Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-09-29
BANANA IN DANGER
Scourge Among the Trees
Threatens Extinction.
DRASTIC MEASURES NEEDED
Disease Not Satisfactorily Explained
by Science.
MILLIONS OF MONEY AT STAKE
Industry Employs Sixty Vessels,
With Carrying Capacity Each
Of $4,000 Bunches.

How will 1t strike the householder II
the banana industry is wiped outfit.
instead Of being able to get ''banans"
from the pushcart men and the corner
fruit stands at 10 and Is cents a dozen,
the humble and heretofore plentiful fruit
scars to the dignity Of a luxury, to be
bought, wrapped in tin foil and tissue
paper, from the high-class groceries at
10 cents apiece and take their place
along with grapefruit and pomegranates
as a feature of the bill of fare In high
class hotels:
This does not absolutely have to hap
pen, but there Is disease now wiping
out the banana plantations of the West
Indies and Central America which, if
unchecked, will mean the total extinction
Of the industry; and there has so far
been nothing done to check 1t. The blight
is unknown to the world at large, be-
cause the world at large does not go
where the banana grows. The consumer
knows merely that bananas have been
cheap for long time, and that. while
not staple Of life like bread and meat,
they are nice and convenient to get
whenever you want them; and almost
every one wants them more or less.
Not Explained by Science.
The blight is a disease that has not so
far been satisfactorily explained by
science. 1t starts where the crown of
leaves springs from the trunk of the
| tree. turns the leaves yellow and finally
kills the whole plant. There are manifes-
tations Of it in the trunk and the leaves
when sections are made of them, but
| what it is or whence 1t comes from Is a
mystery. There are no conditions Of
soil or rainfall to account for it, Very
| wet weather or very dry weather seems
| to have no effect on 1t. Cutting and prun-
| ing does not stop 1t and fertilizing and
cultivation seem to make 1t worse in
stead Of better.
| The disease was known for years in
| isolated localities and little attention was
| paid to ii. The ravages were not i'm
| portant till 1904. Then the plague began
| to make great inroads into the planta-
lions and DR.. r. f. B. Mckinney Of the
Department OF Agriculture made the
| were not drastic measures taken to stop
| the plague the banana industry of the
| United States, and that means practica lily
Of the world. would be wiped out in
eleven years. Since that time the progress
| of the disease makes 1t seem as though
his time limit had been an underesti-
| mate.
sixty steamers In the Trade.
| The banana industry Of the United
| States Is a huge business. There are
about sixty fruit steamers engaged all
| the time in the transportation Of bananas,
mostly to the United States. but some to
Europe. They work through the West
Indies. where there are immense planta-
tions-in Jamaica and Costa RIGA.
through Central America and at the
termini of the Panama Canal Zone The
Central American fruit is bigger than is
the island variety. and the punches are
| bigger, SO that 1t is hard to say what
constitutes an average shipload. How
| ever, there are some Of the newest fruit
steamers that will carry 10000 punches,
and from this figure they range down
ward Possibly $1,000 punches would be a
| fair average There are sent north alto
gether about 5000. 600 punches annually.
| Millions are too big for most people to
grasp but II the average length Of a fruit
steamer is taken ut 500 feet and the aver
age $1,000 punches to a cargo. this means
a solid line Of ships as long as from here
to Colonial Beach, rather more than less.