Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
figure 7.1.TheViningC.DunlaplaboratoriesinLaLima,Honduras
(1953).UnitedFruitCompanyPhotographCollection.BakerLibrary,
HarvardBusinessSchool.
department's annual report. But the company's interest in new crops di-
minished rapidly following the 1954 strike. In 1955 the New Crops Pro-
gram all but ceased to exist following the transferof its personnel to other
projects. The notable exceptions were African oil palm and cattle whose
production would continue to expand.
11
The research department's annual reports for the remainder of the
decade focused almost entirely on banana production. In 1958, research
director Jesse Hobson declared that his staff was ''properly directed at
helpingtoimprovethecompany'searningsthroughincreasedproduction
per acre and through reducing costs of production.''
12
The statement re-
flected the pressures on Hobson and his colleagues to generate findings
that could help United Fruit overcome production problems that were
cutting sharply into company profits. In the face of dwindling earnings
and declining stock value, a new generation of executives boosted the re-
search budget from about $1.5 million in 1958 to $2.5 million in 1959. The
numberofscientistsswelledto94(including45withdoctoratedegrees)in
a range of disciplines including agronomy, entomology, genetics, micro-
