FRUITS AND NUTS 89 



000,000 bunches of bananas from Jamaica, Costa Rica, Colom- 

 bia, Panama, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Cuba, Do- 

 minican Republic, and Hawaii. Large exports are made from 

 these same countries also to Europe. For example, the Canary 

 Islands export about 3,000,000 bunches of the Chinese banana 

 annually to Europe, mostly to England. 



The development of the banana industry has been largely 

 due to the eiforts of several large fruit-distributing companies 

 which have built and operated for many years steamers spe- 

 cially adapted for this trade. There are now about 300 steam- 

 ers chiefly occupied in the banana trade. These steamships 

 carry 10,000 to 12,000 bunches of bananas each, but some of 

 the larger ones carry 50,000 to 75,000 bunches. Special ar- 

 rangements are made on these boats for carrying bananas with 

 a minimum of loss. Forced ventilation is in use on the steam- 

 ships and in some cases refrigeration has been adopted. 

 Bananas do not endure a low temperature in cold storage and/ 

 the temperature commonly adopted is not lower than 55° F. 

 In addition to these special banana steamships which are also 

 fitted up for passenger trade in tropical cruises, special trains 

 have been provided for the fast transportation of bananas on 

 arrival at ports of the United States. New Orleans is one of 

 the large distributing points for bananas. On arrival at these 

 distributing centers the bananas are ripened in rooms specially 

 prepared for this purpose at a temperature of 60° to 80° F. 

 for a period of about 48 hours. The Jamaica banana is so 

 compactly arranged in the bunches that the individual bananas 

 are not readily broken off. Special arrangements have been 

 made for carrying these bunches on shipboard with a view to 

 obviating the necessity for wrapping the bunches. The bunches 

 of Jamaica bananas are laid on shelves or are suspended close 

 together so as to prevent rubbing and bruising. The Chinese 

 banana, on the other hand, seldom develops so compact a bunch 

 as the Jamaica banana. For this reason, unless special ar- 

 rangements are made on shipboard for banana transportation. 



