The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-05-19
NO. 13.
NEW YORK's FRUIT SHIPS.
Something About the Cnrgoes of Fruit that
ECITe TO the Metropolis.

ECIfe TO the Metropolis.
A New York reporter in quest of in
formation about the business done in the
importation of fruit obtained some in
teresting facts from Major Bostwick, in
spector of customs at Burling slip. The
consumption of fruit in New York is
said to be greater than in any other city
in the world. The imports at Burling
slip have increased 800 per cent. in the
last twelve years, and now there are an
nually received about two and one-half
millions of punches of bananas, thirty
two million oranges, ten million cocoa
nuts and about three million pineapples.
Last year 1919 cargoes of fruit were land
ed there, and this business is crowded
into about five months, from March to
the end of July. Major Bostwick says
that he has seen twenty-one vessels in
at one time.
The juicy fruit of the West Indies is
of so perishabIe nature that it is
essential to the trade that cargoes shall
be landed and marketed as soon as they
arrive. Major Bostwick has known
whole cargo of pineapples, which
arrived in marketable condition, to be
spoiled in one night, when the air was
hot and humid and thunderstorm
came on. The loss by decay last season
amounted to about twenty five per cent.
on pineapples something less on ba-
nanas and almost forty per cent. ON
oranges. The manner in which oranges
are gathered greatly affects their condi-
ton. When they are beaten from the
trees with poles, so as to be broken
f.,>,,a +1o;,. ~ Il ,ot1 1-aa-, 4l,o,,
soundness nearly so long as when they
are clipped from the stem, leaving
small portion adhering. The shorter
the passage the better the condition in
which the fruit arrives. If the passage
takes seven days the condition is first
rate; if ten days-the average time-the
condition is fair; if the passage takes q
longer time the chance of getting good
fruit is poor. For this reason the
schooners of from 100 to $50 tons regis
ter engaged in the trade have lines
like yachts, and skim the water at racing
speed. But even East sailer, if caught
by northwesters, Will sometimes be de-
layed so as to lose her cargo.
The red-skinned bananas come from
Baracoa, on the northeastern coast of
Cuba; the yellow ones from the island
of Jamaica. The banana plant bears
but one bunch, and is killed when that
is gathered. Fresh plants are raised
from the seed slips which are found
clustered around the base of every
bunch. They take from six to eight
months to produce mature fruit, and
the punches are cut for export while
still green. Cocoanuts are obtained at
the same ports, and the usual method
of loading vessels is to put in first
load Of cocoanuts and then O layer of
banana lunches above them. A plat
form is then put over, and on this an
other layer of banana bunche7 IS placed.
The matches are kept open Ps much as
possible in order to keep the fruit cool,
and if the run takes only ten or twelve
days the bananas are fit for market when
they arrive. A schooner will bring
from 10000 to $4,000 cocoanuts and
from 1000 to 5000 punches OF bananas
at q time.
Pineapples come from the Bahama
islands. The plant is killed with the
gathering of the single fruit that it bears,
and isreproduced by planting seed slips,
as in the case of bananas. The ordi-
nary pineapples are piled together in the
hold, and the loss from decay is often
very great. The sugarloaf pine is o
fine, juicy variety that is very perish
able, and to have it in condition at all
marketable a good deal of the bush
must be taken with the fruit.
The oranges brought to this port in
sailing vessels come from Porto Rico.
They are stored on platforms in layers,
| oonl, ohA11f Hfton,, ipchac fhioly from
$50, 900 to 100000 coming in a single
cargo. Any delay on the passage causes
great loss from decay of fruit. Orange
and cocOanut trees are perennial bear
ers, and well-established plantations
last long time.
The business Of fruit growing is pre-
carious. The season for hurricanes is
just when the banana plants are young,
and it is not rare thing for planta-
tion to be destroyed in a day. The
orange groves also suffer greatly from
storms at times, and are also injured
by the attacks of a fly, whose larvae i'm
bed themselves in the rind of tle fruit
and the bark of the trees. The chances
of good pineapple crop in the Bahamas
are said to be so precarious that some
times the negro planters working small
plantations are reduced to an exclusive
fruit diet, which is as near as one gets
to starvation there.
Burling slip is not only the landing
place of the fruit, but also a market for
its sale. There is no necessity to an
nounce arrivals. AS soon as cargo is
in dealers cluster around it. Fruiterers,
marketmen, grocers and street peddlers
are there, and what one dealer will not
take another will. Fruit that is toe
ripe to be taken by a storekeeper is
taken at low price by street Arab
who begins to cry his stock as soon as
he leaves the wharf, and before the day
is over it will be not only sold but
eaten. The trade is active from thG
latter part of March into summer, bu
when the peach and berry crops ge
into the market the West India frui
trade is aattened out as if by storm o
the tropics.
The value of the green fruit import
| of New York was 81, 1872, 1881 in 1886
: paying duties amounting to $745, ,437.