297 
August, as fresh iio especially strawberries, are then coming into the 
market. Recently Canary bananas fetched on an average 8s. per bunch. 
uch a 
One dealer in foreign fruit at Covent Garden has sorge 
Eid for 2,000 to 3,000 bunches, and sales take place three times a 
wee 
The returns for bananas, as distinet from other fresh fruit, are not 
given separately in the Customs’ returns, hence it is x pex ible to form 
an accurate idea of the total imports into the United 
The following information respecting fruit-growing in the West Indies 
and on the probability of shipping fresh fruit to this country is taken 
from a paper read before the Royal Colonial Institute 2 Mr. -— 
on * Fruit as a Factor in Colonial Commerce," February 8, 
“A very interesting attempt was made last year to vidé fresh 
tropical = uit from British Guiana by Messrs. Scrutton & Sons, who had 
o r steamers fitted with a cool chamber specially for the purpose. 
Bananas pu many delicate fruits were received from the West Indies 
during the course of the Exhibition in excellent condition 
“ The fruit trade in Jamaica is the means of circulating neal 250,0002. 
annually amongst all classes of the community, and t arge sum is 
immediately available, without the vexatious delays fortiedy experienced 
m establish his land in cocoa, coffee, vitii limes, € ranges, and 
cocoa-nu P wien) when the bananas are exhausted, will remain a 
revenue. 
the fra fruit tade of the West Indian Islands, as indeed of many other small 
industries, as calculated in the aggregate to build ` up, little by little, an 
improved Gopditiór for the people of these islands." 
Export of Fresh hisses —The chief trade with the United States 
and Canada’ is in bananas. So far, fresh plantains have been imported 
only to a small ex Seit: Plantains have, however, 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 sely instead of in bunches 
the return on plantains in Guatemala is at the rate of 144 dollars per 
acre, while the return on bananas is 106 do llars. Plantains to the value 
of 12,191 dollars were exported from British Honduras in 1892. The 
present Governor of British Honduras, Sir Alfred Moloney, K.C.M.G., 
evidently looks upon the pentes 
than at present in the United 
food to the negroes in the South. He 
food over a large section of negro 
ur 
in 1879 to 1 ,980,200 in 
The ex from Jamaica, ae and other islands in the Carribean 
Sea are almost entirely bananas. Plantains are regarded locally as so 
