20 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 



Will you hereafter let me know what is decided on and what the results amount 



to? I will consult our recently arrived agricultural assistant, and will let you know 



sharp whether he has anything different to recommend. 



Remaining, my dear sir. yours, faithfully, 



P. Mac< )wan. 



R. A. Davis, Esq., Pretoria. 



THE NATAL PINEAPPLE. 



The common pineapple of Natal, which is served everywhere in the 

 colony on private and hotel tables, is one of the most satisfactory 

 varieties of this fruit in the world. 



Mr. Lathrop, who has traveled for many years in pineapple-growing 

 countries, found the Natal pine one of the most delicious and in cer- 

 tain respects the most satisfactory of any which he had ever eaten. 



This variety is a small one, the fruit often not being over 6 inches 

 loner, but this is one of its desirable characters. It is just large 

 enough to serve as an individual fruit at a dinner table, and the result 

 is that in Natal one is given a whole pineapple and prepares it himself, 

 instead of a slice from a fruit that has been prepared in the kitchen 

 and in which fermentation has already set in. 



The form of this fruit is in all ways satisfactory. It has a small 

 cluster of leaves at the apex, just large enough to serve as a good 

 handle when you are preparing it for eating. The seed cavities are 

 small and do not enter a great distance into the fruit. The skin is 

 thin and easily cut off with a sharp knife. The flesh, which has a 

 golden-yellow color when ripe, is so crisp and brittle that you can 

 break it away from the slender core with a fork almost as easily as 

 you could tear an apple to pieces. Many pines having a deliciously 

 flavored flesh are so tough and full of fiber that it is only with diffi- 

 culty that portions can be separated from the core for eating. This 

 character of tender, fiberless flesh is possessed by the Natal pine to a 

 very marked degree, and especially recommends it to people whose 

 delicate digestion prohibits their eating the ordinary sorts, which con- 

 tain more or less fibrous matter. 



As regards flavor this variety leaves little to be desired. It has the 

 characteristic pineapple taste, is deliciously sweet, and compares in 

 these characters very favorably with the best hothouse pines. It may 

 not be quite so juicy as the latter, but this character can scarcely be 

 considered an objection to it. 



No pine that has come to our attention has so little core to it as this 

 Natal sort. Some fruits have scarcely any core, the pencil-thick cen- 

 ter part itself being tender enough to eat. and as a rule the core spin- 

 dle which one discards in eating is not over a half inch in diameter. 



According to those with whom the writer talked the origin of this 

 Natal pine is not known, though it has been in cultivation many years 

 in the colonv. Some time ago the Government, under the impression 



