70 



touch more valuable for food purposes than bananas that they are 

 comparatively scarce. There is no doubt they could be more largely 

 grown if a demand arose for them. But the present situation is all in 

 favour of exporting bananas only, and in keeping plantations as a staple 

 food for the coloured population. It is quite possible that in a few 

 years there will be a change. People in temperate countries who know 

 little or nothing of the merits of the plantain are apt to regard it merely 

 as an inferior banana. This is far from a due appreciation olits merits. 

 In a cooked state, whether ripe or unripe, it is a wholesome and 

 nutritious vegetable. It certainly will become in larger demand in the 

 United States and Canada during the winter months ; and it is possible 

 also it may come into use in Europe if once it had trial under suitable 

 circumstances. The flavour of an unripe plantain roasted or boiled 

 resembles that of a chestnut, but it is not then sweet ; when fully ripe it 

 has the consistence of a pear with a sweet acidulous taste. It may then be 

 eaten roasted or fried in fat like apple fritters. An important product 

 of the plantain is plantain-meal. This is more fully dealt with later. 



Guatemala. — The circumstances attending the cultivation and ship- 

 ment of bananas and plantains to New Orleans and the Southern United 

 States from Central America are very graphically described by Mr. 

 William T. Brigham {Guatemala, pp. 351-354). This information 

 applies also for the most part to the neighbouring countries of British 

 Honduras and the Mosquito Coast. The comparison drawn by Mr. 

 Brigham between the relative productiveness and value as between 

 bananas and plantains is specially striking : — 



'• No export from Guatemala has increased more rapidly in value. 

 The permanent establishment of lines of steamers between New Orleans 

 and Livingstone, and the bounty offered by the Government, stimulated 

 the planting of many small flncas along the shores and on the river- 

 banks. Under contract with the steamship companies, the producer 

 sells his bananas at 50 cents a bunch (of not less than eight hands) 

 during five months of the year, and for 37^ cents the rest of the year. 

 The cost of production may be placed at 12^ cents per bunch. All 

 these prices are in United States silver currency. Plantains are sold at 

 25 cents a bunch of 25, sometimes commanding $1 25c. per 100. The 

 profits of this business go, as usual, not to the producer, but to the 

 middleman or the steamer companies. For example, a man raises 

 100 bunches of good fruit ; the cost to him is $12 50c. delivered on board 

 the steamer. He is paid in the best season $50 in silver, for which he 

 can get $40 in American gold. The steamer people, after a voyage of 

 four days, during which all their expenses are paid by the passenger 

 list and the Government mail subsidies, sell the bananas on the wharf in 

 New Orleans for $125 in gold or its equivalent, clearing $85 ; while the 

 planter, for a year's labour put into the bananas, gets $30. I have put 

 the price paid the planter at the highest, and the sales in New Orleans 

 at the lowest. The loss is insignificant at these figures, and it is not 

 uncommon for the profits of a single round trip of two weeks to exceed 

 $40,000. Half this shared with the planter would make him rich. 



" If the planting of bananas is to profit the grower he must raise 

 enough, say 20,000 bunches a month, to freight his own steamer, and be 

 independent of the present monopolies of the Italian fruiterers. The 

 extent of this busines is seen in the fact that from Livingstone in 1883 

 were exported 29,699 bunches, and in 1884, 54,633, or nearly double the 

 amount. 



