78 
Modern Business Geography 
the rains are sufficient. California, too, is more than twice as far as 
Florida from the greatest citrus-fruit markets — St. Louis, Chicago, 
Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. These handicaps have 
been largely overcome by an efficient codperative organization of the 
growers, with the result that the fruit is picked, packed, shipped, and 
marketed to the best advantage. Florida growers are slowly following 
the California example of working together. 
Orange growing outside the United States. Oranges and lemons 
are grown in many tropical and semi-tropical regions, but they enter 
into commerce only on the edges of these regions, near highly civilized 
countries of the temperate zone. Thus the Mediterranean countries, 
especially Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Algeria, raise oranges and lem- 
ons for the countries to the north and ship them thither by both rail 
and steamer. Although the California industry is rapidly expand- 
ing, the United States still receives six or seven million dollars’ worth 
of lemons annually from Italy. 
BANANAS 
Among the fruits of the torrid zone the most important are bananas. 
In many tropical lands of abundant rainfall, bananas are as important 
to the people as are the cereals in the temperate zone. Some are as big 
as a man’s arm; a single one of this kind makes a good meal for three 
men. Others are as small as one’s finger, sweet and delicately flavored. 
Some are yellow and slender, others red and fat. Some are eaten raw, 
but many require cooking. Among the tropical people who really live 
on bananas, the cooking varieties are much the most important. The 
flower bud and the soft new shoots are eaten as salad. There are 
seventy kinds of bananas in the Philippines alone. 
How bananas are grown. The people of many tropical regions 
use a great many bananas because it is easy to raise them. A 
sucker from an older tree is set into the ground. Within less than a 
year a great fat stem like a cornstalk fifteen feet high bends over 
under the weight of a huge bunch of bananas, which often hangs 
within easy reach from the ground. When the fruit is ripe the stalk 
dies; but as other stalks have sprung meanwhile from the same root, 
there is nearly always a supply of ripe bananas. 
The regions that export bananas. Bananas for export are raised 
only in those regions of the torrid zone that are within easy reach of 
densely populated parts of the temperate zone. This is because the 
fruit is perishable. Thus the United States gets its supply from the 
West Indies and Central America, especially from Jamaica. Guate-