8 3 8 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [June I, 1895. 
Darjeeling 
18b;! 
18.59 
13.17 
5.42 
1884 
17.41 
12.18 
5.23 
1885 
17.72 
11.91 
4.81 
1886 
15.18 
10.18 
6.M 
1887 
13.98 
9.79 
4.19 
1888 
12.54 
9.15 
3.39 
1889 
14.10 
10.11 
3.99 
1890 
12.66 
10.14 
2.52 
1891 
11.72 
9-36 
236 
1892 
12.90 
8.40 
4-50 
1893 
11.02 
8.50 
202 
THE BANANA TRADE OF JAMAICA. 
A paper in the latest issue of " Timehri " itlie 
Journal of the Royal Agricultural and Commercial 
Society of British Guiana) gives us a new an<l much 
enlarged view of the great importance of the in- 
dustry and trade in "bananas" or plantains 
Which has sprung up in Jamaica. We are sur- 
prised that our correspondent, Mr. Wm. Sabon- 
adiere, has never alluded to the revolution that 
was taking place ; but probably the change has 
been confined to a part of the island remote 
from his coffee-growing district. Among other 
things in the fallowing extract from the paper 
before us, we want to direct the attention of 
our planters to the way in which a banana 
trade has led to Railway Extension, to 
narrow-gauge lines projected, and especially to 
the "Overhead Wire Railroad " successfully con- 
structed ami u « >!-U e< I by one private proprietoi 
on his own account, at a cost of about £8,000. 
(A detailed account of tlii Wot)j Would I ' 
much interest to us in Ceylon). What Fruit 
Companies and Syndicates have done in tramwaye 
&c. will be duly noted, and the fait that the 
Governor, Sir Henry Blake, has not been afraid 
to identify himself with one enterprising Syndi- 
cate. Above all let it be noted how sugar 
estates which had sunk to a value of £30,(100 
have been transformed into "banana walks" 
and raised to a value exceeding £135,000! — while 
the total output of bananas in Jamaica is 
now put at 4 million bunches a year, with 10, 
1*2 and even 14 steamers loading up in a week in 
the height of the season ! Here is the extract : — 
The innumerable neat little cottages and new 
houses dotted all over the hills, surrounded by small 
and large tracts of laud in bananas, the many 
wharves and storehouses, new villages and enlarged 
and busy centres of trade connected by a network of 
telephone and telegraph wires, even in the remotest 
parts of the hills, present a more impressive pictuie 
of prosperity than either words or statistics can con- 
vey. It is not many years ago, even as late as 1880, 
that little or nothing was known of the interior of 
the Island, and the few mule -tracks that did duty 
as roads across the country were seldom used by 
white people except on an occasional journey. The 
negroes lived in a semi-wild state, often going about 
in a naked condition and running and hiding at the 
approach of a white man. But all this is changed 
now, for with the continued increase of the area 
under bananas, many new roads aud extensive re- 
pairs to old ones were demanded and insisted upon; 
and the local authorities being unable to cope with 
the urgent needs of the new industry petitioned 
the Government, which in 1891, assumed the manage- 
ment of over 900 miles of these parochial roads, 
and at once set about the simultaneous reconstruc- 
tion of them in each district at a cost varying from 
£100 to £400 per mile. Good roads without bridges 
being of little service, the Government had to face 
an outlay of £150,000 for this purpose, which has 
been chiefly spent in the parishes of Portland and 
St. Thomas-in-the-East, in the construction of some 
fine iron and concrete structures varying in length 
from 80 to 480 feet over the Eio Grande Biver. At 
the same time urgent demands were made through- 
out the Island for railway extension and £1,200,00 
was voted for the purpose of increasing the line one 
hundred miles, the greater portion of which U> been 
brought into operation. Several narrow gauue Tram- 
ways have also been projected to tap the rich valleys 
and act as feeders to the main line. In a few in- 
stances such lines are actually in operation, whilst 
Mr. Clarke's Overhead Wire Kailroad traversing the 
Mandeville mountains from Porus to his banana 
property is worthy of mention. This line wat erected 
by him at a cost of some 640,000. solely for the 
transportation of his own fruit direct from the fields 
into the railway shed at Porus and thus avoid hand- 
line and jolting in cartage. 
The Fruit Companies on their part have not been 
backward, and beyond the use of private telephones 
connecting their properties, wharves and buying sta- 
tions, and the construction of Tramways, Tiave 
built, and are building fast steamships, specially 
designed and fitted with warming and ventilating 
apparatus for the safe conveyance of the 
fruit in all seasons, while Captain Baker, of 
the Boston Fruit Company, which owns some 35,000 
acres of land in Jamaica alone, is constructing a dry 
Dock at Port Antonio, where he already has exten- 
sive shops for boat building and ship repairing. He 
has further been successful in raising some £300,000 
in London to further develop his gigantic Banana 
Industry in all its various branches, while the 
Jamaica Syndicate with a capital of £50.000 in ten 
shares of £5.000 each, was projKJsed, formed and 
£30,000 of its capitul subscribed inside of 18 hours, 
aud cabled to London to Messrs. Hawthorne and 
Shcddon to acquire certain sugar projKTties then in 
the market. Among the gentlemen forming this 
enterprising Syndicate, was His Excellency Si > Henry 
Blake, who took one chare. 
Among the individual proprietor:, of large banana 
ualks, maybe mentioned Dr. Pringle, who some four 
years ago refused £125,000 for his properties, which 
as sugar estates in cultivation, together with live 
and dead stock he had acquired for £30,000. Within 
the last four years he has almost doubled the area 
under bananas and now loads his own steamers 
weekly. The extent of the export of bananas from 
Jamaica at present is on an average between 70,000 
and 80,000 bunches a week, and it i6 not uncommon 
for 10, 12 and even 14 steamers to clear at a single 
port in a week during the height of the season between 
March and June, so that the annual output may be 
roughly taken at 4,000,000 bunches. 
The great advantages possessed by Jamaica for 
this fruit trade are richness of soil and proximity 
to the great and growing American market, 
while she is also within manageable distance 
of London. There is little chance of Ceylon com- 
peting, we fear, for a share in the European 
trade, although, we daresay, a market could be 
found in Egypt or the nearer parts of Southern 
Europe; but there is another question raised by 
Dr. H. B. Ford, the writer in "Timehri,' 
who quotes an account of the preparation of 
tine dry meal from bananas and plantains, which 
was copied into the " Suirar Journal " from the 
Tropical Agriculturist. If a meal-making indus- 
try came to the front — and we shall watch for 
experiments — there is no reason why some dis- 
tricts in Ceylon should not reap the benefit. 
♦ 
LABOUR SUPPLY ON CEYLON 
PLANTATIONS. 
(From a Correspondent.) 
As the Secretary of the Northern Districts Planters' 
I Association may not have bad time to send you a 
I report of the meeting, the following is a copy from the 
rough draft of the paper read re the Labour difficulty. 
(Ibis does not pretend to be an exact copy.) 
1.— That a Labour Intelligence Agency be formed, 
i with a Committee consisting of the Chairman and 
I Secretary of the Planters' Association and the Chair- 
