20 



AKKALS OF HORTICULTURE. 



and at once opened a considerable market for it. It will now 

 be a comparatively simple matter to develop the foreign trade. 

 If the same methods which were used so effectively abroad by 

 Mr. Rider were inaugurated in our own country, a great in- 

 crease in the home demand would certainly follow.* 



Imports and Exports of Fruit. — The following are 

 official figures of the imports and exports of fruits during the 

 year 1893, with comparisons with the previous year : 



IMPORTS. 



Free of Duty. 



1892 



1893. 





$5,044,579 



$5,386,029 





833,285 



859,610 



Currants 



1,092,218 



877,622 



Dates 



558.?55 



394,255 



All other fruits 



2,166,600 



1,932,158 





$9,695,437 



$9,449,674 



Dutiable. 



Figs 



Lemons 



Oranges 



Plums and Prunes 



Raisins 



Preserved Fruits . 



All other fruits 



Almonds 



All other nuts 



1892. 



$575,453 

 4,831,334 

 1,227,311 



951,444 

 1,218,515 



855,220 

 1,092,668 



873,521 



889,414 



$12,514,880 



1893. 



$378,238 

 4,680,353 

 1,634,184 

 756,247 

 668,461 

 596,300 

 1,215,291 

 807,640 

 734,416 



$11,471,130 



EXPORTS OF DOMESTIC FRUITS. 





1892. 



1893. 



Apples, dried 



$835,953 



$324,203 



green or ripe 



1,709,356 



440,874 



(Crops of 1892-3 in part) 







Fruits preserved 







Canned 



1,262,834 



701.149 



Other 



252,621 



202,073 



All other green, ripe 







or dried fruits 



841,792 



941,077 



Nuts 



78,387 



92,149 





$4,980,943 



$2,701,525 



The Banana. — The most striking feature of our fruit 

 importations is the great quantity of bananas which now 

 arrive. Probably no foreign fruit has popularized itself so 

 rapidly in this country as the banana. "We find that bananas 

 were first imported into the United States in 1804, by Captain 

 John N. Chester, of the schooner Reynard, and consisted of 

 about 30 bunches. After that year an occasional small lot 

 would arrive here, until the spring of 1830, when the schooner 



*For an interesting sketch of Mr. Rider's mission, see Proceedings 

 Of the 24th Meeting Amer. Cranberry Growers' Assoc. 6, 



