Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1905-1906, 1906-03-03

New Orleans, March by siz
O'Clock Saturday morning all hands
were awake on the Anselm, and peer.
ing through the rain in an effort to
see if the banana plantations would
be sufficiently visible through the
mist to permit of proper inspection
writes Port Limon correspondent OF
the New Orleans Times-Democrat.
By way of introduction Mr.
Schweppe gave the visitors some OF
the larger facts connected with the
industry that sends from Port Limon
alone each year eight million punches
of the best commercial fruit grown
in the tropical lands of Central
America or elsewhere.
He told of the three great districts
that are controlled by the United
Fruit Company-the Banana River
district, the Santa Clara district and
the Gent district. In these three
districts are now about forty planta-
tions, each under a manager or an as
sistant manager, and each from five
hundred to one hundred acres. The
managers, chiefly Americans, with a
sprinkling, of English, German, ma
tives, &C., all report to the district
superintendents, who in turn report
to Manager Schweppe, in Port LII
mon.
These tracts produce about one
half the bananas that are shipped
from the country. The other half
is purchased by the fruit company
from the various estates, great or
small, that border the lines of the
Costa Rica Railway, the Northern
Costa RIGA and the smaller brnch
lines Of road that have been put into
operation since the company gained
it's control of the entire system on the
Atlantic side of Jan Jose. -.
Tt was raining when the party
started. 1t rained all day long. The
train soon left Port Limon behind
and for some time swept along under
over-arching tropical trees and palms
down the valley leading into the
great Gent banana district. The
roadbed, planned and laid with a de-
gree of engineering skill said by ex-
perts to be second to none In the
States, was in beautiful condition,
and never a jar or jolt disturbed
the sightseers, even on the branch
lines running through plantations. A
man and half per day, per mile, is
the way the company estimates what
it costs to keep up the system from
end, swamp and mountain. On the
Costa Rican or the Northern Railroad
of Costa Rica, which was the Ameri-
can built road first controlled by the
United Fruit Company, the maximum
grade is three per cent, while ~
foot curve is the greatest on the road.
Wooden ties are used, the road be-
ing ballasted with a gravel obtained
from great pit back on the foothills.
On the main Costa Rica road that
is now owned by the Northern of Cos
Ia INCA, leduiIIS up tHiooSh eHS
mountains to San Jose, there is one
thirty-three foot curve and three
twenty-three foot curves, and there
are several places where there are long
stretches of four per cent grade. So
great is the haulage cost over this
road that little hope is maintained
that the transcontinental traffic will
ever amount to much, even when the
fifteen mile gap beyond San Jose
shall be completed by the American
Bridge Company under the contract
with the government which the COM
pany has just closed.
Into the Bananas.
For some minutes. almost an hour
after leaving the town the train
skirted through hills, where quaint
palmetto matched huts, boarded up
with bamboo, or packing boxes, or tin
cans, as the case might be, housed the
jamaica negro laborers. Red clay