===========+=========+=========+=========+========= Countries | Bunches | Income | Cost | Profit Costa Rica | 250.0 | $ 70 67 | $ 28 84 | $ 41 83 Guatamala | 267.5 | 124 36 | 42 80 | 81 56 Honduras | 294.0 | 121 13 | 18 97 | 102 16 Jamaica | 288.0 | 109 48 | 27 58 | 81 90 Mexico | 280.0 | 123 61 | 28 12 | 95 49 Nicaragua | 246.2 | 86 36 | 22 07 | 64 29 -----------+---------+---------+---------+--------- Averages | 270.95 |$ 105 94 | $ 28 06 | $ 77 87 ===========+=========+=========+=========+========= From the foregoing it appears that the general average yield per acre during the twenty years covered by the figures given, was 270.95 bunches per acre; the average cost per acre was $28.06, which was only 10.3 cents per bunch. The profit per bunch was 28.7 cents, or 287.9 per cent. A report dated August 1, 1903, by Las Haciendas de Santa Clara, Costa Rica, which has 550 acres of bananas in full bearing, and where wages are one colon or 47 cents per diem, gives the cost of cultivating and delivering the fruit at the railroad, as $17.69 per acre, the yield at 173 bunches and the income at $54.90 annually. That shows that the bananas cost 10.2 cents per bunch, and that the profit was 20.8 cents a bunch, or 200 per cent. But as the fruit is sold five years ahead at those figures, the small percentage of profit may be regarded as a fair return for the investment, combined as it is with an assurance of continued gain. There are those who insist that the higher results shown in the foregoing table may easily be obtained by any one who will give as much thought and labor to growing bananas as are required for the successful raising of corn or of potatoes. It is true that the figures on which the averages shown are based were, in many cases, from the experience of native and other planters of little diligence and skill, and that they got smaller results than might easily have been obtained. It may be possible that if one will allow two or three stalks to rise from each stand of bananas, and together mature their fruit, he many get 444 to 780 bunches from an acre each of a few years, and that in such a case he might get $185 to $278 for the crop; but it will be clear to all that he who expects to make only 270 bunches per annum from an acre, and get only $78 profit therefrom, will be safer than he who invests his money with the expectation of making greater gains. The Hand Book of Nicaragua, published by the Bureau of American Republics, which is under the direction of the U. S. Department of State, says: