290 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



much in taste from those to which I was accustomed at home. 

 Spur I was, I believe, about three miles long, and the cutting 

 done to-day was chiefly in the farther half and yielded some 

 2000 bunches or "stems" as they were called here. Stems 

 bearing nine or more "hands" or tiers were reckoned as 

 "firsts," those with a smaller number as "seconds." In 

 some places "thirds" were also distinguished as stems with 

 six or fewer hands. Each hand is composed of twelve or more 

 "fingers" that is, individual bananas. It was no uncommon 

 thing for a stem to comprise 150 bananas so that 2000 stems 

 would mean 300,000 bananas for this week's cutting. In 

 about a week later, depending somewhat on moisture and 

 heat, the same ground can be cut over again — that is, other 

 shoots of banana plant will have come into the cutting stage 

 and this process is continued throughout the entire year for 

 seven or eight years or even longer in some spots where the 

 surface soil is deeper. 



This constant productivity of the bananas is brought 

 about by the care taken to plant continually new young 

 shoots to replace those which have borne, for each shoot 

 yields but one stem, after which it is cut down and, so far 

 as my observation went, allowed to decay on the ground. 

 According to Mr. Blair (who supplied much of the preceding 

 information) the productive soil at Guacimo farm is only 

 two to three feet deep and is underlaid by red clay and loose 

 rounded stones. When this surface soil is exhausted the 

 bananas no longer thrive. In such cases it was the policy of 

 the United Fruit Company to let the land lie fallow since 

 it was cheaper to clear off forest and make new plantings. 

 The abandoned banana fields soon become filled up with a 

 dense growth including saplings. Mr. Blair's experience 

 was not long enough for him to say certainly whether the 

 forest eventually reclaimed its own, although he inclined to 

 think that the reclamation did come albeit slowly. 



