The Washington times., 1901-09-15
BOSqOH'S BANANA TRUST
How the Fruit Is Distributed
Throughout the Country.
Nearly Twenty Million Buncher Iu.-
ported AnnualIy-From Piantatton
to Mnrket-Ten Thousand Men Ess-
ployed-sixty-three Boat. Engaged


Did you ever stop to wonder by what
process that daily cry. Banana, Banana,
| ren-a cent dozen ar of the Italian peddIer
at your door is made possible? Every city
| and every village in this country Is regu-
| larly provided with bananas, and they are
/ being used everywhere in increasing
quantities. To supply the enormous de-
mand is an immense and difficult UNDER
| taking.
| That undertaking is successfully accom-
plished principally by single great cor
| porstion. which was organized by Boston
promoters and Is carried on largely by
| Boston capital Two years ago the Bos-
| ton Fruit Company associated with itself
certain other concerns and became the
United Fruit Company, which today con-
| trolls almost the whole business of import
| ing bananas into the United States. Presi-
dent Preston was kind enough TO explain
10 me the other day the system by which
4, the people of this country are supplied
| with the fruit of tropical America.
! A few figures will Indicate the extent OF
| the business. The company owns Alto
gether $4,000 acres of land in six different
countries. the value Of its plantations be-
ing about s10.O00oo0. 1t operates a feet of
10000 men. 1t brings into this country
every year nearly 2O.Oo0.oo0 punches of ba-
nanas. besides great quantities of other
tropical fruits. Each week of the sum-
mer three steamers bring TO Boston alone
iZ0. coo punches, about 10000 in each boat
From the planting of the banana tree
TO the delivery of the ripe fruit in Ameri-
can cities. the company's system is COM
plete. Years ago when the business OF
importing bananas was just beginning,
the raising of the fruit was left IN the
hands of native planters. But very soon
the stress of active competition made ma
tive sluggishness and stupidity intolera-
BILE and the American companies began %
buy up plantations and raise their own
crops. Even American brains and ener-
gy. however, did not at first prove equal
to the task of managing the large bana-
ma plantations efficiently. for the reason
that both brains and energy seem to de-
sert most men who remain in the West
Indies or in Central America for any
length of time. At least. that has been
the experience of the Boston company.
Man after man whom they have sent to
those countries has yielded to the ener-
waiting influence of the tropics and has lost
either ambition or honesty. IT has taken
overseers upon whom the company may
rely.
1t requires men of more than average
ability to solve the problems that come
up In running a banana plantation.
The land of the United Fruit Company Is
located in six different couEtries-Cuba,
Jamaica, San Domingo, Costa Rica, Hon
duras, and the Republic of Colombia-in
every one or which the mass of the popu-
lation is unsettled, ignorant, and un-
trained to labor Unwearying patience
and firmness are both essential to the
American manager who has TO get his
work done by the negroes and imported
coolies of these countries. In order to
attract and keep in its employ the thou
sands of laborers whom it needs, the
company has established coTnmissary
department which provides merchandise
at low prices for its men.
After the company has raised the ba-
nanas on its own plantation it packs them
in its own fruit cars and transports them
over its own railroads to the nearest port,
where they are loaded on the company's
own specially constructed steamers and
brought to its own wharves in American
cities. The scene in Jamaican ports at
loading time is a most animated one The
constant procc ssion of blacks bearing the
punches from wharyeS to steamers Is
most interesting.
Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baiti-
more, Mobile. and New Orleans are reach
ed by the companys lines of steamers
The two Southern ports are the chief dis
tributing centres and from them bananas
are sent cut over the whole United States
to wholesale grooers in every important
inland city. The lunches from Costa.
Rica. Honduras, and the Republic of CO.
lombia, which are larger than those from.
the West Indies. pass through New Or
leans and Mobile, while the island ba-s
nanas are sent to the Eastern cities.
All the inland business is handled by a
department OF TIE United Fruit Company
known as the Fruit Despatch Company.
whose fruit cars are familiar sights over
the whole country. Even to San Fran
cisco. which would naturally be supplied,i
one would think, by the great fruit-grow-
ing region of southern California, the
Fruit Despatch Company sends fifteen to
twenty carloads of bananas every week.
When a cargo of bananas arrives at
New Orleans or Mobile the ripe fruit is
sold at once to local dealers. while the
green punches are sent northward by a
special train. AS it proceeds the train
slowly dwindles, for sections of 1t are
dropped at this point or that and sent OF
in various directions, until finally 1t is
broken up altogether and the last car is
sidetracked at some town in the far
Northwest.
The principal difficulty in sending ba-
nanas a considerable distance is to keep
them at a proper temperature. Now the
proper temperature is not below freezing,
as is the case with most foods, but about
seventy degrees. Consequently. instead of
providing cold storage, the Fruit Des-
patch Company has been compelled to
build at Cairo. ILL.,, a unique warm
house When the banana trains reach
that city they are sent to a large shed
which accommodates eighty cars at once.
The cars are opened. and are thoroughly
warmed. Then they are closed air-ught
and sent on. Even in the coolest wealth
er these cars viii hold u temperature OF
20 degrees fer several days.
The 5000 900 punches OF bananas which
come every year to the four Northern
cities are distributed about as follows:
Baltimore, 1868. COO. Philadelphia. 2,0G0-
900. New York, 2.z5000O, Boston. 2.5o00oo
punches AT ali these cities most of the
bananas go to supply local trade. and
only a comparatively small proportion is
handed over TO the Fruit Despatch Com
pany. In Boston, for instance. eighty
per cent of all the fruit brought in is
taken at once by wholesale dealers OF
the city, and the other twenty per cent
goes to other parts of New England.
1t is interesting to note that the sale OF
S. 500 900 worth of bananas last year by
the Fruit Despatch Company entailed
loss by bad accounts. and so on, of less
than one-eichth Of one per cent, and that