Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
continued to challenge their Honduran citizenship as late as 1902.
8
The
politics of the export banana trade, then, acquired an international di-
mension early on due to both the presence of imperial powers old (Great
Britain) and new (United States), and the historical ties that linked Bay
Island residents to Anglo-Caribbean culture.
By the mid-1870s, the Bay Island fruit trade was ''brisk and con-
stantly on the increase.''
9
In 1877 the Oteri and Brothers Company initi-
atedsteamshipservicebetweentheirheadquartersinNewOrleansandthe
Bay Islands.Twoyears later, five additional U.S. steamships were regularly
running bananas from the islands to various U.S. ports.
10
In the month
of November 1880, three schooners and two steamships left Roatán bear-
ingbananasandcoconuts.
11
By1881,theHondurangovernmentpromoted
steamer tra
c by waiving port entry fees for steamships, a policy that
rankled schoonercaptains who did not enjoy the same exemptions.
12
One
local o
cial justified the policy by pointing out that steamships were
larger and faster than schooners and therefore capable of moving larger
volumesoffruitthanwind-drivenvessels.Demandforfruitsoonbeganto
outstrip supply on the Bay Islands, driving prices up and stimulating in-
creases in production. A Honduran government ocial on Roatán could
not contain his satisfaction with the booming economy: ''It's no longer
just a dream . . . thanks to the abundance of Peruvian soles and Mexican
pesos everyone here is up at dawn and, with machete in hand, sets out to
work.''
13
ThesomewhatlesshyperbolicreportsofU.S.consularagentssta-
tioned on the Bay Islands also indicated that banana growing in the 1880s
could be quite lucrative for small-scale growers with limited capital and
labor resources. According toWilliam Burchard, a 4-hectare banana farm
(3,000 plants) cost about $250 in 1880 and provided ''under favorable cir-
cumstances'' $1,500 in revenue the first year and anywhere from $3,000
to $5,000 in subsequent years. He favorably compared banana farming to
coconut cultivation, another important export crop, noting that coconuts
required a significantly larger initial investment and much more time to
generate returns than bananas.
14
Growing export bananas in the late nineteenth century did not re-
quire large inputs of labor. Land clearing was accomplished by burn-
ing underbrush during the dry season (January-April). Later with the
first rains in May, planting was done using ''pointed sticks of hardwood.''
Cultivators spaced the young plants at a distance of some 3-4 meters.
Weeding with machetes was the only task carried out during the ten to
twelve months between planting and harvesting. Growers harvested ba-
nanas when the fruit bunches were green. Harvesters armed with mache-
