Santos 87 



planting. The coffee-growers of Brazil are resorting 

 to the same tactics which have been used by agricultur- 

 ists in other lands, which produce different crops. The 

 consumer is being made to pay tribute. Soil and sun 

 are ready to do their work, but the human agent is 

 bent on keeping up prices, or forcing them to higher 

 levels. 



While thousands of sacks of coffee were being put 

 into the hold, the forward decks were being piled high 

 with thousands upon thousands of bunches of bananas. 

 They were brought alongside in lighters, and then taken 

 on board in slings lowered from the derrick-booms. 

 The bananas were of the common variety, which is 

 now known everywhere. But there are a great many 

 varieties of the Musa sapientium, as there are of other 

 cultivated fruits. There is a little banana not bigger 

 than the thumb of a man, which grows in bunches not 

 more than a foot in length, and which is called dominico 

 by the Spanish-speaking people of South America. 

 This variety is far superior in delicacy of flavor to the 

 larger kinds, and is well adapted to be a dessert-fruit. 

 I wonder why we do not find it in our northern markets. 

 The fruit of the plantain, which by some botanists is 

 regarded as a mere variety of Musa sapientium, by 

 others as a distinct species, Musa paradisiaca, is general- 

 ally cooked when green. Plantains are larger than 

 bananas, coarser in flesh, and with less flavor. They 

 are sliced like potatoes and then fried until thoroughly, 

 brown and crisp. Thus prepared they not only look 

 like fried potatoes, but taste not unlike them. The 

 banana and the plantain were most probably introduced 

 into South America from the far East. They do not 

 appear to grow wild in the American tropics. The 

 clearings on the hillsides and in the valleys about Santos 



