254 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[September i, 1884. 



nor whoso introduction has been attended with more 

 difficulties than has the banana. Millions of dollars have 

 been expended in developing the trade and placing the 

 fruit before the public; lives have been lost in defending 

 its interests, and the armies of Central America have been 

 called out to quell riots caused by collisions of rival com- 

 panies in their endeavors to obtain a foothold, or share, 

 of the banana trade of Central America. There a mono- 

 poly had obtained a Strom; hold, preventing by every means 

 in their power rival companies from securing any fruit 

 from what they looked upon as their territory (Aspinwall.) 

 Before speaking of some of the above difficulties, it may 

 be well to speak of the early introduction of bananas into 

 our .Northern markets. 



As stated in a former paper the first bananas, about 

 thirty bunches, were brought to New York in 1804 by 

 Captain John N. Chester, of the schooner "Keynard." On 

 the voyage to this country the Captain fell hi with three 

 French frigates in company on one of which was the late 

 Jerome Bonaparte, then on his way to Baltimore to marry 

 Miss Faterson. On learning the object of his visit to this 

 country the Captain presented the distinguished visitor 

 with a bunch of bananas, some pineapples and plantains, 

 which were thankfully received. The balance of the ban- 

 anas, on their arrival in New York were purchased by a 

 fruit dealer in the old "Fly Market," at the foot of 

 Maiden lane. This tropical production meeting with public 

 favor other small shipments wee made until 1830, when 

 the demand became so great that Mr. John Pearsall, an 

 enterprizing fruit merchant, seeiug its increasing popular- 

 ity, chartered a schooner to transport the first full cargo 

 of red bananas ever brought to New York from Baracoa. 

 It consisted of 1,500 bunches and required a number of 

 days to dispose of what at that early day seemed an im- 

 mense quantity. 



Some of the giant strides made in the banana trade 

 since that date may be appreciated, win u 1 tell you that 

 Mr. Theodore 1'earsall a member of the firm of Com ■/. 

 k Pearsall, and a nephew of the famous pioneer spoken 

 of above, has sold during the last three months betw ten 

 one and two hundred thousand bunches of red ban 

 from Baracoa. 



List year the importation of red .bananas from Bara- 

 coa, consisted of 11 steamers and 131 sailing ves 

 bringing nearly half a million of bunches, while this 

 season from March Is to present time, -May 26th, L! 

 three hundred thousand buuehes of red bananas have left 

 that port. Until quite recently sailing vessels have been 

 exclusively used to transport bananas from Ba-acoa, it 

 requiring under favorable circumstances, about L0 days 

 run a vessel from there to this port ; but owing ti I 

 uncertainty of the winds and the waves it ef ten occurred 

 that 12, it and sometimes 20 days were required, which 

 resulted in an almost tota ; loss of the fruit, or at 1 

 a dead ripe cargo, which had to be sold at a great 

 sacrifice, to liceused vendors, street stands and chea 

 trade of tla- city, as none so ripe could be used for ship- 

 ping out of town. The importers seeing the need of more 

 rapid means of transportation for fch ■ banana than tin- tin- 

 certain sidling vessel chai tered a number of steamships, au 1 

 finding they could reach New York from Baracoa in from 

 four to five days it enabled them lo ship fruit of a 

 quality without fear or rotting on the voyage, thus es- 

 tablishing the fact that the steamship is the onlyreliable 

 mode of transportation for the banana, and the day 

 is not far distant when the sailing vessel as a banana 

 carrier will be a thing of the past, and steamships alo UH 

 will be used for that purpose. Not satisfied alone with 

 this advanced step in the transportation of the banana 

 on the water, attention was turned towards improvingthe 

 mode of carrying them from the i to the sea 



shore, whore they were to be loaded in the vessel or 

 steamer. Until quite recently it was the custom of the 

 native darkey to carry the bunch of banana on his 

 h ad or strap upon the back and sides of a d 

 or cow if they w< . i to own one. It is a 



common sight in the tropics to 



more darkies coming a distance of several miles e 

 with a bunch of bananas balanced upon their bonds, the 

 good wife having to carry fir- largest bunch, and each of 

 the children the next largest bunches, the lazy husband 

 selecting the smallest bunch for himself, and I am fold " 



