8 5 6 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



[May i, 1885. 



cabook, if only the fork, the pick or the hammer 

 of the cultivator lays it open to disintegrating and 

 decomposing influences. And as the hard lavas of 

 Etna and Vesuvius, when broken up and comminuted, 

 form the richest soil on the face of our globe, so, 

 in degree, will broken-up cabook yield excellent soil. 

 Of the power of the taproot of the tea plant to 

 force itself through all opposing obstacles, Mr. Byrde 

 saw a striking illustration. A plant growiug on a 

 spocially hard piece of cabook pushed down its tap- 

 root until at length the coutinued existence of the 

 substance in its rocky condition proved too much 

 even for this most penetrating of roots, an.l the plant 

 died. Mr. Byrde cut out the block through which 

 the root had penetrated so far, and sent it to Colombo 

 to show what the tea plant can accomplish in the 

 way of forcing itself through hard substances. The 

 block ought to be placed in the Colombo Museum. 

 [To be continued.) 



THE WEST 



AND PANAMA. 



INDIES 



NO. 7. 



TUE FRUIT TKADE OF FORT ANTONIO — JAMAICA- 

 CULTIVATION — ORANGES- 

 APPLES AND 

 STEAMERS 



-BANANA 

 -MANGOES— C O C O N U T S — P1NB- 

 LIMES, 8[C. — LOADING FRUIT IN THE MAIL- 

 Bi' NIOHT — DEPRESSION IN THE FRUIT TRADE 

 — THE RISE AND FA I.I, IN THE PRICE OF BANANAS— EX- 

 TENDED CULTIVATION OF BANANAS — SUGAR FIELDS CON- 

 VERTED INTO BANANA FARMS. 



Messrs. L>. D. Baker & Co. of Port Antonio, an enter- 

 prizing American firm, backed up by large fruit-dealers 

 iu New York, Boston and Philadelphia, run a fleet of small 

 craft to buy up fruit for their depot at Port Antonio, 

 ready for shipping direct to the American market. There 

 were mauy obstacles put in the way of Captain Baker 

 when eight years ago he started in the fruit trade. The 

 Kingston people objected to the New York maii-steamers 

 or Atlas boats calling at Port Antonio and thereby delay- 

 ing the mails. The Government, acting on the advice of 

 the people of Kingston, thereupon stopped the steamers 

 calling at Port Antonio (a port sixty miles from 

 Kingston on the east coast of Jamaica). Captain Baker, 

 nothing daunted, sailed his fleet of fruit-boats, 

 schooner and cutter rigged, round to Kingston and 

 claimed his space, the Government allowing him two hours 

 to load up. The result was, by paying well by the hour, the 

 11,11110 liunchos of bananas were shipped in time and 

 reached the American market in good order. It has since 

 heeu arranged to load the Atlas steamers at night at Port 

 Antonio,. and hence the heavy work of getting the vessels 

 off within the prescribed time. 



On one occasion an Atlas steamer came into Tort An- 

 tonio for bananas, but had used a portion of Captain 

 Baker's space. He insisted on having his space 

 already paid for, and continued to pile his bananas 

 on the deck of the steamer in spite of the pro- 

 tests of the captain against overloading Ms ship. After a 

 time the captain lost his patience, and ordered the bunches 

 of bananas to be thrown overboard. "All right," said Captain 

 Baker, " I '11 have my space. Throw them overboard and 

 let the Company pay their value ; their money is as good 

 as auy other person's money," and into the sea they went 

 over the starboard-side, as they came in on the port-side 

 by thousands. I was informed that the late Governor of 

 Jamaica, Sir Anthony Musgrave, was on board the Atlas 

 boat, at the time of this banana dispute. 



As the trade increased, Captain Baker, assisted by some 

 of his relations, started the cultivation of bananas on an old 

 sugar estate called " Bog " (formerly the property of the 

 ill-fated Gordon executed for treason when martial law 

 was proclaimed by Governor Eyre in 1867). Here the cane 

 fields were cross-ploughed and harrowed, trenched up, and 

 bananas planted, which have turned out a great success. 

 The name of " Bog " has been exchanged for " Bound 

 Brook," and, to insure a supply of labour to work the farm 

 1 \ day and load the steamers by night, when necessary, 

 Captain Baker has built a number of cottages : about 

 twenty-five completed, all timber, with shingle roof, painted 

 with a mixture of red ochre, kerosinc and oil ; the walls 



are whitewashed inside and out, and locks aud keys on th e 

 doors; rooms 12 by 12 aud two rooms to each cottage, le' 

 to the tenants for Gs per month. Now, considering they 

 cost from £25 to £30 to build, the six shillings .per room 

 is a very moderate rent. 



