Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1891 — MILLIONS OF BANANAS. [ARTICLE]

MILLIONS OF BANANAS.

k GREAT METROPOLITAN IN DUSTRY OF RECENT GROWTH, How the Fruit Is Brought to New York by Banana Ships—Five Crops of Bananas Yearly—Artificial Ripening. Five hundred million bananas! 'l'hut is about wrhut comes to this country through the port of New York every season. New Orleans probably handles quite as many. It is only of late that Bostou, Philadelphia and Haltimoro have engaged in the banana trade. The bnuaua trade is the growth of the last fifteen years. It is true there were bananas imported previous to this, but the biggest trade then didn’t run more than 2,IKK) bunehos every ten days or so. Now it averages upward of 100,000 bunches a week for this city alone. A heavy importer tells me that the trade increased for several years quite as rapidly as means were devised to satisfy it. The smallest, increase was for tins year, being not ovor 5 per cent, over last year’s product, whereas flint year was at" least 25 per cent, better than the previous one. n.o slight increase this year is due to the drv season that caught the banana farmers and the consequent decreased production. "Ifyou want any idea of the demand,” said Mr. Kerr, a .\lurray street importer, “ I need only say that we took off 10,000 bunches from one of our ships yesterday and haven’t a banana left to-day. There are banana ships unloading somewhere every day, too. There are seven houses here engaged in the business, and all together run some thirty steamers. These steamers carry from IQ,IKK) to 20,000 bunches each trip. Most of them return to tho bununa country in ballast, though wo own our vessels and send them back with breadstuff's and provisions. Wo bundle about a million hunches a year. There are about a million and a half more handled at piers 3 and 6on this side, and across town on the East River, at piers 7, 9 and 10, perhaps two million more. In round numbers, close on to fire million bunches a year come to this port. These bunches weigh from fifteen to seventy pounds and contain from 40 to 135 hummus to the bunch.

“ A good many erroneous ideas are entertained as to the banana trade. Home people suppose thut bananas, like oranges, appear only within certain seasons and arc preserved by some mysterious process so as to last tho year round. Others that they are reproduced, crop after crop, perennially. Neither of those suppositions is wholly light or wholly wrong. Our Cuba trade lasts only during tho summer months, opening about March and closing about October 1. Whereas the trade of Jamaica and Port Lcmoth, on the South American coast, near Aspinivull, continues unbroken the year round. It takes übout ten months to mature the fruit, and when the fruit, is matured the plant dies) but the banana fanner permits tho growth of a certain number of sprouts at different stages, so thut one plant follows another from the same root at short intervals. For instance, when a pluut is about mature and the fruit is ready to be removed there is a secon 1 growth of say six months and a third growth of say three mouths, and a fourth growth just, starting- all from the same root. Tho climate and other conditions being favorable, the same root will thus produce four orops a year, though the same stalk produces hut a single crop and its usefulness is over. As every oncoming shoot is iu a different stage of progress from its fellows the harvest goes on all the time. Hanami farming Ims provod very profitable, though the exceedingly low prices at which bananas are sold by the importers and jobbers and the Waste in transit would seern to iudicute that the producer gets tho smallest profit, of the whole business. The Now York importer moots the New Orleans importer at the competitive point of Chicago. Very few New York hummus roach Chicago, and the competition is shurp even at Cincinnati. The hunaim is a fluctuating commodity. It must be bundled quickly. Therefore tho jobbers get it into the retailers’ hands as soon as possible. Although the fruit comes hero green and hard it will begin to turn yellow and soft within three summer days, and in five days is dead ripe. In this stage a great deal of waste follows every handling, for it bruises easily, the slightest bruise turns black and rot follows. All of this duinugcd stuff goes into the hands of street venders, who never consider u banana too far gone to sell to somebody. Of course the damaged hunches are disposed of for whatever they will bring.

“Now and then the simultaneous arrival of several shiploads by accident makes a glut in the market,” said the Murray street importer, “and then we have to hustle. It this is i n't lie summer time we must get-rid of our cargo at any price, and right away. In winter we can hold and jobbers can move more leisurely. In fact, in winter the green bananas have to be artificially ripened for tho market. This is done by hanging the bunches in a tight room and employing gas stoves to maintain an even temperature. The summer difficulty of spoiling by over-ripeness is offset by the winter difficulty of spoiling by freezing. The bunches arc packed in hay to obviate both difficulties. While we have lost and are always in danger of losing entire cargoes of tropical fruits, tho danger decreases every year from the fact that we book our orders in advance. For instance, as I said, wo unloaded 10,000 bunches yesterday. All of these went right from the dock, mostly on cars on floats alongside the pier, to fill orders. We have a j cablegram to-day saving another of pur vessels, witli 15,000 bunches, sailed. We notify hor customers that she’ll be here Tuesday. They'll send in for what they thiuk they want. Jobbers used to hang back for a glut, but they often had to pay bigger prices for doing so, and now it is mostly a question of orders. | During the orange season, which is from I September to April, we handle from 2.000 to 3,000 barrels of oranges a week, in conjunction with bananas. It is a great sight to witness the unloading of a banana steamer. The cargo, being perishable, is handled with great celerity. Ail tho longshoremen who cun work conveniently are put at it. As the jobbers also want to handle rapidly, there is an army of trucks nndn paudemonium of sounds and confusion. There are lighters loaded with freight care bearing the signs of all the trunk lines in the country alongside the pier, and into these cars the big bunches of fruit arc hustled and packed on end. The truck, men howl and the longshoremen howl, and the bosses on deck and below howl in unison. Everybody bowls and everybody is on the dead jump; If there were anv hatmna peelings on that banana dock there would be a soore of broken legs every day. But the fruit is green—green ns grass. You couldn’t it without u

butcher knife, and as for eating it. yon might as well out raw potatoes.—[New York World.