Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1910-04-13
THE CITY OF COLON
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\ llHe ana HOOh anu HdQ rare Sport
| fishing for shark off the rear of the
ship. Several huge sharks followed
the ship to the dock, watching for
food thrown off the ship, and one
of them nabbed the bait, and such
jargon of chatter and bedlam
among the Chinese has seldom been
heard. They nearly went wild try
ing to pull the big shark into the
ship, and they got him half way out
of the water when he broke off and
got away. They spent several hours
at this sport, but failed to land a
shark. Meanwhile the writer and
friend from Alabama went out
| fishing with a native, in small
skiff
The next morning we found a
train awaiting us, for a trip with
officials of the United Fruit Co. into
the interior, and a view of the i'm
mense banana plantations. This
little narrow gauge railroad winds
in and out among the mountains
from Almirante to the Sixiola and
Changuinola rivers, through the
banana farms. For several miles
we passed through the dense in
terror tropical jungle, where the
vegetation is so dense that one dare
not venture even a few feet away
from the track, the ferns, palms,
cocoanut trees, vines and grasses
extending twenty to thirty feet in
the air, while above them tower
immense trees of ebony, lignum-
vitae, and the soft woods of that
country to height of 200 feet. The
jungle abOundS in balloons, monk
eys, parrots and beautiful tropical
birds of every description, of brilli-
ant and variegated colors and plum
age, deer, tigers, and even lions,
while snakes are found on every
hand, the most poisonous of which
is the little coil sake. Contrary to
the general opinion, boa constructors
are not feared in chat country, as
it is said that they cannot kill any
thing larger than deer faun, and
their bite IS not poisonous. Down
the mountain sides, in the valleys,
were dense clouds OF vapor, close to
the ground, outlined plainly against
the sides Of the mountains, which
is said to be the cause of the dead
ly miasma. Here and there are huge
swamps which breed mosquitoes and
scatter disease germs.
We had not gone many miles un
til we began to pass through the
banana farms, the narrow railroad
running for miles between the huge
banana plants or trees on both
sides. When we arrived at Chan
guinola we went up onto a nearby
hill, where We looked out over a
banana plantation of $1,000 acres,
nothing but bananas, dotted here
and there with the narrow gauge
railroad lines. The plantations are
into sections, each of which is in
charge of a foreman, responsible
for the daily output of his section.
The banana tree grows twenty to
thirty feet high, very close together,
like great forest, and but one stem
or bunch of bananas grows on
tree. When the bananas are full
grown, long before they become
ripe, they are picked, the stalk cut
down and left where it falls to rot,
and new one is ready to take it's
place. Everything in this country
decays rapidly The immense trees
decay entirely within eighteen
months after they fall to the ground.
Bananas have roots with bulbs and
eyes like potatoes, and they grow
up from the roots. All that is ne
ed is to keep it from growing too
rank, that is, to keep out the dense
weeds and keep the banana sprouts
trimmed out so that they do not
grow too thick. The United Fruit
Co. have plantations of about 49,
600 acres in. bananas. and control
the output of the world, for it does
not pay the small raiser to start in
the business, because bananas have
to be picked green as soon as they
are full grown. and delivered as
rapidly as possible. and if the United
Fruit Co. will not accept the fruit
of the small grower on one of their
ships they can ruin his crop.
Bananas are picked every day in
the year. They are growing con-
stantly, so the enormity of the out
put can thus be judged The land is
bought at so cents to S1.25 per
acre, and it costs about $500 per
acre, to put the land into production.
The Panama government gets an ex-
port duty of one cent per stem, and
it costs the company about 40 cents
per stem to deliver the bananas in
New Orleans, where they sell for
about $500 per stem and are ship
ped in waiting trains all over the