Atlas town is near the seaside, so that fresh fish can 

 be supplied at 6d per lb. daily. The banana trade is making 

 all this change iu the appearance of an abandoned district. 

 The old ruins of mills and " great houses " are being taken 

 down and the stone material utilized for new building found- 

 ations an.l abutments for bridges crossing heavy streams. 

 Instead of a wilderness scarcely populated, may be seen 

 strings of ponies and mules, loaded with from G to 10 buuehes 

 of bananas, men and womeh carrying a load on their heads 

 and backs, all wending their way to the great depot at Port 

 Antonio. 



There are other firms engaged in the fruit trade as old 

 established as L. D. Baker & Co., but I wished to give 

 Captain Baker credit for being one of the most enter- 

 priziug. Competition keeps the prices as high in Jamaica 

 as can show the smallest margiu of profit. Anything over 

 eight hand buuehes fetch the highest price, even up to one 

 dollar a bunch in the season ; if under six hands, they are 

 condemned to the " Hog Pen " or rejected at the wharf if 

 sent iu for sale by small farmers. The fruit gets very much 

 bruised on board ship : hence when sending very large 

 bunches as a sample of 100 or 200, boxes would be made 

 suitable for them. The same way with oranges aud man- 

 goes: the former carefully wrapped up in paper aud some 

 ventilation left in the lid of the box; mangoes are packed 

 likewise. Both are packed green to ripen on the passage. 

 Coconuts are brought in for sale with the husk on and 

 sometimes with the husk removed. 



There are extensive wharves at Port Antonio, and half- 

 a-dozen steamers iu the harbour at one time is a common 

 occurrence. 



Messrs. Moody & Co. do a brisk trade with Philadelphia 

 and send their fruit-boats round the coast of Jamaica to 

 collect fruit. Both Baker and Moody buy largely from Port 

 Maria, Annatto Bay, Hope Bay, Buff Bay, St. Margaret's 

 Bay, aud below Port Antonio from St. Thomas in the 

 East and Morant Bay. The banana trade is more extensive 

 than I imagined it to be, and, it anyone in Ceylon had told 

 me I should live to grow bananas for a living instead of 

 coffee, 1 should have " smole a smile " of incredulity. AVe 

 had often heard of the fruit trade of Jamaica with New 

 York but had no idea of the extent of the trade. 

 More than a million bunches Lf bananas, worth £100,000 

 were dispatched to America daring the past year, and 

 some, forty thousand pounds worth, about thirty-four mil- 

 lions of oranges with mangoes, for which there is at pre- 

 sent not much demand. 



In the height of tho season, April, May and June, about 

 half the million buuehes would be shipped, for to my kuow- 

 eldge Baker & Co. put forty thousand bunches onboard iu one 

 week ! The trade must be profitable, though attended by- 

 great risks of damage to fruit in transit and sudden fall in 

 prices. I remember seeing barrows of bananas ticketed 

 five cents for two in New York ; at that rate an eight-hand 

 bunch would retail for about $5 or £1. One dollar is 

 paid here, but at present the price is down to one shilling 

 and sixpence, and the trade is rather slack. 



A new steamer has been built called the "L. D. Baker," 

 and another called the "Jessie Freeman"; these new 

 clipper schooners can economize coal when they get fair 

 winds, and they make a voyage iu about twenty days to 

 and from Jamaica and American ports. It must be up- 

 hill work in the slack season to load up all the fruit 

 fleet. Atlas Town consisted of nothing but mangrove 

 swamp, and is now drained and built on : 20 or 30 

 cottages, including the barracks, and a general provision 

 store (where no rum is allowed). Messrs. L. D. Baker 

 & Co. are all Good Templars to a man, I believe, and 

 Captain Baker would not allow a drunken man to 

 work at his wharf. Yet, in spite of all precaution, 

 the coolies and Creoles would contrive to get a skillfull 

 of old Jamaica by hook or by crook and run with a 

 bunch of bananas on their heads and a bunch under each 

 arm to show off their strength to the women who en- 

 couraged them with a cheer so and again. The peoplo 

 employed at the wharf are a happy-go-lucky lot of people, 

 always singing aud making fun of some sort. 



