378 
of a million bunches more than were disponed of 
in New York. The water transportation to that 
port ia. .short, and the bananas are quickly and 
cheaply distributed by special trains throughout the 
entire Mississippi valley. So well organized is this 
service, (mat the fruit is often cheaper in Chicago 
••"than in New York. The total importations into all 
United Miates ports during last year were 12,695,386 
biiucnes, weighing about 325,000 tons. 
•'' The general business depression, and the abun- 
dant supply of peaches and other domestic fruits, 
have rfected the fall banana trade, prices now being 
nearly o0 per cent lower than during last spring, 
when first-grade ^ruit, which can now be bought at 
wholesale as low as Bite., commanded S>1'75 a bunch, 
averaging 125 fruits. Unly a few years ago bananas 
sold at toe fruit stands for SI a dozen. The sa ne 
number can now be bought for 15c to 25c, and very 
otto* formless than lc. apiece. Since the nutritive 
value of the banana is almost equal to that of the 
potato, both in starcny and nitrogenous elements, 
this makes an exceedingly cheap diet. 
"The cargoes range from 8,0'JO to 32,0<»0 bunches. 
The fruit sold on deck to local buyer* is rapidly 
carted away on trucks, while large quantities are 
loaded in cars resting on floats by the vessel's side 
for shipment to other cities. The experiment of 
sales by auction, begun in August, is said to be 
meeting with considerable success, although but a 
small proportion of the supply is disposed of in thi i 
way. In these sales the bunches are swiftly passed 
from the hold, being rated by a ' sorter ' as number 
one, two or three as they a e handed over the vessel's 
side and placed in trucks; 100 bunches, nil of one 
grade, conetitu e a truck loid. * * * The buyers, 
among whom Italians! Greeks and Hebrews outnumber 
the American dealers, are ranged along the taff rail 
of the steamer, overlooking the trucks as they an 
loaded, t * * Upon delivery to the buyer the 
bananas are stored in dry cellars, those intended for 
early use being suspended in an air-tignt compart- 
ment, where they are ripened by heat from gas stoves." 
SISAL THE HOPE OF THE BAHAMAS. 
[Barbados Agricultural Gazette]. 
Every one knows the wail of the West Indian — 
"Ware sugar! Ware sugar I" Every visitor to these 
islands is told of the "good old days" when they 
were sugar-giants in the land, before the beet-root 
giant-killer arose to challenge the monopolist's supre- 
macy. It is refreshing therefore to ar ive at an 
island, where pessimism is not the prevailinge ton 
where many are sanguine and not a few are con 
fident of future fortune, where a new industry is 
born of the weeds of the waste land, where a fatherly 
Governor's foresight and enterprise bid fair to change 
poverty to Brilliant prosperity. Such a prospect is 
to be met in the Bahamas. Here Sir Ambrose Shea, 
the Governor has developed to a high degree the 
hitherto almost unknown industry, the growing of 
sisal-hemp — an ente prise which it is expected will 
make the Eahamas independendent of the fruit-trade 
with America, and improve the Welfare of the people. 
For many years the sharp, lancet-leafed wild aloe 
of the Bahamas (agave rigida) was literally a thorn 
in the sid<) of the fruit planters. Ubiquitous, irre- 
pressible, it showed a preference for pine-apple lands ; 
the innumerable suckers which sprang up hydra like 
around the parent-stem defied attempts at extermi- 
nation- It revelled in droughts, it scorned the 
hurrioane. But although a noxious weed, with a 
price upon its head, the sisal has long been of service 
to the local fishermen, who have for generations 
fashioned their lines and hawsers from the fibre 
extracted from its great five-foot leaves. 
All this time no one suspected that the despised 
fibre was worth £26 (§130), per ton in London, 
It has been only during the administration of Sir 
Ambrose Shea that the full value of the "weed" 
has been recognized. Experts in fibre pronounced 
emphatically ia f aYOt of the new hemp ; a marljg 
could be obtained for all that might be produced. 
