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Show Traveling Around America j i- LOADING FINGERS AND HANDS THESE longshoremen, believe it oi not, are loading thousands oi fingers and hands into the holds of a Grace Line ship In Guayaquil, Ecuador. We're speaking of bananas, ba-nanas, of course. In the trade bunches of bananas are known as tems. Each bunch Is made up of "lands" or clusters, having ten to twenty "fingers," as the Individual bananas are called. Only those tith sue or mora "hands" usually ire considered marketable, and they fall Into classes known as liies, sevens, eights and nines, though many times bunches contain con-tain more than nine hands. The aandllng of the "stems" Is of the itmost Importance for when the trait It harvested It Is still alive drawing nourishment from the took, with sap still flowing and littles changing as the ripening the dock, long chains of natives pass the "stems" rapidly to the ship. The bunches are quickly but thoroughly inspected again, then placed on conveyor belts which carry them to the holds whre experienced ex-perienced laborers receive them, carefully stow them In the bins to which each class belongs with foremen overseeing the work and counting the bunches in each class. The "stems" usually are placed In three tiers two standing and one flat, or vice versa, so that the air can circulate between them. As soon as the hatches are battened down the temperature Is reduced as quickly as possible, by refrigeration, refrigera-tion, to B7'F, a temperature which Is maintained throughout the voyage. voy-age. The holds also are well ventilated ven-tilated for vitiated air U quite as harmful to the banana In transit as JfoctBB continues. Close timing Is observed all along the way from tit picking ot the fruit to Its delivery de-livery t0 far-away neighborhood neighbor-hood store. With correct timing the fruit not reach the port for loading tatll th ship li ready to recelre It- H the banana trains or trucks wges donot.proceed direst to heat and humidity. After the fruit Is all tucked away stowage plana are drawn up showing the locatloa and quantity of the various classes, so that no time need be lot In speeding th bananas to their final destination when they reaca th end ot ths royage. , - - - Epiu Ma Stabk. |