The Hawaiian gazette., 1910-12-30
United Fruit Company Offers to
Send Cargo of Suckers for
Hawaii Planters.
LANAI QUARANTINE STATION
Banana Nursery Might Be ES-
tablished There to Supply
Territory With Plants.

The United Fruit Company, to show
its earnestness in the matter of estab.
fishing banana trade for these Islands,
has filed an offer with the local federal
experiment station officials and with
the board of agriculture and forestry
to bring to Hawaii a full steamer load
of Bluefeld banana suckers, in their
own special steamer, the cargo to be
distributed free of cost to All who will
agree to plant them The offer is to
bring from Central America one hun.
dred and twenty thousand banana
plants, sufficient to plant four hundred
| acres and furnish. future suckers for the
whole Territory,
! There is but one obstacle in the way
of carrying out this plan, that being
the fact that the Central American
Bluefelds are infested with a plant
pest and can not be landed under the
regulations of the territorial board of
agriculture. To get around this way
has been suggested, which is now under
discussion and which will probably be
carried out.
This is to have the island of Lanai
made a plant quarantine station, have
the cargo of Blueield suckers landed
there direct and planted While they
grow they can be watched. Those that
show signs of blight can be destroyed,
leaving the healthy plants to develop
i and form the nucleus of territorial
banana nursery, from which suckers for
the rest of the group can be obtained.
The local hackers of the United Fruit
Company's scheme have already talked
this matter over with officials of the
Lanai company, the latter expressing
their perfect willingness to set aside
a portion of the lands of Palawai for
the cultivation of the plants. This land
is said to he suitable for the purpose,
while it is as much out of the way for
quarantine station as necessary.
A Big Plan.
The more that is learned of the Offer
of the United Fruit Company and thu
manner in which it has been received
! by many in position to consider it
the bigger are the possibilities for Ha
wall seen to be. The company is will
ing to enter into agreements with any
one who will grow suitable banana
for their grade, Offering to pay on de
livery at the various landings a mini
mum of thir'y-fve cents ard maxi
mum of sixty-five cents bunch for al
that can be supplied. The paynen
will be made by a ships receipt, ne
gotiabe at any territorial bank.
If it is seen that the supply herr
is sufficient, two fast steamers will bt
prt on the run between Hawaiian port
and the Coast, to make the passag,
down in six days and return in five
Later, if the supply justifes it, othe
fast steamers will be put on,
The presence on the run of vessel
on six and five days run will NEAR
more tourists and more business, in
dependent of the big business that viii
be created through a banana industry
twenty times greater than Hawaii nov
has.
Many Ready to Plant.
Since the visit of the Representative,
of the United Fruit Company to Homo
lulu and HilGL a number of corpora
tions and individuals have offered t.
grow bananas on large scale. 1t i
proposed to plant several hlndred acre
in Kona and several extensive patche
in Puma and the Hilo and Hamaku;
!. districts. The Nahiku Rubber Compa
ny is also said to have agreed to plan
, a good many acres, while the Oah,
banana fields would be considerably en-
larged if the market for the produc
was in sight.
The main difficulty in the immediat
carrying out of any such extensiv
= paintings is the fact that the suppl
of suckers of the right kind is limited
r From this fact comes the offer of tn
fruit company to supply the sucker
direct from Central America.
The matter of the importation o
these suckers came up at the meeting
of the board of agriculture and for
estry yesterday.