The morning news., 1889-03-29
THE FOOD OF THE TROPICS.
Some Facts About the Great Banana
Tra.e
From the Ne,o York Star.

|
esque scenes that the banana market gives.
An entire cargo is disposed of as rapidly as
it comes out of the hold. In the old times
three to six days were required to unload
little schooners. Now a great steamer will
discharge a cargo of bananas i'll ten hours.
| The consignee has notified every dealer in
the city, and they are nearly all there, a
| motley lot whose jabbering, cursing and
preparation are somethi e terrible indeed.
They swarm over the steamers deck and
drive bargains as though their very i'm
mortal souls depended on the higgle-hag-
Cling over that load, or that bunch, of
bananas.
Gangs of from eight to sixteen men are
required at each hatch, and these fel ows,
who work in the hold in the most fearful
stencil ever whitfield by human nose. receive
70 cents an hour. They are the lowest
species of beings existing along the docks
| They possibly get two days work week.
That is enough They live on bananas,
swiIl and garbage, sailor boarding house
rum, and lie along the burning pavements
of South and West streets in Sodden,
open-mouthed stupor, with less manners
and brains than swine. Relays are
formed from the hold, and tie punches
tossed thence, one at a time. being caught
on their wa out by each man with hands
tiat, palms upward bowed forea rms,
which act as a sort of pillowing for the
fruit. The rapidity and safaty If the move
ment of these lunches are marvellous. At
each hatch on deck are a tallyman for the
vessel and tallyman, who is also ''se-
Letter." for the consignee The latter
grades the punches as they come fiy-
ing from the hold with incredi-
BILE swiftness and accuracy. A few feet
below on the docks are scores of dealers
wagons, and, according to grade, a co
ant stream of lunches flows into each. In
these they are carted to the "sweaU roo ns'
of the wholesalers where they are hung
much like curing tobacco, and kept at
about l1O' of heat ight and day for from
tn go to five days when the lunches, which
were OF iginally livid green, are ripened
and transformed to the tempting yellow
clusters which lure US to the stalls of
Lorenzo the Magnifcent's descendants upon
| the streets
The grades are simply ''firsts," seconds"
"culls" and ''ripes" "Firstsn are punches
containing the most and finest fruit "Sec-
ondS" are all other prime condition, marked
table bunches. "Cul,s" are the lowest grade
and partly decayed bananas. The 'cullsn
are piled on deck in freckled unsightly
heaps, and you will have to wade ankle
deep in ''ripes" until they are sorted and
corded, two tiers lengthwise, in old orange
boxes, one-twentieth of a cargo possib
being in this condition. The price secured
for bananas by the vessel load is alb nut
81 IL per bunch, and the retailers get them
at 81 40. AS the punches average 200
pieces each, any one can estimate The profits
| the street trade affords.
| Said Veteran importer to reporter the
other afternoon: "In Southern Asia and
Central America, in tropical Africa and the
equatorial islands Of the Atlantic and Pa
| cifc, it is cultivated and the fruit eaten
| | tod
those who think it grows wild. In that
| connection let me say that it is probably
the first plant that ever was cultivated.
| "The aim Of hortlculturists is to rid fruit
| of seed. They have succeeded in doing this
| with the small grape which in its dried
| state we call currants. The TanCier ora 90
| and the best among the pineapples are seed
| loss. The potato has been made seedless.
| However, this result is usually brought
| about to the injury of the plant, which
| seems to lose with its capacity to bear seed
| much of its vitality, and this renders it sub
| ject to attack of insects, blight, etc. But
| here is the banana that has been seedIess
thousands of years yet it appears TO be as
full of energy and life as when, according
to the old legend, the eyes Of Adam fell
| upon it in the e irden of Eden"
| "lf seedleSs, how is it propagated?"
by suckers which the plant sends up.
| Whenever the black of tropical Africa
|
| small space in the Jungle, obtains tlirCv or
forty suckers from his father or older
| brother, and sets them out. In nine months
| time the fruit appears, and before the
| eleventh month he can eat of it freely The
number of plants [ have named can be
grown in thousaod square feet, and will
| bear him at least 5000 pounds Of fruit an
nualy. Think Of it for a m0mentl 1t is
p ssible to grow as much as l75,000 pounds
of bananas annually upon single acre of
| ground. No wonder that Humb 1ldt said
| that nothing in the world would grow SO
much food to the acre as the ba ana And
yet that man could speak slIghtingly of 1t /"
Possibly he hadn't time to think of it.n
ut goes back to the earliest man, does
the banana. Alexa der's soldiers, so Pliny
said, found the sages of India seated in its
shades and partaking Of the delicious fruit
| Hence the name ientu n, given the
| pla {, which Likewise bears the name of
Jupiter's fair daughter, Musa. When
Pizarro landed in Peru the Aztecs brought
him gif of the yellow fruit at yonder
| Italian you see from this window now sells
at dime dozen. Thereby hangs an his
torical fact-not the Italian, but the banana
| which P.zarro TOOK from the Aztecs. Now,
| it has been shown that the banana is of
Malayan origin. How did it get to India
and to South America and to Mexico!
"Tho feet of birds have borne seeds full
nigh the wo ID around in the eat ocean
currents But, you see, the bauan has no
| seeds, nor has it casing like the globular
C coanut to float it around over the waters
Then it must have been 'toted over the big
trough by man. 1t is significant that the
Aztecs had traditions Of visits by pc e)ple
from over the seas, while there was to co
firm it an admixture of religion Of the
Brahmins in their own theology Would
you have thought that the despised banana
actually stepped forward to prove that be-
fore Columbus was or Lief Ericsson ever
had an existence, some swarthy denizens of
the old world had migrated across the
waterf
"Taat is a bit queer, if true, and queer
anyhow"
THAT isn't all there is to the banana by
any means. You have heard o ma lila
rope, haven't you! Well, that is made in
the Philippine islands of the stem of the
ba ana. This Stal K, which usually grows
TO be 6 inches in diameter and from 8 TO 20
feet high, has a very valuable fiber, from
which are woven beautiful textile fabrics.
Many OF the finest India shawls and wrap
pers worn by ladies Of fashion are manufac-
tured from this fabric. So, too, an excellent
article of paper is made from it,"
but are no varieties of banana wildp
"Yes some have been found in Ce lon,
Cochin Chin and tie Philippines. These,
Of course, have seeds, but they are inferior