104 
ating cars — but they are always watched ; frequently the doors are 
open, the ventilators are opened. These trains are always accom- 
panied' bv an attendant, who sees to it that the temperature never 
gets down below. The ice is simply to overcome the intense heat 
and hold back the ripening a little. 
The Bluefields versus the Chinese variety for snipping: The 
Chinese banana, as you know, is very subject to what is known as 
the "Ripe Rot" disease. That is the fungus disease that causes 
the banana to become spotted, specked with little black specks. 
When the disease spreads and the black specks become united, 
it forms large blotches, which, in the last stages of the disease — I 
mean the fruiting stages of the fungus — produce a reddish, roseate- 
tinged' spot where the black spot was previously. That you may 
not have noticed, but if you will get some bananas and allow them 
to ripen and rot, if they have these black spots T think you will 
notice finally this red fruiting stage of the fungus. The Blue- 
fields banana is quite resistant to the disease and, as a conse- 
quence, it arrives in the market in a bright vellow form. Some- 
times you see black spots on them where they have rubbed to- 
gether or where they have rubbd against the next bunch, because 
they are shipped naked, without any wrapping, but this is due to 
bruising. The Bluefields 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 Bluefields 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 
individual fruits come out like that (indicating) and go up. Now 
if you hang the bunch uo 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 826,0(30 bunches per 
annum, and of these Hawaii ships about 15,000 bunches a month. 
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 bananas have not got into 
the market at all. I believe there is an opening for cooking 
bananas in the markets. Some of our "maia maoli," 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. 
