SOUTH AMERICA 223 



Grande do Sul, but are hardly found above 8000 ft. in 

 the southern and central States. There are many kinds 

 cultivated, and we may enumerate Pacova (in Para), a 

 very large plantain, usually eaten fried or boiled ; the 

 outside is red. Musa Cavendishii (Ana) has a short trunk, 

 dark leaves, and produces huge bunches of fruit of a long, 

 curved, and cylindrical form, light yellow coloured. Musa 

 sapientum trees high and rounded fruit. Exportation of 

 bananas in 1907, 1,878,904 bunches. Each bunch weighs 

 on an average 45 Ibs., and the heaviest attain 125 Ibs., 

 or up to 300 bananas. Freights from the plantations 

 in Sao Paulo (near Santos) to Buenos Ayres (Argentina) 

 total about 125. Gd. per dozen bunches. In Santos 

 there are some 200 planters who only cultivate one class 

 (the An&), most of them occupying the lands without 

 any right of ownership, as they are the property of the 

 State, and have never been considered worth selling. 

 Each kilo of bananas exported pays 1 real of duty, equalling 

 \\d. per 100 kilos. 



" In Cubatao (near Santos) one planter has 500 alqueires 

 under bananas, and the whole of the district is devoted to 

 this culture. The whole of the banana traffic is limited 

 to the coast-line from Rio de Janeiro southwards. Para 

 and Pernambuco are so well situated, however, with 

 regard to exportation to Europe, that doubtless when 

 their port works are completed they will prove the shipping 

 centres of an immense trade. The best variety in Brazil 

 is known as the Banana de Sao Thome, as it is of African 

 origin. 



" Some plantations more than thirty years old are still 

 producing, the only attention given being the clearance of 

 extraneous matter from the vicinity of the plants ; and 

 the bunches average seventy bananas even after such an 

 extension of time. There are reckoned to be 2,000,000 

 trees within the district above mentioned. Labourers 

 employed in cutting the bunches are paid at the rate of 

 4s. 6d. to 5s. daily." 



In the State of Parana banana plants are plentiful on 



