234 THE BANANA 



flavour. The irregular ripening of the fingers seems to be 

 one of the reasons why the United Fruit Company will not 

 buy the fruit. The prices paid here are the same as for 

 the other variety, the average per annum and per bunch 

 being 51.5 cents (Dutch currency). The average weight 

 of a nine-hand bunch is about 62 Ibs., of an eight-hand 

 bunch about 52 Ibs., and of a seven-hand bunch about 

 40 Ibs. The keeping qualities are not so good as those of 

 the Gros Michel ; it does not last so long, but still it 

 keeps during the voyage to New York. (Paramaribo to 

 New York takes ten days.) 



" Bananas are not only exported as fresh fruit, but there 

 is also a manufactory for drying bananas in this colony. 

 This industry has just begun to develop ; dried bananas 

 are exported to be eaten as banana figs (especially to 

 Germany), but also, more strongly dried, to be used as 

 banana flour. In 1911 the value of the export amounted 

 to about 1300." 



The Commission appointed by the Government of British 

 Guiana to inquire into the industry in Surinam with the 

 view of starting a similar one at home, made a Report 

 from which the following information * is taken : The soil 

 of the estates in Surinam varies from a very fertile, 

 moderately stiff clay loam to a rich, friable sandy loam 

 two contiguous fields often showing marked differences in 

 agricultural value. The more loamy and friable the 

 nature of the soil, the easier it is of cultivation and the 

 more vigorous is the growth of the bananas, and the 

 heavier, more tenacious soils produce less healthy growth 

 of the plants and fewer and smaller bunches of bananas. 

 The average yield was very small in 1909, sixty-six to 

 ninety bunches per acre. This was due chiefly to disease, 

 as of a total area of 8000 acres under bananas, practically 

 3000 were destroyed by disease, and the damage done to 

 other estates was equivalent to the product of at least 

 another 1000 acres. On one estate where an average of 

 203 bunches per acre was obtained during its first year, 

 * Journ. B. Agric., B. Guiana, iv. 204 (1911). 



