Every day, as you walk along the streets you see great bunches of bananas hanging in front of fruit and grocery stores. You find them at the corner fruit stand, and peddlers carry them from house to house.

Although bananas are so common now and so cheap that all can afford to eat them, this was not so when your grandparents were children. In those days the fruit was regarded as quite a luxury, for there were few people engaged in carrying it from its tropical home to the cities of our country. Now many small but swift ships, called "fruiters," carry on this business. They get their cargoes of fruit in the West Indies or Central America, and within a week after sailing they are unloading at New Orleans, Baltimore, New York, or Boston. If the number of bananas which reach our country each year were equally distributed, each person would receive twenty-five.

Let us get aboard that wonderful train upon which all may travel free of cost, which runs equally well upon land and water. We step off right in the center of a banana plantation on the island of Jamaica.Yes, these are banana trees all about you. See how long and broad the leaves are and how gracefully they droop! Some of them are ten or fifteen feet long; almost as long as the trees are tall. The trees, you see, are simply stalks from which the leaves unroll. Here you can see some just starting out. They are rolls of bright green, pointing upward, each starting from the center of the stalk. No, the leaves were not torn in that way by the pickers. The wind sometimes whips them into ribbons, for they are very tender.

These stalks growing from the base of the main stem are called "suckers" here; in Costa Rica they are called "bits." You remember that there are no seeds in bananas. It is these "suckers" that are planted when a farmer wants to start a plantation. They are set out when two or three feet high and within a year they bear fruit. What did I tell you about the length of time required for the cocoanut to bear?

It is but four years since the trees in this plantation were single "suckers," standing about fifteen feet apart. Now there are several stalks grouped about each parent plant, and the beautiful leaves, touching overhead, form shaded aisles of green.

Of course a great number of "suckers" are not allowed to grow together. Keeping these cut down is called "cleaning the plantation."

Now let us examine the fruit on this tree beside us. You see that the great cluster or bunch is made up of smaller bunches. These are called "hands," and each banana is spoken of as a "finger." Let us count the "hands" in this bunch. This is an unusually large one, for it contains thirteen. Nine "hands" make a full bunch. As you see, there are from ten to twenty "fingers" in a "hand." Buyers will seldom take bunches of less than six "hands."

Here come the fruit cutters to help get a cargo for the "fruiter" we saw at anchor.

Yes, the bananas are green, I know, and they are always green when gathered. They will ripen in the storehouses when they reach the United States.

No, it is not a waste to cut down the stalks, for they die after bearing their fruit, and the smaller stalks about them will soon yield. Some of these stalks, you see, have but one bunch and some have two or three. How odd the bunches look with the "fingers" all pointing upward!

The banana leaves which the men are wrapping about the bunches are to protect the fruit. It bruises very easily and great quantities are lost on this account. They are not always wrapped, however.When the fruit reaches the vessel, it is carefully inspected; and if not in just the right condition, it is refused. The bunches which are accepted, are taken into the hold of the ship and packed closely together. The planter receives for these from ten to thirty-five cents a bunch. Just think of buying eight or nine dozen of bananas for ten cents!

The men will not stop work until the ship is loaded. It may take twenty-four hours, and it may take twice that long, for a "fruiter" will carry from fifteen to twenty thousand bunches of fruit.

In some parts of Central America, where there are no harbors, the planters float the fruit down the streams in canoes. The vessels anchor at some distance from the shore, and the bananas are taken out in boats called dories. They are hoisted up to the deck of the ship by means of pulleys, and then packed in the hold. The thousands of bunches which are bruised in handling are thrown into the sea.

While the northern ports get most of their supply of bananas from the West Indies, the Pacific coast states are supplied from Central America. The "fruiters" unload at New Orleans into trains, which carry the fruit to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other places. Banana trains also run from New Orleans to St. Louis, Chicago, and other parts of the country.

The fruit ships have great pipes or ventilators, which carry the cool, fresh air from the sea down into the hold. Sometimes when they reach port it is so cold that the bananas cannot be taken out for a few days. Wagons are loaded with the fruit at the wharves, and it is taken to warehouses where it gradually turns yellow. I am sure you have seen loads of the green fruit on the streets.

When the wholesale merchant sells the fruit, he often incloses each bunch in the rough material of which gunny sacks are made, and then puts a light, circular frame, made of strips of wood, over it. This, you see, protects the bananas. The grocer or fruit man takes hold of the frame without danger of mashing the fruit, lifts the bunch, and hangs it upon a hook. The frame and sacking are then removed.

Bananas grow in the tropical parts of Asia and Africa and on many of the islands of the Pacific Ocean. They are also raised in Florida, and they ripen in sheltered places in Southern California.

You have seen both yellow and red bananas. The red ones usually bring the higher price, but they do not keep well and are not so extensively raised as the yellow ones.

The banana is an important article of food. It is much more nourishing than potatoes or even good, white bread. A flour or meal can be made from the fruit by drying it and then grinding.