-8 .May, 1908.] /iisect Pesis in Foreign Lands. 275 



him to Banes, about 100 miles nortli. We left at 6 a.m. next morning, and 

 .after changing trains at several junctions reached the plantation at 3.30 p.m. 

 The United Fruit Company fir.st laid out this country as a banana plan- 

 lation, but found that it would not grow fruit, so planted it with sugar 

 "Cane, and now there are 20,000 acres of sugar cane ready to cut, with 60 

 miles of railways laid through the fields. I travelled all over the estate 

 with the manager, and saw several .small plantations of citrus fruit that 

 were very free from pests. While here the British Consul sent me word 

 that the boat to Jamaica was to sail a day earlier than advertised, and 

 tnat the quarantine between Jamaica and Cuba, on account of yellow fever, 

 had been raised that day. I left at 2 p.m. (22nd) for Santiago, but was 

 delayed seven hours (a common thing on these lines) at Cedro Alto, and 

 did not reach mv destination until the following morning. 



I left Cuba at 4 p.m. for Kingston, Jamaica, by the s.s. Oicri, and 

 arrived there next day at 8 a.m. This was Christmas Eve, and all the 

 officials were out of their offices until the 27th, when I went up to Head- 

 quarters House and presented my credentials to the Colonial Secretary 

 (Hon. T. Bourne), who gave me a free pass on the railways, and sent me 

 •up to the Hon. I. Faucett, the Director of Botanical Gardens, Forests, &c. 

 .•\t Hope Gardens I obtained a great deal of information, and received let- 

 ters to a number of different planters. The following day I took the 

 train tO' Port AntinO' (79 miles), and next morning drove out to Burlington 

 .and called upon the Hon. H. Cork, who showed me round his estate. He 

 had 24 acres of cocoanut palms in full bearing, every one of which was 

 "destroyed in the hurricane of 1905 which swept over this side of the island. 

 Cocoanuts are worth 8s. per hundred for shipment, and 11,000 were ex- 

 ported to America last year, while there is a large local consum])tion. Port 

 Antino is the chief centre of the banana industry. In 1696 there were 

 onlv 19,227 acres in bananas, but the area in 1905 had increased to 44,325 

 .acres. Last \ear Jamaica exported 16,000,000 bunches of bananas to the 

 United States and Europe (a bunch consists of from 12 to 9 '' hands '" — 

 anything smaller is counted as half a bunch). The value of the exix>rted 

 bananas was ;^88o,ooo. The bulk of these fruits is consumed in the 

 United States. Jamaica also exported 32,000 packages (in barrels or 

 Florida fruit cases) of grape fruit \vorth 6s. per package, and 55,000 

 -oranges worth 2s. 6d. per hundred. I might here remark that the United 

 F^'ruit Company practirall\ controls the markets of the United States, and 

 nearly all the fruit in Florida, Cuba, the Central American States, and 

 Ihe West Indies passes through their hands. Mr. Cork informed me that 

 the large banana growers use sulphate of ammonia as a fertilizer, and find 

 it pays them. 



On the afternoon of the 28th I left for Bog Walk, the junction for the 

 Fwarton line, and stopped there that night. I left on Monday by the 

 :8 a.m. train, reached Ewarton at 9.30. and took a trap out to Worthy 

 Park, 8 miles over the mountains, and arrived there before lunch. Mr. 

 J. V. Calder gave me a warm welcome, and found me a horse and guide 

 to go through his cacao plantation, one of the largest in the island. At 

 present prices it is a very profitable crop, but the trees are subject to a 

 number of different insect i>ests and fungus diseases. For the first three 

 years of life, a cacao tree has to be growni under shade and looked after, 

 but Avhen firmly established is a very hardv plant. Many growers say that 

 cacao should always be grown under shade, while others claim that if the 

 trees are properly planted 13 to 18 feet apart, and properly pruned, they 



