The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1914-03-29
The "SHp" In Banana Peels Would
Launch All the Worlds Ships

WASHINGTON. u. C. March IL.
Everybody that eats at all eats oa-
nauas--that is almost everybody.
From the rare luxury and tropical Gu
iosiiy OF forty years ago the banana
has become almost as common ana
wnll known as the apple, and. taken
The year found considerably less
xpensivo From the crowded mar
kets of New York 10 the CROSSROADS
ntry store Of Arkansas the yellow
busch iS as familiar as Is the homely
barrel Of potatoes. and the enormous
quantity OF this nouriShirg fruit con-
sunea by the people a the United
states is astounding.
.If you did not eat forty bananas
: last year. you did not have your
share" writes Franklin Adams. edit
or Of the Monthly Bulletin Of ihe
: Pan American Union. over 4G,-
ane. 060 lunches Of bananas, or more
than 3.50o.0G0, Gee bananas, were I'M
ported by the United states IN 1913,
Tho lrurrersity ~ these shipments
car be moro readily Erasped by the
statement that they would cover an
area over twenty feet wide reaching
( from New YORK 20 san Francisco. or,
placed end 10 end. would extend more
than thirteen times around the earth
reefa would launch the ships o. the
world. TRIO wholesale value % tho
yaf3 G7npo~ta ltiGn. ~ poaSt nj ex-
tNn~f. was over sI5.3e3. coo, while IN all
probability tho consuming public OF
Inn United Sta-Gs expended over
s4a 0oe. o60 for this Aelectable fruit. "
with the increased cost Of living.
s,u4rg to tho proporu0uate'y deereas-
=. II food supply. the banana comes for
: - IN "a
worlds economy While It's use as a
fcBt3 s limited in this country almost
entirely 10 its consumption IN a raw
state in localities whore It grows Il
IL frequently fried or baked and is
alsa used for making dour. delicious
s.u0feeUors. etc. Placed n q closed
barrel and allowed 20 ferment ba-
fIasfas produce an excellent vinegar,
white from tho ripe fruit delightful
cordial is obtained. Dried ripe ha-
nauas are sad 10 be superior to figs.
weigh only about ono ninth as much
as tho lunches and may occupy cor
rwspondlugly less spsace In shipment.
In other words, the banana has many
Kinds Of food values MS yet but IT.
lie known in the country which con-
sumes the most
an Ancient Industry.
Banana culture is really one Of the
eldest Of industries. 1t seems to have
been known almost since the origin
ct the human race. Long before the
dawn Of history in the old world, per-
Asps before the old world rose from
the waters. man lived on the fruit oF
the nusas. The banana Was gener-
ally considered native Of Southern
Aeia. and to have been carried into
America by Europeans. until Hum
hnidt threw doubt upon It's purely Ash
attic origin, quoting early authors whe
asserted that the banana was cult
waited in the Americas long before the
conquest 1t is claimed that bananas
formed one of the staple foods of the
Incas. Of Peru, who lived IN the warm
and temperate regions Of the Mon
ssfia II seems that almost al tropi-
zeal countries claim the fruit as in
dige nous.
On the American continents bana-
mas are successfully er6w through fl
AS degrees OF latitude. from Tampieu,
Mexico. twenty-five degrees north, 70
Asnncion, Paraguay, twenty-five de-
grees south Cultivation Of the fruit
II practically restricted TO the eastern