I'.t 



"The large exporters enter into agreement with the growers to 



take fruit all the year round at a fixed scale of prices. 



"Penalties arc enforced in the event of* failure to supply the 

 stipulated quantities, and the business is worked under a splendid 

 organization. It is nothing uncommon, in the height, of the season, 



to load a dozen large steamers in a week with fruit drawn from every 

 part of the island. 



"These large buyers are connected by telephone and telegraph 

 with their various agents all over the Colony, and a few hours' notice 

 suffices to cut. transport, and load a ship Avith 30 to 40 thousand 

 hunches. One estate 1 visited had a few miles of its own tramway, 

 and the proprietor told me that his fruit was usually alongside the 

 ship I hours or so after cutting. Where much heading out and cart- 

 age has to be undertaken, the operations are necessarily more tedious 

 and costly, but the prices paid for good sound fruit allow of a very 

 fair margin, and (excepting in the case of standing agreements) pay- 

 ments are invariably made straight on delivery. The cultivation of 

 bananas is consequently widely taken up by the peasant classes, who 

 appreciate more than anyone quick returns for their labour. 



" 10. The average distances over which bananas have to be headed, 

 crooked, and carted in Jamaica is certainly not less than it would be 

 in Trinidad, while the physical difficulties to be overcome amid their 

 mountains and deep valleys are incomparably greater than with us. 

 It is true that they have an excellent system of Main and Parochial 

 roads, also bridle tracks, extending over the length and breadth of 

 the island, but even with these advantages, journeys to the railway 

 and sea-board are by no means easy or short. Jamaica is a biggish 

 place, being about two and a half times the size of this Colony, and 

 nearly two thousand square miles of its total area lie 1,000 feet or 

 more above sea level. 



'• In Trinidad the want of good and sufficient roads into some of 

 the interior districts is a serious drawback, no doubt particularly 

 during the rainy season, but it must be admitted that these deficien- 

 cies, which are slowly but surely disappearing, are confined to but a 

 comparatively small portion of the settled and partly developed lands 

 of the Colony. 



'• Everything considered, I venture to state that the natural condi- 

 tions here, including rainfall, all favour profitable banana growing, 

 and we are happily not liable to hurricanes such as swept the standing 

 crops to the ground in Jamaica last year. 



•' There is striking proof of the adaptability of our soils and 

 climate in the luxuriant growth of bananas to be met with in all 

 directions, and on all varieties of land, many of them growing and 

 thriving in a practically wild state. 



'"11. The selection of soils, situation, and season for planting 

 bananas, and many other thing- connected with the practical side of 

 the subject, arc matters that must necessarily be left to our experi- 

 enced agriculturists. I do not know whether any treatise on banana 

 mowing has ever been published in the Bulletins of the Royal Botanic 

 hardens. Very possibly one or more have, and should this be so. a 

 reprint would be of value just now. A paper on " The Banana 



