When he has set out an acre or two of bananas, the planter need have no fears for the future. He has ample insurance against such privations as come from illness, accident or old age: and they who by a little labor pay for such insurance share each day its material benefits. No need for them to die that others may enjoy the blessings of such wise provision; nor need the planter toil with hoe or spade, cultivator or plow. It may be he will slash away with machete such vine or sapling, grass or weed as happens to obstruct his path; but as a whole he interferes as little as possible with the operations of kindly Mother Nature. She is more than ready to do his work: he is willing to let her do it.
He whose acre of bananas has been well planted has on it 225 hills, or 900 stalks. Each stalk will give him a bunch which, on rich, new ground, should weigh 60 pounds, say 54,000 pounds each 12 or 14 months. That is the theory. The fact seems to be that the average yield is really 175 to 300 full bunches to the acre per annum, say a mean of 270 bunches weighing about 16,000 pounds. The average yield reported all along the Caribbean shore and from Jamaica, during a dozen years, equaled 270.95 full bunches an acre per annum.
In the year 1902 the average yield of potatoes in the United States was 80.44 bushels per acre, and the average farm value was 49 cents per bushel, or $39.45 an acre. In Costa Rica the average price of bananas on the plantation was equal to at least 27 cents a bunch. At that figure 261 bunches would bring $70.47. In August, 1903, the price was raised to 31 cents a bunch on contracts to run three to five years; which should give $84.00 per acre each year. That is a cash difference of $44.55 in favor of the man whose bananas raised themselves for him. There was another difference in his favor, for his fruit may be eaten green or ripe, raw or roasted, boiled or fried, with fish, flesh or fowl, or with none of these.
Those who dwell in the mountain regions, far from the ports whence bananas are shipped, dip in lye and dry in the sun many a plátano. It is then shriveled, moldy-looking and altogether unlovely; but if kept dry it remains sweet and wholesome many a year. It may be eaten uncooked, when it is a gummy, sugary paste; but drop it into scalding water, put it into a hot oven, or stick it up beside the fire, and it becomes mightily puffed up, tender and savory. It might be sent thus dried to feed the people of the North or of Europe, for it would be easily packed and carried.
Naturally the intelligent planter concerns himself mainly with the question: What is the cost, the yield and the profit of banana growing? There are evidences that many people in the North feel a lively curiosity about the same points.
Before one can give a trustworthy reply to such question he must study the evidence of those who have had opportunity to learn the truth, and he should be able to present the general averages of the results shown by many such witnesses. The planter of medium ability and industry may confidently expect to attain the average results; he who has less intelligence and thrift should not complain if he fails to get as good returns; he who shows more than common skill, application and energy will win greater reward than is shown by the average of the banana-growing of the many, as in other occupations great skill and industry bring the larger rewards.
Reports covering years of experience by thousands of planters in the West Indies and along the Atlantic coast of Mexico and of Central America, indicate that the cost per acre of making banana plantations and cultivating and harvesting the first crop therefrom, the yield in bunches and the income, are as shown in the following table:
| 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.