Thus encouraged, the systematic plantation of acres 
of this aloe was commenced, though many, especially 
the Creoles, scorned and derided, ; for the plant, like 
the prophet, was without honor in its own ce>uutry. 
On the other hand, outsider*, and amongst them Mr. 
Joseph Chamberlain, planted their thousands of acres. 
The fol owing are a few of the facts concerning 
sisal growing which any sisal enthusiast will vouch 
for. The plants will grow upon almost any soil in 
the Bahamas without any previous preparation of 
the ground beyond the actual clearing. The plant 
prefers a lime stone rocky soil — in tact flourishes 
best in desert places where nothing else will gro*. 
Consequently thousands of acres of land, previou»lr 
considered as waste land, are now under profitable 
cu tivation. The initial cost of cultivation is esiima 
ted at about £5 per acre; this includes clearing, and 
purchasing of young pl«nts or suckers. The expens-s 
of the s-cond and third year are almost nominal, 
being confined to the labor for keeping down the 
suckers, and abor is very cheap— t*o shi lings per 
day for men and one shilling for women. At the 
end of the third year the crop comuiencev the hori- 
zontal lesvei are cut and c irried away to be crushed 
and the fibre extrac'.ed. The c op is now continuous 
— as the leave < become horizontal they are cut, and 
since the- life of a p ant thus continually pruned is 
estimated variously at from ten to - .>.:<•_■ n years, 
the harvest is a long one. The extraction of the 
fibre is at present rather a primitive process. Tho 
leaves are thrust half-way between coirugated rollers, 
withdrawn, reversed, aud crushed again. The horse- 
tail mass of fiore, is then rinsed in the sea, and 
dried m the sun. A skein of glistening silk-like 
fibre four to six feet in length, is tbe result. There 
are many other fibre-producing aloes, but it is claimed 
that th i Bahama's sisal is almost entirely free from 
resin or gum, the presence of which makes the pre- 
paration a more tedious and expensive p ocess. The 
estimated yield of fibre per acre is half a ton per 
annum, aid the estimated cos. of placing it on the 
market is £12 p.r ton; while the market price 
is £26 per ton. or £2 more than m&ailla hemp. 
Sisal therefore may be cal ed, " The Hope of the 
Bahamas." 
THIS DESTRUCTION OF COCKCH VFKKS. 
[Translated for the Sugar Jowsnal from the 
Bulletin Ayricotc] 
M. Gatson de Vanx, an agriculturist, has mad: 
some experiments wth the object of destroying the 
cockchafers on his estate. O i the cockchafers first 
appearance he gathers together a certain number. 
He then prepares the following mixture: — Three litres 
of water, the white of two eggs, a large tablespoon 
. f kitchen salt, and a large spoonful of honey. To 
all this he adds two tubes of Botrytt leneUa, which 
is obtained at the chemists. He then puts tbe cock- 
chafers in a flower pot, about 9 in. high, which 
has a hole in the bottom, and pours over them the 
mixture hs has prepared. The insects get well 
wetted through by the sticky fluid, and the opera- 
tion is quickly repeated several times. In three or 
four minutes the insects have been sufficiently mois- 
tened, and they are then spread out on the ground 
in the sun. Most of them regain their strength 
and fly away, carrying with them the spores of 
BotrytU tendla. 
With this solution M. de Vaux has been able to 
iufect two or three hectolitres of cockciiafers, and 
the results have been most surprising. Three or 
four weeks after the operation, dead bodies of cock- 
chafers were found everywhere, on the ground and 
buried in tbe earth. Havii g obtained this success, 
M. de Vaux proposes this ^ear to establish in hij 
neighbourhood several p aces lor cockchafet inf c ton 
and owing to the lively and roaming nature of these 
insects he hopes that they will carry death to the 
raajorit7 of cockchafers ia the district, 
