The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-08-21

| erage is made. lnQeeu there are almost
no factories of any sort in Cuba because
ii has always been SPANS policy to dis
courage manufacturing in her colonies,
so as to compel the people to buy of the
unnatural mother country.
The time is surely coming when Cuba
and Porto Rico will be the great fruit
| producing regions of the western hemis-
| phere. If prune-culture pays so we'll in
| California, why not better in Cuba,
where land is cheaper and where, for at
least century to come, there will be no
danger of over-production? Just so
with olives, Almonds chestnuts and
many other things that are row COM
para lively unknown in the West Indies.
| Oranges of exquisite flavor grow wild in
all parts Of Cuba, but 10 attention has
| ever been paid to their cultivation or
! expectation. Cocoanuts and other spon-
| taneous growths Of the island are al
ways in demapd. Besides a multitude
of tropical fruits. little known and not
usually relished by the Anglo-Saxon
race, there are many less perishable va
rleties, such as guavas, tamarinds, man
goes and aguacates, which might pro-
fitably be conserved, or with proper care
transported unlocked.
As to bananas the field Is practically
unlimited. TO be sure like love and the
Scriptures and many other good things
it is an "old, old story; and the same
may be said of wheat. potatoes corn
and other stats of life which the world
goes on eating No crop requiring small
capital to grow is so readily marketa-
BILE and always profitable as bananas.
They thrive in almost any soil, need
little care and yield fifty times as much
in weight to the acre as wheat. Sup
pose you concluded to turn banana
planter and paid as high as five dollars
the acre for twenty acres Of well-cleared
land in the vicinity of Trinidad, Santa
Clara, or any other pleasant Cuban city
You might obtain any number of plants
wild for no cost except the hire of a
man to dig them: but by far the better
way would be to go to some established
plantation and buy suckers" which
sell for twenty-five dollars the thou
sand Setting the plants fifteen feet
apart. your twenty acres will accommo-
date about four thousand plants, cost
ing one hundred dollars. Add to that
amount the price of your land, twenty
dollars for wedding and another twenty
for harvesting and the total outlay
foots up to two hundred and forty dol
lars The suckers shoot up like magic
and in a few months each has stalk,
called the ''stool," from twelve to twen-
ty feet in the air, with single gigantic
bunch of fruit glowing like gold near |
the top. The lowest price bananas ever !
bring is twenty-five cents the bunch, |
American money on the plantation. Ii |
carried to New Orleans they command |
from thirty to fifty cents the bunch, and |
when successfully transported to Eng |
land (Which is not an easy matter. for |
then they must be picked very green |
and allowed to ripen in the dark, with
out bruislng), they bring as high as two |
dollars the bunch. Reckoned at the |
lowest, your four thousand punches,
with no cost or risk of transportation,
will sell where they grew for a thou
sand dollars, realizing a clear profit of
seven hundred and sixty dollars.
The second year two punches may be
expected from each stool, or eight thou
sand punches in all, yielding two thou
sand dollars. minus part of the cost OF
he previous year. This will continue
Until the stools are exhausted, when
hey must be grubbed up and new suck
RS planted in their stead, With the
rees fifteen feet apart, suckers may be
et between them when the first sign of
exhaustion appears, so that there need
,e no break in the yield of the planta- (
ion. AS each STOOL sends up six or
~ bn nd ~ | +.
ear. it is possible to reap that number Z
f punches from each original tree and
ften four or five stems are allowed to ,
,roduce fruit But that is not the best
ray, for the fruit viii be much finer il
nly two stems are permitted to mature.
Me off shoots, or suckers If not need
d for extending the plantation, may be
old to some beginner, as you bought
our start. at the rate of twenty-five
ollnrs the thousand The graceful
liant. with its splendid sweep of leaves,
as no trunk. but its soft, fibrous stem,
Ike celery. is composed of the leaf
talks rolled one above the other. After
he fruit has ripened this stein Withers.
nd the constant sloughing of outer \
,ayes serves to fertiliZe the root. The 9
rec never seeds, but is always propa-
ated from the suckers that shoot up i,
ear after year until the stool is eX-
austed.
A banana plantation in bloom is not
5 beautiful as rose-garden' out Is :
cry interesting. In the TRINIDAD ValieE
re vast groves of bananas, laid out as
,eularlv as the orange groves OF SOUTH
n California Some of the plants are
vavs In bloom, while others show the
nit in all stages from little green
nobs to enormous golden bunches
IContinued on Seventh Page.) i