Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
and NewYork City).Twoyears later, one contemporaryobserverdeclared
that the banana had joined the apple as a ''staple article'' in U.S. diets.
87
The rise in U.S. consumption of bananas and other fresh fruits co-
incided with the diffusion of steamships and locomotives that were ca-
pable of transporting bulky and perishable commodities great distances
at previously unattainable speeds.The diffusion of railroads and climate-
controlledboxcarsenabledfruitstoreachdistantmarketplacesinsaleable
condition. One 1893 source noted that the ''well organized'' rail service
between New Orleans and Chicago enabled bananas to sell frequently at
lower prices in the Windy City than in New York.
88
In a very real sense,
then,thetransformationofthebananafromanoveltytocommoditywasa
product of the fossil fuel era. But innovations in transportation technolo-
gies alone cannot explain the tremendous rise in U.S. banana imports.
When bananas first began to appear in Atlantic ports, patterns of
North American fruit eating were decidedly seasonal. Apples, peaches,
strawberries, and melons enjoyed widespread popularity, but fresh fruits
were generally scarce in the winter and early spring months. U.S. banana
consumption also tended to vary by season: demand peaked between
March and Julyand declined in the fall and early winter months.This pat-
tern reflected both the seasonality of domestic U.S. fruits—banana con-
sumption slacked when fresh peaches, melons, and apples were avail-
able—and the fact that many small fruit dealers who lacked insulated
storage facilities stopped carrying bananas during the winter. However,
thefactthatbananaswereharvestedthroughoutthecalendaryearenabled
themtobecomethefirstseasonlessfreshfruitavailableformassconsump-
tion in the United States.
Bananas were also affordable. By the 1890s, expanding production
in the tropics, combined with the replacement of schooners by steam-
ships, enabled traders to lower wholesale and retail prices. A source from
1893 indicated that ''Italians and other foreigners'' in mining regions de-
pended heavily on bananas, which were ''cheaper than bread.''
89
Alfred
Sedgwick's1875comedyskitalsosuggeststhatbananaswerenotunknown
to working-class immigrants. Ironically, the perishable nature of bananas
helped to bring them within the economic reach of the working classes
by giving rise to a discount market for fruit that reached U.S. ports in an
overripecondition.Knownas''shipripes''or''dockfruit,''overripeand/or
otherwiselow-qualityfruitwouldbesoldimmediatelyatdocksidetolocal
retailers at a fraction of the price of first-class fruit.
Bananas also entered the diets of the expanding middle classes during
