, -but the money has been received and the Canadians are asking for more -at the same price. An order is now in hand for 224 pounds for London -at 6d. per pound in bulk, the consignee to do the retail packing and -advertising. As the fruit is something new it is being sought, and -all that can be dried is being profitably disposed of. I may add -that the dryer does his work well, turning out the fruit in uniform -color. Attention must be paid to this, and also that fruit as nearly -as possible of one size be dried, as this facilitates packing. Small -ones can be used for stock, etc. Twelve good sized fruits weigh one -pound.</p></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" -id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p> - -<p>The <cite>Daily Gleaner</cite>, of Kingston, Jamaica, said in March, 1899, in -reference to an enterprise on the Montpelier estate of Hon. Evelyn -Ellis:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p>As far as dried bananas are concerned the investment is a success. -Orders are already taken for more than can be supplied. The factory -will be duplicated as soon as possible. Every one who has tasted the -bananas is of the opinion that they are superior to figs in every way, -and there is likely to be a large home consumption as soon as the -factory can supply the market.</p></div> - -<p>Housewives who wish for novelties to lend new charm to their -tables, to tickle the palate of the epicure, or to coax the reluctant -appetite of the invalid, will find them in novel dainties made from -bananas. Excellent and nutritious bread may be made of the flour. -Puddings, fritters and sauce have already been mentioned; but bananas -glacé are new to most northern folk, and may be made a most -delightful addition to our desserts. They are superior to dried figs, -for when split into four slices, thickly covered with powdered sugar, -and exposed to the sun awhile they turn themselves into a jelly-like, -delicious and delicate confection, such as is at its best when made in -the native home of the fruit, and packed in pretty boxes to be sent to -people of fine taste in the cold North.</p> - -<p>Having in view all these facts, why should not multitudes make -homes where scorching heat and biting cold are never felt, and tornado -and deadly blizzard are unknown; where no destructive floods nor -ruinous droughts ever come, and never ceasing winds bring coolness -from the sea; where spring is eternal and harvests never end, and -delicious fruits yield profusely all the years; where the pine -and palm together shade<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" -id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> the ground, and the coco and banana -yield generous provision for every need; where a little work insures -against want and care, and health and leisure make old age secure and -content?</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="margin-top: 2em"> -<img src="images/i_p32.png" alt="statue, back of sitting figure" /> -</div> - -<div class="chapter"></div> - -<div class="tnotes"> -<p class="ph2">Transcriber’s Note</p> - -<p>Minor typographical errors (i.e. missing punctuation and -“egiv” changed to “give”) have been -corrected.</p> - -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bananas, by Edward Wilkin Perry - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BANANAS *** - -***** This file should be named 55729-h.htm or 55729-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/5/7/2/55729/ - -Produced by Cindy Horton, Turgut Dincer, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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