once placed in touch with some ni' tlir Leading planters and Large 

 shippers of fruit, and though my time was Limited, and distances in 

 Jamaica Long, I had in a variety of ways exceptional opportunities for 

 observing tilings, and acquiring information iii the most reliable 

 quarters. 



"The impressions given in this report are those lefl upon a 

 perfectly open mind, though I am fully conscious thai in expressing 

 opinions, and offering suggestions, with regard to the purely agri- 

 cultural side of the question. I have been occupying both delicate and 

 unaccustomed ground. 



"21. I am nevertheless convinced that the growing of bananas 

 for the English and American Markets might be profitably under- 

 taken in this Colony, disregarding altogether the examples 1 have 

 quoted of profits made in Jamaica. Personally, 1 should be satisfied 

 to take those figures at 50 per cent, discount when there, would still be 

 left a net yield of £5 per acre. It is an axiom in Jamaica that 

 nothing responds so readily to good cultivation as bananas, and 

 over a short series of years an average estate will give just about 

 double what is spent upon it, all other things being equal. 



" The development of the industry here will have to be taken in 

 hand on a large scale if the Royal Mail (or any other Steamship 

 Company) is to be expected to fit ships with modern fruit storage, and 

 afford regular sailings. It is either that or nothing. 



' The transhipment of bananas from lighters and coastal steamers 

 into the ocean ships, while increasing the cost but very slightly, and 

 necessitating extra precautions, need hardly enter into the growers' 

 calculations, seeing that those services and risks will belong exclu- 

 sively to the buyers and shippers. 



' To keep pace with the small and irregular crops that would 

 come forward during the first year or so of the establishing of the 

 industry, arrangements would have to be made for adequate cohd 

 storage on the Royal Mail Ocean Steamers at least once a month, in 

 order that sales might be realized, and to prevent disappointment at 

 the outset. And in this connection, tAvo of the Trinidad Line boats 

 have already a limited accommodation for carriage of perishables, and 

 it might be possible to get the Shipping and Trading Company to 

 offer an outlet in the direction of the New York markets. 



" 22. If the growing of fruit on any substantial and lasting 

 scale is seriously taken up by the people of this Colony, it will be 

 deserving of, and will doubtless receive, in its initial stages, at any 

 rate, every material assistance the Government can reasonably give to 

 it, and if I may be permitted to make a final suggestion, it is that 

 His Excellency the Governor might be approached with a proposal to 

 sanction say 100 acres of St. Augustine lands being laid down in 

 bananas, under the direct control of the Manager of that Estate, to 

 be followed later on by offers of other suitable lands in that district 

 and elsewhere to large and small capitalists, on easy and attractive 

 terms, for the same specific purposes. 



