17 



to five and six hundred ; and hundreds of small settlers scattered far 

 and wide with holdings of less than 20 acres. Durinu the past five 

 vcars the shipment of fruit from Jamaica has just aboul doubled itself. 

 Last year the total number of bananas grown and exported was in the 

 neighbourhood of eight million bunches. 



•• 4. The largest areas of cultivation lie in the valleys and slopes 

 along the sea-board, but there are also plenty of Estates in the hilly 

 districts, and in the 74 miles railway journey from Kingston to Port 

 Antonio, bananas are everywhere to be seen. The route lies for many 

 miles over a stiff mountain range, and on all sides there were small 

 patches of bananas. 



•• Even in the crevices of rocks, healthy plants wen- growing and 

 thriving upon the rich wash mould to be found thereabout. Upon 

 the plains too, on the Southern side of the island, old abandoned cane 

 lands have been transformed into luxuriant banana groves, yielding, 

 by the aid of irrigation. 300 bunches to the acre. 



'• 5. There is. I am informed, a great variety of soil in Jamaica, 

 good, bad and indifferent. In some districts little manuring is done, 

 and in others a considerable amount is necessary. To supply this 

 demand a great deal of stock is kept, which, combined with banana 

 growing, seems to be a most profitable business for big and little man 

 alike. 



" High cultivation is aimed at as evidenced by the absence of under- 

 growth in most places 1 saw, but labour difficulties are just as pre- 

 valent with them as with us. Ploughing, harrowing, and forking, 

 both before and after planting are universally practised, and the 

 benefits of good drainage appear to be of first and foremost considera- 

 tion. In short, the whole object is to produce the biggest crop pos- 

 sible, and the finest fruit, for upon these, and the most careful hand- 

 ling, hang the entire success or failure of banana growing. 



"6. The handling and transporting of ripe fruit is perhaps tin- 

 greatest difficulty both growers and shippers have had to meet and 

 are still contending with. So watchful are the shippers, and so strin- 

 gent their rules, that it is now well nigh impossible for an unripe or 

 even slightly bruised bunch to be accepted at any of their depots. 



" Consequently the growers, great and small, being very much 

 alive to their own interests, take exceeding good care to ensure com- 

 pliance with the buyers requirements, inexorable as they be. A 

 methodical system of tally and supervision prevails on the larger 

 estates, whereby careless handling may be promptly brought home to 

 the offending labourer or carterman, and by these means all classes 

 are becoming educated to the knowledge that care pays in the long- 

 run, and wanton neglect brings almost certain loss to the individual. 



" The finest and best-conditioned fruit invariably commands the 

 topmost price, and preference is always given to really cultivated 

 bananas, long experience having shewn (so 1 was told by one oi the 

 principals of the United Fruit Company i that they are by far the best 



carriers. 



"7. As to variety, there is only one in Jamaica and it is called 

 by the generic term "Banana"" or " Fruit." 



