h'dible Products. 



150 



[February, 1909, 



gether or where they have rubbed 

 against the next bunch, because they 

 are shipped naked, without any wrap- 

 ping, but this is due to bruising. The 

 Eluefields or Jamaica variety holds to 

 the bunch better than the Chinese. 

 There has been a complaint against some 

 of those that we have grown here. 

 Though that complaint may be due in 

 part to our soil and climate, I believe 

 that it has been due to hanging the 

 bunches the wrong way. The Chinese 

 banana is hung in one direction and the 

 Bluefileds in another, as I will show you 

 in the slides later. A Bluefields banana 

 hangs close up to the stem of the bunch, 

 and as it grows from the tree, the in- 

 dividual fruits come out like that 

 (indicating) and go up. Now if you hang 

 the bunch up that way in the market, 

 when the fruits begin to ripen, the 

 weight simply breaks them off; if you 

 reverse the thing— hang them up by the 

 smaller end — they hang more naturally 

 and their weight is a pull rather than a 

 thrust and they will stand it. 



The capacity of the pacific coast for 

 bananas, as near as I am able to estimate 

 it from the information which I have 

 gathered in many cities on the western 

 slope, is about 826,000 bunches per anuum, 

 and of these Hawaii ships about 15,000 

 bunches a mouth. You will see that our 

 competitors ship a great many more 

 bananas all the way from New Orleans 

 or Mobile than we ship from here, and 

 pay high freight rates on them, too. 

 There is a freight rate of about $1*25 a 

 hundred, if I recall it, from New Orleans 

 to any point on the Pacific coast. The 

 cooking banauas have not got into the 

 market at all. I believe there is an 

 opening for cooking bananas in the 

 markets. Some of our ''maia niaoli," 

 the variety that is most commonly used 

 for cooking, the common cooking banana 

 of our markets, I believe would find a 

 ready sale in the mainland markets if 

 the people ever became acquainted with 

 them. There certainly is no fruit more 

 delicious when properly cooked than a 

 " maia maolli." 



The Pineapple. 

 There are a great many points to be 

 considered in the proper shipping of 

 pineapples. Here, again, I want to 

 emhpasize the matter of the care of 

 handling. The packing of a ton or a 

 ton and a half of pineapples on a wagon 

 loose, rubbing against each other, over 

 rough roads and perhaps without springs 

 on the wagon, certainly is not the 

 advantage of the fruit. In all experi- 

 ments we have found that pineapples 

 cut with long steins carry to the market 

 in very much better condition than 



those that are cut with short stems. 

 Now, as to packing : At the present 

 time the large portion of our pine- 

 apples that go to the market as fresh 

 fruit are packed in a crate that is in 

 my opinion entirely too large for the 

 fruit. We have the most delicate, the 

 most delicious and the largest fruit, the 

 best pineapples that are commonly 

 found in the markets. We put them 

 into the largest crate— the largest 

 package—of any pineapples that go 

 into the market. We are at the ex- 

 tremes in both ways; the best fruit, 

 the poorest package. Several attempts 

 have been made to use other crates, 

 and some of them arc an improvement. 

 There is a crate devised by Mr. 

 Byron O. Clark (who is present with 

 us^to-night) which is an improvement 

 in that it contains much less fruit and 

 has rounded corners so that it does 

 not receive as many opportunities to 

 have the staves split off'. It comes as 

 near the advantages of the round or 

 barrel form of any crate that we 

 have tried. As to packing material, 

 there appears to be very little differ- 

 ence whether we use excelsior or dried 

 wild grass, provided the latter is per- 

 fectly dry. The danger with grass is 

 in using it when it is not perfectly dry. 

 The paper wrapping should be heavy, 

 and as in the case of the papaia, it is 

 better that it should be glazed. Each 

 wrapper should be large enough to 

 cover the whole fruit, including the 

 base, but not necessarily the crown ; 

 it can be pressed about the crown and 

 made to cover the stem. It is import- 

 ant that thera should be a solid pack. 



There is uothing here (on the black- 

 board) in regarding to shipping, but I 

 believe that that is our most import- 

 ant problem at the present time, that 

 is, to get suitable shipping facilities. 

 What we need is steamers that will 

 carry the fruit with good ventilation, 

 keep the fruit cool and keep the circu- 

 lation of air about it. Another need 

 of equal importance is an organization 

 which can place in the important main- 

 land market representatives to handle 

 our fruits, an organization to act as 

 the representative of the Hawaiian 

 growers. What I am saying now in 

 regard to pineapples applies to every 

 fruit that I have discussed, but it is 

 most practicable at the present time in 

 the case of pineapples, because that in- 

 dustry has grown to assume such large 

 proportions, I cannot stop to tell you 

 all the reasons for this. I have brought 

 here a number of bulletins at Mr. Pope's 

 suggestion, bulletins covering the sub- 

 ject of citrus fruits, which I have 

 discussed with you, and also the mango, 