it is a good husband who will carry one at all. One of 

 these small darkey children, I am told, will carry a bunch 

 upon his head for miles, that would make us stagger to put 

 upon our shoulders. Larger growers of bauanas, and these who 

 make it. strictly a business, transport most of their bananas 

 upon the backs and sides of mules, of which they own large 

 droves. So well drilled are these animals that when loaded 

 they will start off following the " beli " mule, as the most 

 faithful one was called, having a strap about her neck 

 with a cow bell attached. So they wind their way down 

 the mountain side to the sea-shore. The mule, as most 

 of you doubtless have learned, is not altogether a reli- 

 able beast, and taking the idea into his head that he is 

 tired, will avail himself of the first opportunity to lie 

 down in the road, much of the discomfort of the driver 

 aud detriment of the fruit, which is either crushed or 

 covered with mud and dirt, causing black and unsightly 

 streaks upon it which very much lessen its market value. 

 A somewhat better idea of a banana caravan may be 

 formed by relating a description of one, as giveu me 

 by Mr. John Marsh, an enterprizing fruit merchant of this 

 city, ami a gentleman of keen observation and wide ex- 

 perience in foreign travel. He says:—" In my recent visit 

 to Baracoa, having taken about a four-mile climb, up the 

 mountain side, my guide said, ' let us now take our 

 luuch,' and following him into a coconut walk, protected 

 from the rays of a tropical sun, we seated ourselves for 

 our repast, when my guide suddenly said : ■ Hark ! there 

 is the banana train.' We could just hear the tinkle 

 of the mule bell, and looking up the side of the 

 mountain, we saw, on the path 200 feet above, the 

 approaching mules and ponies-laden with the red bananas 

 eight buuehes to each beast, three bunches on each 

 side aud two on the top, • all strapped on with 

 a grass girth. Let us count ; sixty mules, ponies, 

 and cows, with eight bunches each, 480 bunches in ail 

 with but one driver to the train. Slowly they jog along, 

 about four miles an hour, down the mountain sides 

 until they reach the sea coast. Some of the trains 

 come twenty miles with their fruits, and yoa may look 

 with surprise when I tell you that one pony can take 

 back, with ease, the proceeds of the whole train in tho 

 hampers on his back, as in most cases the fruit is 

 paid for in supplies of provisions at the store of the 

 agent. I have seen cargo after cargo loaded, and not 

 a dollar in money exchange bands. What would a Long 

 Island farmer say if he had to unload at our market* 

 on the same terms? The rapidly increasing demand 

 for bananas from Baracoa required a more modern 

 means of conveying the fruit from the plantation (o 

 son coast. With Spanish capital and American ingenuity, 

 au inclined plane or trestle railroad was designed last 

 year in New York, where it was made in sections and 

 sent to Baracoa, and put up at a town called Yumeha, 

 about thirty-five miles east of Baracoa, that being the 

 largest banana growing district, but Baracoa being the 

 nearest available harbour for vessels. The fruit is brought 

 to it by small boats and lighters by the aid of steam tug. 

 I* takes the fruit from about sixteen acres of good, fertile 

 land to load one steamer with 10,000 bunches. A schooner 

 from one to two thousand buuehes is chartered 

 for the round trip for about $1,000. allowing 15 clays to 

 load and unload. It requires about six men to run a 

 banana schooner — a captain, mate, three seamen and a 

 cook. Yum era is reached from Baracoa by a shallow 

 stream, through which boats of only light draught can gro 

 Along tic co st from Baracoa to Yumera is a range 

 of rocky hills or bluffs, (resembling our Palisades on the 

 Hudson) down which winding roads to the shore, have 

 been -cut, and these roads are used for banana transport- 

 ation, as well as other travel from tho villages above. 

 The introduction of the inclined railroad from the foot of 

 the bluff to the summit, a distance of several thousand 

 feet, has shortened the route so greatly that much labor 

 and time is sued, and too fruit is also hotter protected. 

 The cars carry down the incline ahont'twenty-five bunches 

 of bananas at a cost of U n cents per bunch. The incline 

 being a double track railway, one car goes down loaded 

 with fruit while the other is going up with freight or 

 passengers to the village of Sabana, So popular and success- 

 ful an enterprise did this elevator prove last yearthat it 

 paid a handsome dividend of over 40 per cent, on the 



