Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
tes cut the tall stem of the plant so that the heavy fruit bunch would fall
slowly to the ground. Harvested bunches, weighing anywhere from 40 to
80pounds,werecarriedbypackanimalstotheshoreline,wheretheywere
loaded onto small boats that carried the fruit to larger, oceangoing ves-
sels. After the harvest, the tall stalk was cut near its base in order to make
room for the suckers or offshoots that would reproduce the cycle of fruit
production.
15
In the eyes of U.S. Consul Burchard, the Bay Islanders' cultivation
techniques were ''quite rude and primitive.''
16
Remarking upon the large
quantities of bananas that rotted on the stem during the months of lim-
ited demand, he noted that a ''Northern farmer would utilize this surplus
fruit by raising hogs for the Cuba market which could be made a profit-
able business. When this idea is suggested to a Creole, he will shrug his
shoulders and tell you that it is too much work: 'me no want to bodder
wi'd hog sar.''' Burchard's understanding of Caribbean tools and work
habits as technologically backward is not surprising. Ironically, the rela-
tivesimplicityofcultivationandminimallaborinputswerepreciselywhat
made export banana farming an attractive livelihood. The use of fire and
wooden planting sticks reduced both labor requirements and the need
for imported, forged implements.Weeding practices—chopping only the
tops of the grasses once during each growing cycle—further indicates the
relatively light labor demands that banana growing placed upon small-
scale growers. The seedless banana's capacity to self-propagate or ''clone''
meant that annual replanting was not necessary. The banana's biology
therefore made possible—but did not guarantee—a comparatively quick
and steady return on both capital and labor investments. Of course, this
samebiologyalsopresentedsomechallenges:thegiantherb'streelikestat-
ure rendered it very susceptible to wind damage, particularly when the
plants were bearing heavy fruit bunches.
the mainland growers
As late as 1874, the principal goods exported through the port of
Omoawereforestextractsincludingtropicaltimber.
17
However,following
the passage of the 1877 Agrarian Law, President Soto's vision of Hondu-
rans working to transform forests into farms became a reality in the form
of expanding export banana production on the mainland. By the early
1880s,thegrowingnumberofsteamshipsvisitingthecoastinsearchof ba-
nanas stimulated cultivation along the narrowcoastal plain that stretched
from the Motagua River in the west to the Río Negro in the east.
18
For
