422 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 294. 



comes, unless it is the steam-launch of some city official. If 

 there is such an urgent need for water-privilege, the first 

 thing to be done is to set the Dock Department on shore 

 and give the pier they now occupy to the fire-patrol boat, 

 to excursion-boats and to commerce. 



The Banana Supply of New York. 



THIRTY-SIX years ago the steamer North Star brought 

 to this port 500 bunches of bananas. The New York 

 market had never before received anything like that quan- 

 tity at once, and when Messrs. W. & C. Smith, then at 

 Cedar Street and Broadway, undertook to handle the entire 

 shipment the venture was pronounced a hazardous one, as, 

 indeed, it proved, for, after the local trade was fully sup- 

 plied, there was a large overplus, which could only be dis- 

 posed of by shipping portions to Philadelphia, Boston and 

 Baltimore. Until thirty years ago the importation of 

 bananas was confined to the three spring months, and 

 the number of bunches received a month sometimes 

 reached a hundred and fifty to three hundred. So little 

 was the fruit known and appreciated that, as late, as 1865, 

 the market was glutted by as small a supply as twelve 

 bunches which arrived here in June, when strawberries 

 were abundant, and the fruit was left on the hands of the 

 enterprising importers. These early supplies from Aspin- 

 wall were brought by the officers of the old Atlantic Line 

 of steamers. Personal pecuniary ventures of this sort by its 

 employees being prohibited by the company, several of the 

 men left their employ to engage directly in the business of 

 importing bananas, and in this way the trade became regu- 

 larly established in 1863. It was not until 1879 that the 

 first steamers were chartered as fruit-carriers for the West 

 Indian trade ; but the business has developed so rapidly 

 that for the twelve months ending with the 1st of last July 

 not less than one hundred and thirty-three steamers were 

 engaged in carrying bananas between the West Indies, 

 Central America, Aspinwall and the United States, and as 

 many as twenty-eight have discharged here in a week. Sail- 

 ing vessels are too slow for this traffic, and the trip by steam 

 from Jamaica requires but five and a half days, and from 

 Aspinwall a day longer. Three lines of steamers, com- 

 prising twelve vessels, make regular trips every ten days 

 between Colon, Puerto Limon, Jamaica and New York, a 

 hundred and twenty more being chartered by brokers or 

 run on the owners' account. Norway provides a majority 

 of the vessels, which range from 400 to 2,000 tons burden, 

 and the flags of Great Britain, the United States, Spain and 

 Denmark also appear in the service. 



The trade has steadily grown, until in 1892 the receipts 

 of bananas in this port amounted to 3,715,625 bunches. In 

 July the highest figures of the current year were reached, 

 567,067 bunches having come to New York during that 

 month. The largest New York supplies are now drawn 

 from Jamaica, 1,055,876 bunches having been received 

 here from that island during the year. The Cuban ports, 

 Banes, Sama, Gibara and Cabanico, where the trade has 

 more recently been established, together sent about 600,000 

 bunches last year, the remainder of the supply coming 

 from Aspinwall, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. 

 Besides these large importations by New York, nearly 

 2,000,000 bunches went to Philadelphia last year, and almost 

 as many more to Boston, while Baltimore, Savannah and 

 Mobile are also large consumers. New Orleans is, how- 

 ever, the most important market in the country, the enor- 

 mous quantity of 4,483,351 bunches having passed into 

 that city from Central America during last year, three-quar- 

 ters of a million bunches more than were disposed of in 

 New York. The water transportation to that port is short, 

 and the bananas are quickly and cheaply distributed by 

 special trains throughout the entire Mississippi valley. 

 So well organized is this service that the fruit is often 

 cheaper in Chicago than in New York. The total im- 

 portations into all United States ports during last year were 

 12,695,386 bunches, weighing about 325,000 tons. 



