CHAPTER XXX 



GENERAL REVIEW OF CULTIVATION continued 

 CENTRAL AMERICA AND UNITED STATES 



COSTA RICA. The total area under bananas at the end 

 of 1911 was 65,000 acres, new plantations to about 2500 

 acres being made during the year. The United Fruit 

 Company are carrying out extensive improvements in the 

 cultivation of many of their older plantations. The 

 exports of bunches of bananas for certain years from 1882 

 to 1911 have been as follows : 



1882 . . 3,500 1909 . . 9,365,690 



1892 . . 1,178,812 1910 . . 9,097,285 



1902 . . 4,174,199 1911 . . 9,309,586 



1908 . . 10,060,009 



The bunches exported in 1910 and 1911 were shipped as 

 follows : 



To 1910 1911 



United States 8,000,249 7,217,148 



United Kingdom 1,097,036 2,092,438 



According to its favourable position, or otherwise, the 

 cost of an acre of land in forest in Costa Rica may vary 

 from 2s. 6d. to about 5. It costs about 8 per acre to 

 clear it, and put it into condition to raise bananas. The 

 soil seems rich enough to stand continuous cultivation, 

 wherever it receives a sedimentary deposit from the over- 

 flowing of the rivers, but the usual duration of a plantation 

 on land which is not overflowed is from seven to ten years. 

 It is expected to yield twelve to fifteen bunches of bananas 

 per acre every month. The vegetation is so rank, and its 



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