238 THE BANANA 



growth so rapid, that it takes one man to every three acres 

 to clear the brush and grass every four months, pick the 

 fruit, dig the ditches, build the bridges, and do all the 

 necessary work. Farm labourers are paid from 85 c. to 

 $1.50 per day, American money ; they can live luxuriously 

 on these wages, if they choose. Each bunch of bananas 

 costs, it is calculated, about 4d. for cultivation, cutting, 

 and carrying to the railway station, and is sold there for 

 about Is. 



The plantations of the United Fruit Company are 

 situated along rivers, canals, and railways. The estates 

 along the rivers are flooded two or three times a year, and 

 a yearly deposit of 5 or 6 in. of alluvium is left. The sub- 

 soil is gravelly. The banana plants are put in at a distance 

 of 20 to 30 ft. in the rows, and the rows are 15 ft. apart. 



It is said that the fruit trade in this republic com- 

 menced with the export of a few bananas by a German, 

 named Frank, who was in the service of a steamship plying 

 between Panama and New York. The large return in- 

 duced him to give up the steamer in 1863, and he devoted 

 himself henceforth to the culture and export of the banana. 

 At the end of ten years' work, however, the difficulties had 

 been so great that he was no better off than when he 

 began. But he then obtained certain facilities, which 

 enabled him to establish a trade, and seven years later he 

 retired with a fortune. In 1880 the Government, fore- 

 seeing that the cultivation would prove a great source of 

 revenue to the country, offered large tracts of land to 

 planters who would undertake to grow bananas. In 1882 

 3500 bunches were exported, and the development of the 

 trade dates from that year. In 1888 there were sixty-one 

 large and a great number of small plantations. In 1902 

 a monthly service of steamers was established by Messrs. 

 Elders and Fyffes from Limon to Bristol and Manchester. 

 The service to England soon became a weekly one, while 

 there are at least three weekly sailings to the United States. 

 The rate of wages to labourers in the banana district is 

 nearly 3s. daily, as compared with an average of Is. 8d. 