Notwithstanding the immense supplies of domestic fruits 

 in our markets during the summer months, the receipts of 

 bananas in New York are heaviest from May to September. 

 So far from being regarded as a luxury, they are a staple 

 article of food and an absolute necessity to many foreign 

 residents. In the mining regions Italians and other foreign- 

 ers live largely on this fruit, which is cheaper than bread, 

 and prices are largely controlled by the demands of this 

 class of buyers. The general business depression, and the 

 abundant supply of peaches and other domestic fruits, have 

 affected the fall banana trade, prices now being nearly fifty 

 per cent, lower than during last spring, when first-grade 

 fruit, which can now be bought at wholesale as low as ninety 

 cents, commanded $r.75 a bunch, averaging one hundred 

 and twenty-five fruits. Only a few years ago bananas 

 sold at the fruit-stands for a dollar a dozen. The 

 same number can now be bought for fifteen to twenty- 

 five cents, and very often for less than a cent apiece. Since 

 the nutritive value of the banana is almost equal to that of 

 the potato, both in starchy and nitrogenous elements, this 

 makes an exceedingly cheap diet. Singularly enough, the 

 plantain, which is so closely allied to the banana that the 

 best botanists do not separate them generically, comes to 

 this port in such small quantities that it is never sold by 

 the bunch, but by the single fruit. The entire importation 

 is made practically by one firm, who sell the fruit to the 

 Spanish restaurants. About 25,000 plantains are disposed 

 of here in a year. And yet in the torrid zone the plantain 

 is regarded as one of the best natural food-products in the 

 world. It is considered of much greater economic impor- 

 tance than the banana, and forms almost the entire food 

 even of those who work on the banana plantations. Un- 

 like the banana, it is rarely eaten raw, but is either boiled 

 or roasted, or used to make soup. When ripe, that is when 

 the skin has turned yellow, the fruit can be cut into slices anci 

 fried, and when baked in this condition it has a distinct 

 taste of baked apples. When gathered green and dried the 

 plantain is ground into an excellent meal, of which cus- 

 tards, puddings and gruel are made, and these are not only 

 palatable, but very nutritious. Little of this plantain-flour, 

 which is called platanina, is brought to this port. Prepara- 

 tions for making banana-flour in a similar way are now 

 being made on a large scale in Aspinwall and the West 

 Indies, and this product, known as Harina de Banana, can 

 now be had in this city. 



For the sea-voyage the fruit is packed upright in the hold 

 of the steamers, usually two bunches deep, a third bunch 

 being laid flat on top of them. It is of great importance 

 that the fruit be kept green, so as to carry well on ship- 

 board and during transportation after landing, and its con- 

 dition in this respect helps to fix the price. Bananas 

 ripened on the voyage have little value commercially, 

 because they are easily crushed in handling, but they are 

 altogether superior for immediate use to those picked when 

 less mature and ripened artificially here, and of a flavor 

 and richness not even suggested by the fruit with which 

 we are familiar. Some of the best steamers in the service 

 have recently been fitted out with a new process of venti- 

 lation. The numerous standing deck-ventilators are done 

 away with, and by a system of fans a circuit of air through- 

 out the vessel is maintained, and this is forced through the 

 engine-room once every three minutes. 



The cargoes range from 8,000 to 32,000 bunches. The 

 fruit sold on deck to local buyers is rapidly carted away 

 on trucks, while large quantities are loaded in cars resting 

 on floats by the vessel's side, for shipment to other cities. 

 The experiment of sales by auction, begun in August, is 

 said to be meeting with considerable success, although but 

 a small proportion of the supply is disposed of in this way. 

 In these sales the bunches are swiftly passed from the hold, 

 being rated by a "sorter" as number one, two or three as 

 they are handed over the vessel's side and placed in trucks ; 

 100 bunches, all of one grade, constitute a truck-load. 

 Bunches not large enough to be classed as number three, and 

 such as are overripe, are "docked" or carried off to another 



