The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1903-08-15
AMERICANS BANANA EATERS.
Than In Any Other Country
Trade Particular

TAan IN Any other Country.
Trade Particulars.
One would think that as warm
weather approaches and fresh fruits
and vegetables begin to cheaper the
banana mans profits would begin to
fall off. But this is just the time Of
year when they swell to three times
their winter proportions. 1t is not
in winter when little other fruit il
to be had that people consume
bananas in vast quantities, but in
summer, when they assault the eyes
of the millions temptingly without
danger of freezing, says the New
York Commercial Advertiser.
America has within the last ter
years become the greatest banana
consuming country on the globe.
Twenty-four million punches were
imported last year into the United
Stctes, an increase of 40 per cent
over ten years ago. This increase is
due simply and solely to ventilators
The ordinary ship has no ventilators
in the holds. The ship constructed
specially for carrying bananas has
from ~ to 20 big ones. The company
which controls 80 per cent. of the
banana trade has rs of these banana
ships in active service.
But care can by no means relax
after the banana lands on American
soil. For long distance hauls the ma
tional fruit of the tropics requires al
most as much attention as it does
on shipboard. This is particularly
true in the west, where the messen-
ger holds an interesting position.
He takes the cars for the western.
trade out of New Orleans, on some
trips having as many as 20 under his
charge. They must be dropped all
along the way from st. Louis to the
coast, and they must reach each
town in the right condition, ripened
just enough to make good eating.
Yhis maturing takes place on the
cars and depends on the messengers
skillful manipulation of ventilators.
No artificial heat is supplied in win
ter. The cars are heated with
stoves before departure and the
stoves are then removed. After that
the vast mass of moist bananas will
generate even too much heat 1t LEFT
to themselves. There is a thermome-
ter in each car, and ii is the messen-
gers business to keep the tempera-
ture regulated to dot, SO that the
man in Kansas City and the man in
Seattle will get his bananas just
right. So that, in fact. westerners
consume bananas ripened by messen-
ger service instead of the sun.
twenty-five messengers make their
headquarters in New Orleans, but in
the east the distances are so much
less that not more than five or six
are kept busy.
Bananas for New York come from
Jamaica. Costa Rica, Cuba, Santo
Domingo and Santa Marta, in South
America. Those for New Orleans
come mostly from the United States
of Colombia and various parts OF
Central America. The fruit company
WHICH 50 idISciy CohtiOtS ehc eAo@~
raises 60 per cent. of the product II
handles on its own plantations. where
it cultivates the fruit, although II
will grow without cultivation
throughout tropical America. There
are only two kinds of bananas. the
red and the yellow, but the red is nc
longer handled owing to its poor
transporting qualities. Fried. II
forms staple dish among the hum
bier housewives of tropical America
The same improved methods OF
| transportation which have made
americans a race of banana eaters
have begun the same transforming
process with the English. The first
refrigerator banana ships from ia
maica to Liverpool were put on IN
1901. with fortnightly service.
This was increased to a weekly
service last year, each ship carrying
30 900 stems. Probably 100000 stems
were landed in Liverpool last year
an increase of 100 per cent. over the
year before.