Editing Sam Zemurray (section)

=== Career beginnings ===
Zemurray encountered bananas for the first time in Selma in 1893. At the time, bananas were considered a new and exotic [[delicacy]] in the United States, and the industry was growing quickly. Zemurray went to the port of [[Mobile, Alabama]], in 1895 to enter the banana trade. Because bananas [[Ripening|ripen]] quickly, the banana trade relied on the ability to quickly bring the produce to market. In Mobile, Zemurray specialized in buying cheap bananas in danger of being overripe and quickly transporting and selling them in the surrounding region by [[Rail transport|rail]]. Starting with only $150, he had saved $100,000 by age 21. His success earned him the nickname "Sam the Banana Man".<ref name="Slate">{{cite web|last=Cohen|first=Rich|title=The Birth of America's Banana King: An excerpt from Rich Cohen's The Fish That Ate the Whale|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/life/history/2012/06/banana_mangante_samuel_zemurray_rich_cohen_s_the_fish_that_ate_the_whale.single.html|publisher=[[Slate.com]]|date=June 6, 2012}}</ref><ref name=":0" />[[File:Unloading bananas, New Orleans LOC agc.7a03435.jpg|thumb|Workers unload bananas in New Orleans in the 1920s]]

In 1903, Zemurray signed a contract with [[United Fruit Company|United Fruit]], the dominant company in the banana trade. Along with his partner, Ashbell Hubbard, the newly-formed Hubbard-Zemurray Company would buy and distribute United Fruit's ripest bananas. United Fruit itself bought a portion of Hubbard-Zemurray. In 1905, Zemurray moved to New Orleans and the company acquired Thatcher Brothers Steamship Company. They also acquired the [[Cuyamel Fruit Company]] and started using that name for the company. At this time, the company imported bananas from Central American farmers, but did not grow bananas of their own.<ref name=":0" />

In 1910, Zemurray bought 5,000 acres (20&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>) of land along the [[Cuyamel River]] in Honduras, near the town of [[Omoa]]. He then continued to borrow money and buy more lowland forest land in Honduras, well-suited for growing bananas. He developed this land by adding plantations, railroads, and bridges. The work was done largely by [[Jamaica]]n workers, but Zemurray also liked to participate in the physical labor of the fields. At this point, Hubbard believed that Cuyamel Fruit Company's debts had grown too large, and Zemurray bought his share of the business.<ref name=":0" />