Omaha daily bee., 1912-09-15
LOADING -ba1ausS

Europe at a loss, but the business is now
| beginning to pay, and 1t will eventually
! be Of great value.
In the Banana Plantations.
| But let US go down ard take ride
| through this vast banana plantation W.
have special cars and can stop where we
| please. We pass for miles through
| nothing but bananas. The trees sprom
of two-story house. Each is composed
of broad ribbon-like leaves eight or nine
inches wide. The leaves sprout from the
base of the plant. around which they
form short trunk and then go out In
most graceful curve, bending over so
that their ends rustic and wave In the
breeze.
Now we have left the cars and are
walking through the fruit forest. How
dark 1t Is. The leaves are so thick ana
so many that they keep out the sun. Oh
every side of US the view is the same
There are stalks and trunks of bananas
as far as we can see. and we wonder
what We should do If we should get lost
and whether we should not so round and
round in circle as men have been
known to act when lost in the wilder.
ness. 49,
How the Trees Look.
Now take a close look at the plants
This is near Bocas del Toro, and the
bananas grow nowhere more luxuriantls
than here. The trees at the base are as
big around as the TIL gh Of President
Taft and the topmost leaves are twenty
or thirty feet from the ground. The
bananas are of great size. and the
punches or stems are bigger than those
Of other parts of the world Each stem
Is known as a hand, and the individual
bananas are called fingers. In many
places a bunch Of eight or nine hands is
g fairly good yield, but here the averagt
Is eleven or twelve, and some of the
punches have as many as seventeen
hands, each containing ten or twelve
fingers as the bananas are called.
The bunches range all the way from
$50 to 300 bananas, and this means the |
yield Of one plant. The banana plan,
The banana plant yields only one crop
Of fruit. As soon as the bunch is cut |
off the stem is cut down and other plants
sprout up from the roots There is no |
such thing as planting the banana from |
the seed If bananas ever had seeds .,ney |
hava long since disappeared from the lack |
Of use, All the plants now grow from |
suckers or sprouts. and they come up so
readily that an estate will yield a con
tinnous harvest from year to year with
out replanting On some spots banana |
trees have reproduced their kind for fifty |
years. without replantng, and at the end |
the yield was quite as great as at first
Cutting the Fruit.
Now, let US stop and watch them cut |
ting fruit This requires skill The |
bananas must not fall on the ground. i
as the slightest bruise will make them
unfit for shipping. The cutting Is done |
by negroes, who are skilled in the bust
ness. They use long lances with sharp |
steel blades, and cut half way through |
the stem at one stroke. This makes the |
bunch fall and the cutter catches 1t as
It gently drops down. He now cuts off /
the rest of the stem and the bunch is |
handed to the men who carry it off to |
the cars
suppose 1t makes your mouth water
to think of eating banana fresh from
the tree. Such banana would surely |
cause collie. The fruit ripens best by be-
Ing cut green, and on ali these thousand
acres cannot see single yellow banana.
1t Is only at the ports that l have been |
able to get fruit to eat, The green
bananas will keep two or three weeks |
after cutting. and if cut at just the right |
time they taste better by being allowed |
to ripen on the way to the markets. 4
Six Thousand workmen.
Many people think that there is but lit.
tie labor in raising bananas. There was
never greater mistake. When the |
United Fruit company took up these |
thousands of acres they were covered |
with jungle as dense as that on the |
slopes Of the Himalaya mountains The |
ground was covered with mighty trees, I
trees were bound together with vines and |
Iianas, which were matted together and |
formed o network of woven vegetation. |
There were palms of score Of varieties |
and the mass of green was so dense thai !
you could only cut your way through |
with knife and an ak. All Of this jungle !
had to be cut down and turned over. The
big trees, some of which were as large
around as a flour barrel, and some had |
even the diamter of a hogshead, We're
left to rot where they fell
After the land was cleared and burned |
over, the plants had to be set out at 200 |
hills to the acre. They had to be kept
clean Of weeds, and this notwithstanding |
that nature here is so generous that IL |
the land is left free for six months 1t !
will be all jungle again.
And then some Of the lands were
swampy and they had to be ditched The
rainfall here is ten inches month. or