Banana Bonanza: With a predicted 1955 crop of 40,000,000 (m) banana stems, yielding one-fifth of the world's total banana export, Ecuador is today the world's biggest producer of the yellow-skinned fruit. A year-round industry, cultivation of the tropical fruit not only provides steady employment for some 100,000 native worker but also draws thousands of growers from all parts of the globe who hope to take their fortune in the new "gold rush." Guayaquil: This closeup shows a banana blossom which is removed after the stem has developed in order not to sap the growth of the remaining "hands" of bananas. In the Ecuadorian climate trees keep sprouting so fast that a mature tree is ready to be cut for a stem of bananas every three or four months. Each stem brings about $1.25 to the grower.

Photo is dated 1955.

Photo measures 7 x 9.25 inches.