570 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
Imports of Bananas—Years Ending June 30, 1909-1913—Continued 
Imported from 1909 1910 1911 1912 1918 
Nog, Ameria ous, ates, Payee, «Dalits, alas 
nduras wee eee ’ ’ EPO f Ve 63,2 
Canada es 5.316 7,660 6,936 ieee 
tates 
CRA tie 8 orn .. 2,186,545 3,031,556 2,785,758 2,718,582 2,744,818 
Guatemala ........... 168,825 "199,368 "363,690 509,017 300,041 
Honduras .........06- 1,731,515 1,524,843 2,039,472 2,199,890 2,435,006 
Nicaragua ........+-.. 207,961 "299,858 395,612 415,389 348,064 
Panama .......-.+--- 958, 417 918,331 1,784,495 2,137,890 2,082.502 
Salvador ...-eeececce tee esee wn eeeeret we eeteanes 88 kaa, 
Mexico 2... ce cee eee 35,180 52,507 116,700 226,836 418,315 
West Indies— 
British 
Jamaica’... sls. 4,564,680 4,408,341 3,488,498 
Trin. and Tobago... { 4,153,139 4,240,343 | weceeeee ceeeceee  — vanavea, 
Other British ..... 11 1,898 4 
Cuba ..... eee eee ees 891,773 841,327 897,344 942,481 834,206 
Dutch ..... eee eee eee es teen ees twee eee es LOO eee wee 
Santo Domingo baw eeae 70,000 109,000 252, ‘928 152,008 292 626 
South America : 
Brazil . 2... ce cece ee eens 12,538 sae eeene sew eee a 
Colombia ....... eee ees 362,248 243,905 887,928 453,271 1,107 429 
Guiana—Dutch .........-. 127, 013 161,871 186,126 66,000 932 
Total .......ec ees 11,012,100 11,642,693 14,375,075 14,868,330 14,484,958 
eet ena 10,510,301 11,236,917 13,351,021 18,848,999 13,336,89 
North America.........-.55 510, 236, 851,02 848,998 3,336,897 
South America............ 501,799 405,776 1,024,05 519,331 1,147,361 
World Production and Consumption of 
Bananas 
A report upon the world production and 
consumption of bananas, from Consul 
Julius D. Dreher, Port Antonio, Jamaica, 
was published in the Daily Consular and 
Trade Reports of December 26, 1912. Ac- 
cording to this report Jamaica was far 
ahead of all other countries in the ex- 
portation of bananas during the calendar 
year 1911, having shipped a total of 16,- 
497,885 bunches, valued by colonial of- 
ficials at $7,088,451, or more than one- 
half of the total value of all exports 
from the island in that year. Costa Rica 
ranked second, with exports of 9,309,586 
bunches, and then came Honduras with 
6,500,000 bunches, Colombia, 4,901,894; 
Panama, 4,261,500; Canary Islands, 2,- 
648,378; Cuba, 2,500,000; Nicaragua, 2,- 
250,000; Gautemala, 1,755,704; Mexico, 
750,000; British Honduras, 525,000; San- 
to Domingo, 400,000; Dutch Guiana, 387,- 
516, and other countries, 250,000, making 
a grand total of 52,936,963 bunches of 
bananas exported. It should be borne in 
mind that the world’s actual production 
of bananas is far greater than the amount 
exported, since there are many isolated 
regions, like the numerous island groups 
of the Pacific ocean, that have no for- 
eign market for their abundant crops of 
this fruit, and in the countries which ex- 
port bananas the home consumption is 
enormous. In Jamaica, as in other coun- 
tries, the natives not only eat ripe bana- 
nas as a fruit, but they boil the green 
fruit and eat it as a vegetable and also 
use it in this form to fatten pigs. 
As Jamaica is officially reported as hay- 
ing had 82,486 acres in bananas last 
year, when the exports amounted to 16, 
497,385 bunches, it appears that the aver- 
age number of exportable bunches pro- 
duced per acre was 200; and as the aver- 
age market price as shown by American 
consular invoices issued to shippers was 
27% cents a bunch, the average gross 
yield for the island was $55 an acre. In 
Panama and Costa Rica, where the land 
is very fertile and the plants are set farth- 
er apart, the average exportable crop is 
140 to 150 bunches an acre; in Colombia 
it is nearly 200. 
While Jamaica exported nearly twice as 
many bananas last year as any other 
country, the United States imported 
more than five times as many as any other 
country. For the fiscal year ended June 
30, 1912, the bananas imported into the 
United States reached the enormous total 
of 44,520,589 bunches, valued at $14,368,- 
330, an average of 32.3 cents a bunch, as 
the market value shown in America con- 
