Aug. 2, i886,J 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



79 



periment. Next morning found a reporter going 

 over the side of the " Noni^areil " as she lay along- 

 side the wharf in the West India Docks at Black- 

 wall. The steamer was discharging a cargo of 

 sugar — the finest Demerara crystals ; but it was 

 not sugar that he had gone out into the wilder- 

 ness of ships and merchandize for to see. In the 

 captain's snug cabin, however, was Mr. Scrutton 

 ready for an interview. 



" Yes," he said, spreading out a large chart of 

 the West Indies on the captain's locker, " I think 

 this ought to turn out a very good thing for the 

 colony, and a very good thing for ourselves. At 

 any rate, our first experiment promises well, and 

 I see no reason why we shouldn't educate English 

 people up to a taste for bananas such as the 

 Americans have. It 'is quite true, as you say, 

 that they don't care much about them now, but 

 that isn 't their fault. They have n't had the 

 chance of tasting real bananas yet." 



" I suppose, Mr. Scrutton, thej banana, like the 

 tomato, is an acquired taste?" "Yes, that is 

 exactly the case. Our people here have never had 

 tliem long enough to get used to them. They are 

 too poor in quality and too dear. Give them 

 bananas both good and cheap and they will buy 

 again, and will soon get to like them very much. 

 Hitherto the bananas bought in England have been 

 picked very green ; they partly ripen on tiie voyage 

 hitherto, but the ripening process is finished off in 

 Covent-garden, where they arc warmed up artificially 

 in ihc merchants' own rooms. All this spoils the 

 real flavour of the fruit ; and what wonder, then, 

 that the banana is not thought much of ? Now the 

 West Indian banana trade with America is assuming 

 very large proportions. Some fifteen or twenty 

 steamers are constantly running to the States with 

 the fruit, and as the passage can be accomplished 

 in six or seven days there is no need for artificial 

 machinery. With us it is different because, with a 

 passage of seventeen or eighteen days, tiie fruit, 

 if picked when anywhere near perfection, would 

 ripen too fast, and be useless when it arrived. The 

 problem therefore was to devise some means of stor- 

 ing tlie fruit in a cool chamber, where all dampness 

 in the atmosphere should be extracted, and where the 

 ripening of the fruits should be retarded just so much 

 as would leave it in perfect condition on arrival in 

 the market. Our ships running to Demerara touch 

 at Madeira on the way out, and our idea is to 

 work a trade in vegetables — all the common greens 

 which will not grow in the tropics — from that 

 island to the West Indies, and then work the 

 West Indian fruits homeward. We shall import 

 the banana chiefly, and endeavour to popularize it, 

 so to speak, but we hope to introduce many more 

 of the fruits which flourish in the West Indies, 

 but which are absolutely unknown to the untra- 

 velled Englishman. We have not brought home 

 any large cargo of these other fruits this time ; 

 only ' sampled ' them, as the Yankees say ; but 

 you shall aee and taste them presently when we 

 go beloWi 



" There is no difficulty in getting large quanti- 

 ties of bananas. It is simply a (juestion of demand, 

 not of supply. Whereas, as in Madeira, the banana 

 is but a season trade, in Demerara, oi ' the land 

 of mud,' as they call it, the fruit grows in profu- 

 sion alongside of the sugar in the rich black mud 

 on the coast and river banks. So if the English 

 people want then they can have them all the year 

 round, now that the problem of bringing them 

 over is solved. The idea of working this trade 

 originated, I ought to say, with our good Captain 

 Boniface who has worked the experiment uncom- 

 monly well ; but here comes the captain himself." 



With this the captain walked in and joined in 

 the conversation. A right good hearty fellow 

 he was, a typical sea dog, with seventeen stone 

 of geniality and salt yarns in equal propor- 

 tion. Captain Boniface soon informed us that 

 his good ship, the " Nonpareil" named, sailed out 

 of this port about two months ago, and anchored 

 at Maderia on the 8th of April. There the cool 

 chambers were loaded with vegetables, cabbages, 

 French beans, peas, artichokes, asparagus, carrots, 

 turnips, celery, spinach, everything in the com- 

 mon green stuff way that you can mention, and 

 all which fetch good prices in Demerara. Only 

 those x^eople who have lived for long in the tropics 

 know what it is to hunger for a good fresh 

 cabbage or any other green food. About ten days 

 were spent in Demerara, and while the sugar was 

 being taken on board our friend the captain was being 

 towed up the creeks in a canoe by donkeys, his object 

 being to explore the native plantations further inland. 

 Here he selected a modest cargo of 400 banana 

 bunches for his experiment, as nearly ripe as he 

 thought prudent, and having selected the samples 

 of other fruits, soiled away on April .SOth, arriving 

 in dock on Saturday last (May 2!Hh). 



" Now come below," said Mr. Scrutton, and, 

 together with the jovial captain, we descended the 

 hatchway into the fruit chamber. It was delight- 

 fully cool, the thermometer standing at 41 degrees. 

 All round the chamber were racks, very much like 

 an apple room in a country fai'mhouse, the greater 

 part of the space being occupied by the bananas. 

 A bunch of bananas in the green state in which they 

 used to arrive was placed on the floor by the side of 

 one of the bunches, all yellow and mellow, as they are 

 to be imported for the future, and there could be no 

 mistake about the improvement. In the adjoining 

 chamber the special freezing macliine fitted up 

 by Mr. Haslam, of Derby, was at work, and here 

 it should be stated how the temperature is managed. 

 To put the fruit in a chamber of frozen air would 

 quite spoil it, so the refrigerating machine is com- 

 bined with a " blower," which simply drives a 

 quantity of the outside atmosphere into a mixing 

 chamber , tempering the frozen air to the requisite 

 degree of coolness ; then it is driven through air- 

 holes into the fruit chamber. But inasmuch as 

 the fruit must necessarily throw off a certain amount 

 of moisture the air which is pumped in at one 

 side is constantly being sucked out and re-dried 

 at the other end, and so a continuity of coolness 

 and dryness is preserved, and the ripening of the 

 fruit is retarded. The captain watched the tem- 

 perature very keenly every day, and regulated it 

 according to the ripening of the fruit, and as 

 this is the first experiment it is probable that the 

 next supply will be if possible, in a still more 

 perfect condition. Of the other fruits which Mr, 

 Scrutton produced from the racks in this chamber 

 there were several which may before long be welt 

 known in our markets, since they were all beauti- 

 fully fresh and full-flavoured. There were the sapo- 

 dilla, which looks like either a potato or a russet 

 apple, and which tastes very much like A 

 pear ; the bcl-apple, a nice-lookiug yellow pod 

 very much like the seed of the passioi! 

 Howei , only larger, the pulpy seeds cf 

 which are llio sweet part that is eaten ; and a 

 smaller fruit about the size of large plums, called 

 the loquat. This fruit is very juicy and refresh- 

 ing, and if imported in any quantity will certainly 

 be in great demand. Then there were limes and 

 pines, tV:c., while some strawberries were turned 

 out fresh and cool from IVIadeira. Specimens of 

 tlie vegetables which are taken from Madeira to the 

 West Indies were there too, splendid cabbages of enor- 

 mous weight, and tomatoes and other things. All ^ver^ 



