CENTRAL AMERICA AND UNITED STATES 241 



The number of bunches exported in 1911 was 1,755,704. 



BRITISH HONDURAS. The suckers are put out at 18 ft. 

 by 18 ft. This wide planting is claimed to be ultimately 

 advantageous in producing fine large bunches as well as 

 in affording space for the cultivation of cacao, rubber 

 and other plants of a more permanent character. When 

 suckers are produced, all except two or three of the 

 strongest are destroyed ; this is done by bending them 

 down, and it is said that a cutlass should not be used, as 

 cutting them down bleeds them, and consequently takes 

 away the strength of those left. 



Plantains have been grown and exported to the Southern 

 United States from British Honduras, Guatemala, and the 

 Mosquito Coast, and they are much appreciated as an 

 article of food. They can be packed loosely instead of in 

 bunches as in the case of bananas, and the money value 

 on the cultivation is said to be much larger than on 

 bananas the returns on plantains in Guatemala being 

 at the rate of $144 per acre as against $106 on bananas. 



The exports from 1906 to 1911 are as follows : 



Bananas Bunches Plantains Numbers 



1908 . . 471,600 .. 939,000 



1909 . . 390,350 .. 2,238,500 



1910 . . 441,181 .. 3,514,101 



1911 . 450,365 .. 2,853,445 



The value of the bananas exported in 1911 was $93,392, 

 and of the plantains $23,206. In Honduras, planters 

 prefer to grow plantains to bananas as they are much 

 hardier and less likely to be rejected at the ship's side. 



HONDURAS. The chief culture is that of bananas, 

 mostly on the Atlantic coast ; the exports were in 1907-08 

 of the value of 160,106, in 1908-09 of 185,400. The 

 Consular Report for 1910 states that bananas form over 

 40 per cent, of the total export trade of Honduras. Only 

 an infinitesimal proportion of its lands has as yet been 

 planted. These are all situated on the north or Atlantic 

 coast and form a strip of some 100 miles wide along the 

 coast. Up till quite recently the whole of the crop has 



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