WEST INDIES AND BERMUDA 251 



where (Oviedo, lib. 8, cap. 1), but in all probability this 

 plant came first from Guinea to the Canaries." 



Acosta states that in San Domingo there is a small white 

 variety of banana, very delicate, called dominico. The 

 possibilities of San Domingo in fruit culture are entirely 

 neglected, except in one single instance. This one excep- 

 tion is a large banana plantation at Sosua, about ten miles 

 from Puerto Plata, owned by the United Fruit Company. 

 The number of bunches exported in 1907 was 640,000, and 

 in 1910 was 591,000 ; the number for 1911 is estimated 

 at 400,000. 



The consumption of banana flour is steadily increasing. 

 The fruit is gathered green and cut into slices and then 

 placed in the sun for three days in order to dry it thoroughly. 

 Then it is ground, and yields an excellent fine yellow meal. 

 Cooked in milk, it is eaten as a soup ; and it is also made 

 into bread. About ten bananas are required to furnish a 

 pound of flour. 



GUADELOUPE. According to M. de Saumery, Guade- 

 loupe has 10,000 acres suitable for the growth of the 

 banana the Jamaican for export to the United States, 

 and the Chinese banana to Europe. The most suitable 

 districts are Trois -Rivieres, Capestone, Petit Bourg, 

 Lamentin, and Sainte Rose. 



DOMINICA. The number of bunches of bananas ex- 

 ported from 1908 was as follows : 



1908 1910 1911 1912 

 3295 .. 4719 .. 3713 .. 5526 



JAMAICA. In the year 1867 the value of the fruit 

 exported from Jamaica was only 728, and Sir John Peter 

 Grant, in his annual report as Governor, complained that 

 whereas in the Bahama Islands the fruit trade afforded an 

 important staple of export in the article of pineapples 

 alone, it was still neglected in Jamaica, although there was 

 no place in the world more suited by nature for the produc- 

 tion of exportable fruits of great market value. For 

 several years the captains of small schooners sailing 



