Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-08-09
HOME or THE BANANA.
HOW THE POPULAR FRUIT IS
SHIPPED AND TRANSPORTED.
Growth of the Banana Trsffic-Risks of
the Trade-yarieties of the Plantsin.
Vain. of an Acre of Bananas-Ths
Crop-How to Cook Them.

Growth Of the Banana Irafhc-hisks OF
the Trade-yarieties of the PIsntsin.
Value of an Acre of Bananas-The
Crop-How to Cook Them.
( A few weeks ago | stood under a bunch of
/ ripe bananas hanging from IA beam IN house
! in CataCamas, one Of the most thrifty oi
( Olanchu pueblus. As a personal favor the
/ Indian owner of the house suspended for
! moment ouaTations On the bedStead he was
! hewing out Of solid mahogany, and Sohl the
/ fruit to me for two reals That was equal 10
/ twenty cents of American money. | can
/ prove that the fruit was paid for, for dozen
! witnesses saw the whole transaction, and
4 laughed at my companion when he Jauntliy
/ caught hold of one end Of the bunch, and let
/ 90 to get a better hold. lie had not expected
( that the thing would weigh nearly or quite
/ 100 pounds The Comandante, in whose house
/ We lodged, assured Us, when we had iuGged
[ the bunch to his dining room, that the cahl-
/ netmaker YVES "A sharp rascal, in that he had
| charged us twice as much as would have been
/ an ample price But" he reflected, phllo-
| sophically, you must pay for being Amerl-
! cauos and strangers As IT was too late We
I tried to not mourn too deeply the loss of our
| ten cents and ate the fully ripe, mcaly, sweet
/ fruit Many time before and after that l
/ bought bananas for two 10 four centavos a
dozen.
Considerable quantities of fruit are brought
| from Nicaragua, but about the middle Of May
/ quarantine regulations forbade the entrance
of vessels from ports on the east coast Of that
/ country without passing a very close examin-
alton and undergoing considerable delay at
( the quarantine stations. Any detention would
. fF,atf Sl1alal Ia
/ are bananas, plantsinS, mangoes and other
I tropical fruits. \ few days in quarantine in
| hot weather would he as fatal TO fruit in
l vessels hold rs Yellow Jack would be TO a
/ patient on whom it had hold; therefore craft
| trading to suspected regions refused to receive
| carrocs Of fruit They could not afford TO
/ risk losses. That kept out of the market
/ large quantity of fruit
DOOM OF THE POOL
! For years two houses in New Orleans prac-
| tically monopolized the fruit trade of the
| coast Of Spanish Honduras the islands there
about and of that little neck of Guatemala
which separates Spanish from British Hondu-
/ ras. Competition between the two firms was
J raising prices. 10 they pooled their issues and
/ divided the trade between them. That worked
I nicely. and prices were jammed down 10y
/ We see, -" and leave the planter none. But one
/ bright day an ugly black smoke away to the
/ northward heralded the approach of the Maria
/ F. and the doom of the pool The steamer Is
owned bv a firm of much enterprise and with
} money galore, 80 she harvested nearly all of
! the fruit then ready for shipment. Every
/ bunch of bananas. every plantain, every CO
! coanut, every mango, and all the oranges
! ali. Af fhn
! could buy were promptly secured, slowed
| away in her hold, and contracts made for en-
| suing trips When the old line steamers ar
( rived there was not half load for them, 10
| they were filled with profanity by their off
Gers The planters seemed TO really enjoy the
/ situation, which was unkind of them.
Of the musa or plantaia there are n great
/ number of sorts; some cultivators claim that
! they have eighty different kinds, but only two
| or three varieties are known in the markets
/ Of the United States. The variety popularity
/ known in the West Indies and in the several
! Central American republics as platinos, or
| plantains, are seen in very few places in the
| United States outside of New Orleans. The
| sorts GENERALLY recognized in the states as
I bananas are either red or yellow, but the fruit
| Is found in all shades produced by the mixture
! of the two colors named BY far the greater
| part Of the bananas brought TO this country
are eaten raw, but they may be cooked i'll
several ways. Fried in butter they are excel
! lent food; baked in the skins they resemble
/ delicious pears; boiled they are palatable;
| dried after fully ripening they form sweet
| paste, and in every form they are very nu-
! tritious-far more 50 than bread. The tender
Young plants are boiled and eaten as sspara-
| gus is
AN ACRE or BANANAS.
/ Scientists declare that al acre of bananas
| produces vastly more nutritious food than an
! acre of wheat or of potatoes will Cattle,
/ horses, goats, pigs and poultry join man IN
! his liking for this fruit, without which many
a family would be ON short commons much of
tho time. 1t is to dwellers in the tropics what
/ the potato has become to the Irish No won
! der that belief was accorded to the story that
the plantain was the forbidden fruit Eve i'll
/ vitei Adam TO share with her, and that it was
/ the grapes" that the spies brought away
| from the Promised Land II plantains grew
/ in Canaan the eagerness Of the lsraebtes TO
I gobble the whole country is satisfactorily &c
counted for.
! The usefulness Of the plant does not end
with the feeding of man and beast. The
leaves furnish an excellent thatch, and the
stalks supply a large quantity of fiber Of great
| strength and varying degrees of tineneSs.
| Some of this fiber is so exceedingly fine that
/ an entire garment made Of it may be hidden
| In the hand. But, notwithstanding the many
uses to which the plantain may be put, and
! its almost incalculable value "a food, not one
person in ten thousand who would probably
become regular consumers ever buys a
| banana or has ever seen plantain. There is
| plenty of room for the expansion of the bust
! ness of growing the fruit and some reason for
/ thinking that it will increase, for the business
| is said to be fairly profitable now that refrig-
| orator cars and cold storage on steamers have
made it possible to carry the most perishable
| tropical productions TO most remote parts Of
the United States and to Europe.
The cost of preparing plantation of plan
taiils or bananas is said TO he about sl5 per
/ acre Nine months after the shoots are stuck
into the ground the first crop is ready for
| shipment, and from that time on punches are
! continually maturing New plants spring up
! 10 take the place of the old stalks, which die
after producing single bunch each of fruit.
! The hunches weigh from thirty to eighty
/ rounds. Stems having less than six hands
or half-circles of fruit are rejected by the
buyers for market as being too small 10 be
worth the thirty five to fifty cents they pay
ON the coast The vessels in the trade can
carry from 20, 600 to 10000 punches, and the
! lunches sell in New Orleans for about a dol
| lar more than they cost on the coast. The
/ plants are set about sixteen feet apart, and
| receive little or no care after the planting
! until the time comes to cut the larger
lunches and to cut down all the young plants
not wanted The dead stalks, with all their
volunble fiber, are left to rot on the ground. -
~E. W. F., in Chicago Times.
Too Long for n stage Wait.
! The following story is told of an eminent
/ physician who watched Mary Anderson do