It seems reasonably certain that bananas on the Bluefields River pay better than many crops in the United States. * * * * These figures would seem to indicate that at the end of a year a planter having 36 acres of bananas under cultivation would have $3,847.32 left after paying for all necessary labor and provisions--figures apt to bring discontent to an American farmer having but 36 acres of wheat or corn; and especially so when he compares the price of his land, ranging from $15 to $80 per acre, with that of land in eastern Nicaragua, where cultivated lands may be said to have no established market value, few improved plantations having ever been sold. [Illustration: BEGINNING OF A LONG JOURNEY] Such discontent might be aggravated by consideration of the differences which exist between the results obtained from the chief eight crops of the United States and those shown by the foregoing summary of banana farming. These differences are illustrated by the following figures, those for the crops of the North showing the yield and values for the year 1897. The last column shows the difference in favor of bananas per acre: =================+==========+==========+=================== CROPS | Yield | Value | Difference, favor | per acre | per acre | of Bananas -----------------+----------+----------+------------------- Barley, bushels | 23.11 | $12 34 | $93 59 Buckwheat, 〃 | 16.08 | 9 69 | 96 25 Corn, 〃 | 24.62 | 9 51 | 96 43 Oats, 〃 | 27.19 | 8 29 | 97 65 Potatoes, 〃 | 80.44 | 39 45 | 66 49 Rye, 〃 | 13.30 | 8 22 | 97 72 Wheat, 〃 | 12.78 | 10 11 | 95 83 Hay, tons | 1.26 | 10 93 | 95 01 Tobacco, pounds | 797.30 | 55 81 | 50 13 -----------------+----------+----------+------------------- General averages | | $18 28 | $87 66 =================+==========+==========+=================== From this it is evident that bananas give five and one-half times as much as the principal crops of the United States give the farmer for his toil. Many native planters seem content with the returns their bananas give, and appear to have no thought of increasing that income. “Why don’t you plant more bananas? See how well this little patch has paid,” I have said to many of them. “Why should I do that? Have I not plenty to eat? I have enough money; if I plant more I shall have to do more work to get more money which I don’t need,” is the substance of their replies.