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THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



April 9, 1W4. 



means, tlie fruit arrives at its destination in excellent 

 order. The object is to supply the demand tor a special 

 fruit for which an enhanced price is willing to be paid. 



At a conference of banana growers held at the 

 Planter's Hall, Bridgetown, on March 31, the Imperial 

 Commissioner of Agriculture stated that a .sample 

 crate of Barbados bananas shipped for exhibition to 

 the Agricultural Show at Montserrat was afterwards 

 re-shipped to Antigua. At the end of t\vent3-three 

 days the Hon. Francis Watts, who had retained the 

 crate in the Government Laboratory, reported that 

 the fruit had ripened of a delicate yellow colour with 

 an excellent flavour. 



There is no reason why planters in Barbados, who 

 possess suitable soil for growing bananas and who 

 carefully comply with the conditions necessary for 

 .shipping them in first-class order, should not establish 

 a thoroughly successful fruit trade with the United 

 Kingdom. With the exception of Trinidad, Barbados 

 is 1,000 miles nearer England than any banana- 

 growing country in the Western Hemisphere and is 

 therefore more favourably situated than other parts of 

 the West Indies for supplying the British market. 



The advantage of the crate system is that cold 

 storage is not required. All that is necessary is to 

 provide adefjuate \entilation, at the ordinaiy tempera- 

 ture, by means of fans ; and to ensure that requisite 

 precautions are taken on arrival in England to pi event 

 the fruit from being chilled in exceptionally cold weather. 



At the Banana Conference above referred to, 

 attention was drawn to the exceptional position 

 occupied by Barbados in regard to a trade in bananas 

 with the United Kingdom. If this were realized, as it 

 is hoped it would be, within the next year or two 

 banana planting would become more general and a re- 

 munerative industry would be established. 



Already Barbados bananas had acquired a reputa- 

 tion in England. Thej' were preferred I'ven to the 

 Canary bananas. There was likely to be no competition 

 in crated fruit from any other locality in this part of 

 the world : while the areas capable of growing bananas 

 in the Canary Islands and Madeira were alieaily fully 

 utilized. 



The advice given to those about to start banana 

 planting was to select the best .soil in sheltered 

 situations and manure highly so as to produce large 

 bunches. Usually it was not profitable to ship bunches 

 with less than nine hands ; and for every haml above 

 nine a much higher price was given. 



Full details as to cultivation, the selection of 

 suckers, the distance apart, at which they were to be 

 planted, the exact stage at which the fruit should be 

 gathered and other matters were to be obtained in a 

 valuable paper contributed by the Hon. William 

 Fawcott, F.L.S., to the Agricultural Conference of 1902 

 {Wt'.'it Indian Bulletin, Vol. Ill, p. 153). Later informa- 

 tion, relative to the same subjects, was contained in a 

 report on a visit to Jamaica by Mr. W. E. Smith, 

 recently published in the Proceedings of the Agri- 

 cultural Society of Trinidad. 



The cost of cultivation of bananas was |rfaced at 

 £10 per acre per annum. The gross receipts at £20 

 per acre. The net profit would thus be £10 per acre. 

 This was recognized as an average return in Jamaica, 

 but was exceeded in the Canary Islands. A neti'eturn 

 of £10 per acre, it may be observed, was larger than 

 ibr any other crop grown on a large scale in the West 

 Indies. 



In the matter of packing for export, the crate 

 system was exactly suited to the circumstances of 

 Barbados. This was the last jjort of call for the Royal 

 ilail Steamers and the company had undertaken to 

 provide accommodation for all the fruit likely to be 

 grown in the island. 



The cost of packing a bunch of bananas in a crate 

 (with cotton wool, paper and dr}' trash) was from L«. 4(?. 

 to l.s. 6(7. each. The freight charged was from Lv. 6(/. 

 to 2.S'. 6(/., depending on the size. The best time for 

 shipping bananas to England was during the months 

 of March, April, May and June. It would be an 

 advantage, therefore, to arrange the planting so as to 

 obtain the largest yield of fruit during those months. 



In conclusion, the conviction was expressed that 

 if great care were taken to grow large bunches and 

 the crate system were fully carried out, the banana 

 industry of Barbados was likely to prove thoroughly 

 remunerative. 



Preservation of Meat. Meat is often ineseived 

 liy .salting or iiiekling and it i.s often thouglit that these 

 proL-es.se.s destroy any bacteria that may lla^■e been present in 

 the meat. This is, however, not the ease ; the salting merely 

 prevents the germs from reproducing. For example, F. Peuch 

 found that a liam made from an animal whijh Iiad died of 

 antlirax, still contained virulent anthrax bai-illi after lying 

 in salt water for fourteen days. Petri, again, showed that 

 tlesli from •■iwine affected with swine erysipelas, still contained 

 virulent erysipelas bacilli after six months' immersion in brine. 

 It is therefore obvious that the greatest care should lie taken 

 not to pickle or salt any but perfectly sound meat. 



