The Banana Trade. 22<, 



acres of land in Jamaica alone, is constru6ling a dry 

 Dock at Port Antonio, where he already has extensive 

 shops for boat building and ship repairing. He has 

 further been successful in raising some ;^30o,ooo in 

 London to further develop his gigantic Banana Industry 

 in all its various branches, while the Jamaica Syndicate 

 with a capital of ;^5o,ooo in ten shares of ;^5,ooo each, 

 was proposed, formed and ^^30,000 of its capital sub- 

 scribed inside of 48 hours, and cabled to London to Messrs. 

 Hawthorne and Sheddon to acquire certain sugar 

 properties then in the market. Among the gentlemen 

 forming this enterprising Syndicate, was His Excellency 

 Sir Henry Blake, who took one share. 



Among the individual proprietors of large banana 

 walks, may be mentioned Dr. Pringle, who some four 

 years ago refused ;^i 25,000 for his properties, which as 

 sugar estates in cultivation, together with live and dead 

 stock he had acquired for ;^3o,ooo. Within the last 

 four years he has almost doubled the area under bananas 

 and now loads his own steamers weekly. The extent of 

 the export of bananas from Jamaica at present is on an 

 average between 70,000 and 80,000 bunches a week, and 

 it is not uncommon for 10, 12 and even 14 steamers to 

 clear at a single port in a week during the height of the 

 season between March and June, so that the annual out- 

 put may be roughly taken at 4,000,000 bunches. 



It may not be uninteresting here to mention that early 

 in 1864, the sugar planters in the old House of Assembly 

 began to turn their attention to the possibilities of 

 banana cultivation on a large scale as a profitable under- 

 taking, in place of their fast decaying industry, and a 

 Special Committee was appointed by the House to con- 



