Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
The railroad concessions, then, provoked a considerable number of
conflicts between small-scale cultivators and the fruit companies.The in-
ability and/or unwillingness of the national government to conduct land
surveys only served to exacerbate tensions and left local and regional o
-
cials in the awkward position of suspending titling procedures on lots
claimed by the fruit companies via the terms of their concessions. Of
course, the fact that the companies employed lawyers in Tegucigalpa to
represent their interests ensured that they would hold the upper hand in
most land disputes with North Coast farmers. That said, land disputes
resulted partly because the railroads added value to the places through
which they passed by connecting potential banana-producing areas to
mass markets. Between the generous terms of government concessions
and profit-seeking land speculators, there was probably little need for the
fruit companies to resort to strong-arm tactics to secure the soil resources
necessary to expand production.
Within a year of acquiring its railroad concession, the Tela Railroad
Company assembled five hundred workers and imported construction
materials to the port of Tela.
19
By 1915, the company's workforce had laid
more than 75 kilometers of main and branch lines and planted 725 hect-
ares of land in bananas.
20
That year, felling crews cleared some 20 kilo-
meters'worthofforest.Asworkersextendedthemainlineinasouthwest-
erlydirection toward the Ulúa River, theyencountered a mosaic of forests
(including hardwoods, manaca palms, and bamboo), wetlands, and non-
company banana farms.
21
A branch line ran east from Tela to the Leán
Rivervalley,whereworkerscreatedfarmsonpropertiesthatcompanysur-
veyors described as ''heavy'' forest, ''virgin woodlands,'' and ''large trees
and bamboo.''
22
The transformation from forest to banana farm began when survey
teams selected and mapped out an area for planting. Contract workers
cut the underbrush and small saplings with machetes while other laborers
dug drainage ditches. Well-drained soils were considered essential for ex-
port banana production, particularly in the heavy, clay soils common to
the North Coast. By the late 1920s, the United Fruit Company used steam-
powered drag lines to excavate major canal ways, but the irrigation and
drainage ditches that ran through the farms were hand-dug bypaleros,or
ditchdiggers. The field was then staked and planted with three- to four-
pound ''bits,'' or pieces of root stock selected from vigorous Gros Michel
plants growing on other farms. Bits would be spaced anywhere from 18 to
24 feet apart. Following planting, teams of ax- and saw-wielding workers
