The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-07-27

sugar was king in the Island. and men of high and low degree, whether wnite or black, were his subjects. Then came the freeing of the slaves and the legislation abroad which made the growing of sugar unprofitable. me price of sugar dwindled down to al- most nothing. where once there was fortune in It's growing. and the island was on the verge of ruin. Then came along Yankee skipper, knocking about in a little ninety-ton schooner. Calling at some of the ports on the eastern end of the island his keen eye looked with interest upon the bananas that were so plentifully offered him.
 Knowing the taste the American were fast acquiring for this wholesome fruit, rarity in his home markets, he set about to devise a way to get 1t to American ports in good shape. That skipper was Capt. l.. D. Baker Of bos- ton. Purposefui, possessed of that quiet determination which recognizes obstacles only 70 overcome. them, he went to work to develop new indus try. and slowly but surely built up the banana trade. Steadily the number of vessels increased. The native labor was unreIiable. so coolies from India were brought over by the British Gov ernment to aid in the cultivation or the fruit.
 The business prospered It was in- corporated as the Boston Fruit Com pany. The slow-sailing vessels of other days were replaced by modern. business outgraw the Boston Fruit Company as 1t had outgrown the pri- vate enterprise of Captain Baker. and 1t gave place in turn to tn Q big S30,0o0. 900 United Fruit Company. which today had sixteen magnificent, yacht-like fruit steamers plying between Janaica and American ports. Its work has been the redemption of the island. It's exports of fruits. chief Of which Is the banana amounts to more than one- half of the total exports of the islands. Some ss per cent of this Is carried to the United States by the United Fruit Company. But the possibilities of the fruit business are as yet merely touched. There are perhaps three acres of available banana land on the Island where there is one acre under banana is a science. To get large, well-developed punches, the kind 1t is most profitable to grow. requires care ful cultivation and rich land. The banana is a heavy feeder and exhausts the soil as rapidly as any crop that can be found, so the United Sites Com pany. as well as the Jamaican Gov- SAhlhohSs iB put un itb f1eLLlS to SSGHEo & crop rotation which win keep the soil up to a proper standard.
 In cultivating the banana the land Is plowed by big blows to which eight or ten oxen are hitched. The banana plants are then set out in rows ten to fifteen feet apart, and about eight feet apart in the row, They attain a height of from ten to fifteen feet, de- pending on the quality of the land, and | nn fhA AFt1ffya tnF4 Oaf fa end of year the first crop Is ready for gathering. Each plant produces one bunch, after which 1t is worthless and Is cut down and left on the ground to rot. But new plants or suckers are constantly coming up from the root. Thus, when the first plan is cut down, another is ready to bear. while two or three others are in different stages of growth. The process may be contin- ued for seven yeaSs, when the land must be plowed up again.
 The coolte banana cutter is very ex- pert in his work. He passes around among the plants, selects the ones which are ready to be cut. and with a single stroke of his machete cuts deep enough Into the stem of the plant to cause 1t to bend low enough for him to reach the bunch of bananas. With one stroke he sewers the bunch from the plant. and with another trims off the other stem, the while preventing the bunch from falling to the ground.
 The average cargo of bananas car- ried away from the island is about 25.0oo punches. When they are to be carried some little distance negro wo- men are employed and are paid 25 cents for each hundred punches car ried. At other times big lighters are used to carry the bananas from private wharfs to the steamship dock, and ne- gro men pass them from hand to hand until they are safely stored in the ships hold. The United Fruit Com pany Is to Jamaica what the Standard oil Is to the United States, and banana growing and shipping is It's principal business. though other fruits receive considerable attention. The latest re- turns show that over 62,000 acres of land are annually given over to the growing of bananas. the yield being more than iS.o00.0o0 punches a year. valued at nearly s5.000.o0o.
 The cultivation of the cocoanut is profitable and an easy way of making a living. There are about 10000 acres or these trees under cultivation, and they yield some 100000 nuts a year. The plantation value of these is placed by the Jamaican tax returns at S225.- 900, which Is about 2 cents per nut. or $22.50 per acre. It takes seven years to grow bearing grove, but after that they flourish hundred years, reouIr. ing no attention. except the gathering of the nuts The land at the same time may be used for grazing or other farm purposes. In the course of its life each tree will earn it's owners over $20O,
 Conee growing Is another attractive Industry in the Islands. Tn many ways 1t Is the best of them all. The best conee grows in the highlands Here one has a climate of perpetual spring. The weather is never hot. and never too damp. The thermometer never goes above s5 degrees or below s5, thus giving perpetually congenial climate. In starting a coffee plantation the trees are usually set eight feet apart each way Two years after there will be few scattered berries of coffee. and the third year a small crop, enough to pay running expenses. The fourth year will give full crop and this profitable yield will continue for thirty or forty years thereafter. The coffee berry. when ripe. Is of bright, purp. fish -red color, and closely resembles a cherry. The coffee kernels. like cher ry stones. are encased in the fruit The preparation of the coffee for market Is an interesting process. After the fruit has been gathered. 1t is run through a machine called "pulper," which tears off most of the fruit from the Kernels. These are next run through tanks to wash off the remaining particles of fruit and are then spread out to dry. After being thoroughly dried. the hard hull of the berry Is broken and out of 1t comes the coffee of commerce, The tax returns for 1907 show about 2s,OOO acres of land under coffee cultivation,