Foreign Additions to Our Dietarij. 151 



classified rather than as fruits used simply for dessert. The 

 most important, in the matter of quantity, of all the fruits im- 

 ported is the banana. The quantity of bananas imported during 

 the last two years is not as great as it was in the year ending 

 in September, 1914, on account of the fact that it is difficult to 

 secure vessels for transporting them. For the year ending 

 September 30, 1914, there were imported 47,022,178 bunches, 

 and these were estimated to contain 6,601,913,791 individual 

 bananas, or fingers, as they are called. This would give an 

 average of 66 bananas per capita for the people of the whole 

 United States. The growth of the banana industry is phenom- 

 enal, and they are being more and more utilized for cooking 

 in various ways. It is gradually coming to be known that the 

 banana is as valuable a food product as the potato, and more 

 valuable than many other vegetables that we use. 



One of the most concentrated food products which we im- 

 port is the date. This grows on a species of palm in compara- 

 tively rainless countries around the Mediterranean Sea, in 

 Africa, and in Asia. The quantity imported in the year end- 

 ing June 30, 1914, was 34,073,608 pounds. 



Figs should also be classified as belonging to the list of very 

 cencentrated foods. Their nutritive material consists largely 

 of fruit sugar. In the year mentioned, 19,284,868 pounds were 

 consumed. In addition to these we import of lemons more 

 than $2,000,000 worth, of pineapples $1,000,000 worth, and 

 more than 4,000,000 pounds of raisins. 



The substances used for making the slightly stimulating, 

 nonintoxicating beverages — tea, coffee and chocolate — are 

 practically all imported. From China, Japan and India we ob- 

 tain practically all the tea used, which amounted to 91,130,815 

 pounds for the year ending June 30, 1914. This tea is exam- 

 ined by the United States customs officials at the ports of en- 

 try, so unless adulterated in the hands of the jobbers it is of 

 good quality and unadulterated. 



The people of this country are especially a coffee-drinking 

 race, and used 1,001,528,317 pounds of coffee in the year men- 

 tioned. Very little of this comes from the eastern hemisphere 

 at the present time, except possibly small quantities from 

 Africa. More than three-fourths of the coffee is raised in 

 Brazil, in the northern part of South America, and in Central 

 America. 



