The Monticellonian., 1903-06-25
BANANA EATERS.
More of the Fruit COnsum.H Hcre
 Than fin Any other Country Q Trade Particulars.

One would think that as warm weather approaches and fresh fruits and vegetables begin to cheapen 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. It is not in winter when little other fruit is to be had that people consume l bananas in vast quantities. but in summer. when they assault the eyes of the millions temptingly without l danger of freezing. says the New | York Commercial Advertiser.
 America has within the last ten years become the greatest banana consuming country on the globe. l Twenty-four million punches were imported last year into the United States. an increase of 40 per cent. over ten years ago. This increase is due simply and solely to yentilators The ordinary ship has no ventilators in the holds. The ship constructed specially for carrying bananas has from 12 to 20 big ones. The company which controls so per cent. of the banana trade has 75 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 na 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. This 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 If left to themselves. There is thermome- ter in each car, and it is the messen- gers business to keep the tempera- ture regulated to a dot, so that the man in Kansas City and the man in Seattle will get his bananas inst 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 CT six are kept busy.
 Bananas for New York come from Jamaica, Costa Riea. 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 SO largely controls the trade raises 60 per cent. of the product 1t handles on its own plantations, where it eultivates the fruit, although 1t will grow without cultivation throughout tropical America. There are only two kinds of bananas. the red and the yellow- but the red is no longer handled owing to its poor transporting qualities. Fried, it forms a 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 Ja- maica to Liverpool were put on in 1901. with a fortnightly service.
 This was increased to q weekly service last year. each ship carrying 30000 stems. Probably 600,000 stems were landed in Liverpool last year, an increase of 100 per cent. over the year before.