324 



THE AGUICULTUKAL NEWS. 



October 16, 1909. 



WEST INDIAN FRUIT. 



THE SOIL REQUIREMENTS OF THE 

 PINE-APPLE. 

 1'he reason \vli\' iho pine-apple \\ ill Hourisl^ on 

 some soils, while it is a complete failure on others, is 

 not fully unilerstood. The following,' notes, which are 

 talien from Bulletin No. 8 of the Porto Rico Experiment 

 Station, contain interes^injj; information in the matter, 

 and indicate that there is no r(■a^on why the cultivation 

 of this plant should not be liied on widely varying 

 types of soil, piovided that especially careful attention 

 is given to the matter of drainage: — 



In Florida most of the pineapple soils consist of over 

 99'.5 per cent, of insoluble silica or sand of rather coarse 

 texture. The meclianical analysis shows very small amounts 

 of organic matter, very fine .sand, silt and clay. Soil of this 

 character is not very often found in I'orto liico, or, as 

 a matter of fact, in the West Indies. It was therefore 

 a question for the pioneer planters of Porto llico as to v;hat 

 soil to choose for pine-apples. True enough, they were 

 found growing wild in many section.s, and had been 

 cultivated in limited quantity near Lajas for a great 

 many years, but nothing was known beyond the fact 

 that pine-a[)ples would thrive there in a certain restricted 

 locality, and it w-as believed that they would not thrive on 

 soils more than half a mile distant. The practice of the last 

 few years has shown beyond question that pines can be 

 produced on soils of widely different character; although the 

 best (juality of fruit is raised on soils somewliat resem- 

 bling those of Florida. 



The three requirements of the pine-apple plant are that 

 the roots must have a limited amount of water, the necessary 

 supply of plant food, and an iinlimitcd amount of air. It 

 ■will be understood that a well-drained sandy soil, in which 

 the individual soil particles are coarse, fills some of the 

 requirements. It will need frequent stirring of the top soil 

 until the plants become large enough to .shade and protect it 

 from evaporation. The plant food, of course, will have to be sup- 

 plied. In clay soil and in loam and even in fine sand the condi- 

 tions are not so readily controlled. A heavy rain will pack 

 the surface, excluding the air from the roots, and unless the 

 land is bedded, the water is likely to remain in the soil long 

 enough to cause serious injury to tlic roots. 



Aeration is really the underlying principle of pine-apple 

 cultivation. Tlie pine-apple plant is not averse to water, 

 but the water, when filling up the soil, excludes the air. 'We 

 have grown plants in jars of water for months, and found 

 the root development to[ be vigorous and healthy, and the 

 increase in the weight of tlic plant equal to that of plants 

 grown in soil. We have also grown plants in tubes filled 



with gravel previously washed with hydrochloric acid and 

 distilled water, and in similar tubes which were perfectly 

 empty, and we found that by watering every day with a very 

 dilute plant-food solution, roots were developed and the 

 plants increased in wf-ight, not alone in the tubes containing 

 gravel, but also in tho.se which were empty and that served 

 only to support tl|ie plant and protect the roots from light. 

 These methods arej not recommended asbeingpractical,but they 

 serve to illustrate, the nature and the requirements of the 

 pine-apple plant. Methods (piite similar are followed on the 

 Fhnida Key.s, where pine-apples are often planted in a few 

 inches of leaf mould on the top of the liare coral rock, and 

 whenever the amount of soil is in.sufiicient to suj)port the 

 ))lant a few pieces of stone are used to hold it in place. 

 Under .■-ui-h conditions, pine-apples will grow and produce 

 fruit until the leaf mould is all exhausted. The reason for 

 not growing for a longer time is not so much the lack of 

 .soil for root formation as the exhaustion of plant food. 

 This is further illustrated in the pine-apple regions in 

 Florida, where the soil only serves as a support for the 

 plant and all the necessary plant food must be added. These 

 are some of the things known, but in applying this knowledge 

 locally it is often found that there are other conditions 

 which we are not yet able to explain. For instance, one 

 soil may to all appearances be physically suited and yet be 

 a failure, while another may seem to be anything but 

 a pine-apple soil and yet produce a satisfactory growth of 

 plants and yield of fruit. It is therefore never safe to say 

 that a field will or will not produce pine-apples before 

 making a practical test. The amount of preparation needed 

 and the methods to be followed will depend entirely uiiou 

 the cla.ss of soil selected. 



THE MANUFACTURE OF LEMON OIL. 



A perusal of the following jiaragraph will show 

 that the method for the extraction of oil from the rind 

 of the lemon that is used in Sicily is similar in 

 some respects to the ' ecuelle ' method that is employed 

 for a similar j)i'ocess with the lime in Montserrat and 

 other West Indian Islands : — 



111 a recent re[iort, the United States Consul at .Messina 

 refers to the lemon oil iiuunifacturiiig industry of Sicily, and 

 gives some interesting particulars of the method in vogue 

 there in the manufacture of tlie oil. In order to prepare the 

 essential oil, lie states, tlie peels are first soaked in water for 

 some four or five minutes for the purpose of softening the 

 envelopes of the oil vesicles, and rendering easier the 

 expres,sion of the oil. The peels are then carried to the 



