The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-09-10

they have had to send fruit to Europe
at a loss, but the business is beginning
to pay, and it will eventually be OF
great value.
In the panama Plantations.
But let us go down and take a ride
through this vast banana plantation.
We have special cars and can stop
where we please. We pass for miles
through nothing but bananas. The
trees sprout ron h ground and
rise to the height of a two-story
house. Each is composed Of 1broad
ribbonlike leaves eight on nine inches
wide. The leaves sprout from the
8 of tho plant, around which they
form a short trunk and then &c out In
a 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 it is. The leaves are SO
thick and 80 many that they keep
out the sun. On every side OF us the
view is the same. There are stalks
and trunks of bananas as far as we
car see, and we wonder what we
should do it we should get lost and
whether we should not go round and
known to act when lost in the wilder
ness.
How the Trees Look.
Now taxi a close look at the plants.
This is near Bocas del Toro, and the
banana grows nowhere luKur-
iantly thai here. The trees at the base
are as big around as the thigh OF
President Taft and the topmost leaves
are twenty Or thirty feet from the
size, and the punches or stems are
hiOpQr than those of other narfo Of
the world. Each stem is known as
a hand, the individual bananas
are called fingers. In many places
a bunch Of eight or mir hands is a
fairly good yield, but here the average
is eleven or twelve, and some OF the
punches have as many as seventeen
hands, each containg ten or twelve
fingers as the bananas are called.
The punches n all the way
from ESQ to 500 bananas, and this
mea the yield of one plant. The
banana plant fields 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. II bana-
las ever had seeds they have lOne
since disappeared from the lack Of
use. All the plants now grow from
suckers or sprouts, and they come up
SO readily hat an estate will yield a
continuous harvest from year to year
without replanting. On some spots
banana trees have produced their
kind for fifty years, without replant-
ing, and at the end the yield was
quite as great as at first.
Cutting the Fruit.
Now, let us stop and ~watchAthem
cutting fruit. This requires skin
1 fElo n h1n~vo~~ ~,n% Mt <DH 80 49,
ground, as the slightest bruir> VII
make them unfit for shipping Tfx
cutting is cone by negroes, who sre
skilled in the business. They USE
long lances with sharp steel blades
and cut half way through the stem
at one stroke. This makes th<
bunch fall, and the cutter catches i
as it gently drops down. He now cut:
off the rest Of the stem, and the bunch
is handed to the men who carry it of
to the cars.
4 I suppose it makes your mouti
water to think Of eating a banan
) fresh from the tree. Such a banan,
would surely aus collie. The frui
ripens best by being cut green, and Oh
, all these thousand acres I cannot Sc
7 a single yellow banan 1t is onl.
l at the ports hat I have been able t.
8 get fruit to eat The green banana
4 will keep two OF three weeks afte
! cutting, and if cut at just the RICH
l time they taste better by being allow
, ed to ripen on the way to the markets
l Six Thousand Workmen.
. : Many people think that there is blu
! little labor in raising bananas. Their
was never a greater mistake. Whe
= the United Fruit Company ooh u
: these thousands Of acres, they wer
q covered with a jungle as dense a
, that on the slopes Of the Himalay
. mountains. The ground was cover
= ed with mighty trees, some Of whic
were $50 feet high. These tree
q were bound together with vines an
= lianas. which were matter together an
formed a network Of wove vegeta
ton. There palms Of q scor
Of varieties, and the mass Of gree
q was so dense that you could only CT
\ your way through with a knife an
an ak. All Of this jungle had to b
"a cut down and turned over. The bi
trees, some of which were as larg