Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1894 — TROPICAL FRUITS. [ARTICLE]

TROPICAL FRUITS.

HOW THEY ARE HANDLED DURING SHIPMENT. Bananas Rsaulra the Most Caraftaf Treatment-* Methods of Paoklae the Various Fruita. Between 5,000,000 and 6,000,000 bunches of bananas are sold in thia city every year, and though St. Louis 4 consumes the bulk of these, a greatdeal is shipped' to points between here and San Francisco. The biK warehouses in which this fruit is stored and brought to maturity before selling and shipping are located along North Third street. A ramble among these brings out many interesting points, not only about the methods employed in handling and ripening bananas, but a deal of other tropical fruit. Bananas for the St. Louis market come from points in British Honduras, Jamaica and the islands of the Southern Atlantic Ocean. Port Limon, Boco del Foro, Port Antonio, Araranca and the Blue Fields of Nicaragua are the greatest producers. The bananas grow on great plantations, and as they are cut are carried on the backs and heads of natives to the big vessels which are engaged in the business of transporting tropical fruits to the United States. The fruit is green when loaded into the hull of the vessel, and care must be taken, not only in loading the cargo in the vessel’s hold, but also in preventing by the use of ventilation, any sweating process that would arise if the hold were allowed to grow warm. In this green state the fruit intended for St. Louis and points on the Mississippi is loaded on boats or cars at Mobile and near New Orleans. From the landing stages where theboats arrive, or from the freight sheds, it is hauled in huge express wagons to the warehouses already mentioned, and in front of these any fine day when a cargo of bananas is being received the scenes are truly interesting. As the big trucks, loaded with their precious freight, pull up before the doors hundreds of Italian peddlers, ragged urchins and negro women scramble for such of the fruit. as, having ripened on the bunches, may fall to the sidewalks, and thescenes that follow tho scuffle are amusing in the extreme. Now that the fruit has arrived' safely at its destination it requires even more of an outlay 4f watchfulness and experience to? prepare it suitably for the market. The bunches are carried to long, dark rooms where steam pipes or gas stoves keep the temperature at different degrees of heat, varying from 50 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit. The finer formed bunches, bearing the larger class of fruit, are hung on the bottom racks, while the smaller sized go to the top, because the heat rises and concentrates along the ceilings of these rooms, thereby giving greater force to the small fruit, which ripens moreslowly than the larger sort. The orders that come in for bananas usually state the stage of ripeness in which the buyer desires the fruit shipped to him. The packing must be done very carefully as it i» without doubt the most tender of all tropical fruits to handle. First, the bunches are placed in> big paper bags and these are then dipped into cases lined with straw or salt hay as a still further protection against the changes of temperature. In this packing they are easily shipped to the most distant points in the country. Aspinwall was at one time the greatest port for the shipment of thia fruit to the United States, but since the Pacific Fruit Transportation Company ceased operating their line of. steamers, this business has fallen away altogether. j Oranges of every sort—navel, tangerine and grape fruit—are plentiful in these great stock-rooms, and the supply is usually drawn from Florida, I although California is called upon at* ' times. Of the Florida fruit the best? 1 comes from Citra, Leesburg, OrangeBend on Indian river. Tampa,Gainesville, Emerald Island and points in the south and southeast of the State. Tangerines and grape-fruit kidglove oranges, as they are termed by the fruit dealers—are comparatively 1 new in this market and are little? known, though in the Far South the cooks use them in delightful salads, marmalade and cake dressings or puddings. They are higher grade in flesh, flavor and price than the Florida oranges, and are usually packed, more carefully in their wooden cases. The long gray Spanish moss that was formerly used in packing is doneaway with by paper, tinsel and tissuesheets. A few lemons are received from thePacific Slope, but the greater portions are imported from points along the Mediterranean Sea, and especially from Sicily. Figs are received in bags; from Arabia, and these are the coarser sort. Finer, larger figs are sent from many points in the Far East and are beautifully laid one upon another, with alternate layers of their own leaves, and packed in wooden cases. Almena and Malaga in Spain furnish the finest varieties of white grapes and raisins. The grapes are shipped in half-barrels, packed in cork dust; the raisins in fine boxes, whose covers are elaborately colored lithographs of Spanish vineyard scenes, or of dark-eyed sons of sunny Spain ipaking love to some fair sonorita on the shady slope of a vinecovered hill. Dates, always in sacks made of plaited “ vegetable palm,” are received from Arabia and Turkey, and. this quality is known as the Fard date, for it is much heavier and dtw'ker in color than the Golden date, which comes only from Persia.—[St. Louis Republic. George Kimberly, an Englishman, employed as a bookkeeper in an importing house in Canton; China, recently gave a most marvelbus exhibition of memory. The combination; lock of the safe got out of order, and! he couldn’t get at his ledger to make out bills which had to be prepared that day without fait He performed the remarkable feat of accurately rendering irom memory the bills of sixty-two out of sixty-four accounts.