94 TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



production of bananas. In the Philippines, bananas are every- 

 where grown for household purposes, but have never become 

 of commercial importance. Experiments have been carried on 

 at the Bureau of Agriculture in Manila with more than 300 

 varieties of bananas, but the Philippines cannot be said to have 

 a commercial banana industry. Similarly with Porto Rico, 

 while bananas are grown in all parts of the island, they are 

 raised for domestic use and do not come into international 

 trade. Hawaii is the only part of the United States which pro- 

 duces more bananas than are consumed locally. As indicated 

 above, the shipment of bananas from Hawaii to the United 

 States amounts to about 20,000 bunches per month, and this 

 amount may be nearly doubled within the near future by an 

 effort which is being made to secure the Chinese banana, grown 

 in Hawaii, for distribution in the Northwest. In Florida, the 

 Chinese banana thrives fairly well and produces good bunches 

 of well formed bananas. These bananas are all taken by local 

 markets. 



PINEAPPLES 



A genuine pleasure is still in store for the individual who 

 has not tasted a pineapple allowed to reach the full stage of 

 ripeness on the plant. The pineapple is perhaps the most con- 

 spicuous of the few fruits which do not develop their full flavor 

 if picked when green. The pineapple is a native of tropical 

 America and is now cultivated to some extent everywhere in 

 the Tropics and the subtropics and even in Europe (under 

 glass). It is grown on a large scale in South America, the 

 West Indies, Porto Rico, Cuba, Florida, Hawaii, Federated 

 Malay States, Ceylon, Java, Queensland, Madagascar, and in 

 other countries. 



The pineapple is referred by botanists to the name Ananassa 

 sativa. The plant is a herbaceous perennial belonging to the 

 family Bromeliaceae. It reaches a height of 2 to 4 feet, devel- 

 oping only a very short stem, which is commonly called the 



