their keep. It takes a competenl man to so manage stock a et a 



profit ou1 of it. There is a I of inure knowledge in preparing the 



products of the farm for market. Las1 year hundreds of barrels of 

 fruit scut to England had far better been dumped into the sea, not 



merely because there was no return to the shippers, but because such 

 shipments gave a black eye to the good name of the fruit of the 

 province in the London market. And this is not the only province 

 of which that is true. You must know the proper market, and you 

 must know how to prepare your products for the market, otherwise 

 there is a loss instead of a profit. 1 ' 



583. -THE PINE- APPLE, ITS COMPOSITION AND 



CULTIVATION. 



The Pine-apple is an important fruit in Jamaica. Recently the 

 exports have been fluctuating, and have somewhat diminished, but 

 the diminished export is not to be wondered at when the long drought 

 of* eleven months out of twelve in 1 902-1908 is taken into considera- 

 tion. The exports are principally to the United Kingdom, the United 

 States and Canada. 



Botanists have placed the pine-apple in an Order the type of 

 which is the Bromelia Pmguin, our common pinguin, much used for 

 fences some years ago. The Bromeliads or Bromeliaceae constitute a 

 large group of tropical plants, including as it does the numerous air- 

 plants or "• wild pines," so common in Jamaica. The scientific name 

 of the plant is the Ananassa sativa, indicating its production from 

 seed, though as an actual fact this method of reproduction is not 

 much resorted to. although it is of much value in the direction of 

 producing new and improved varieties by hybridisation. 



It is always an important matter for the cultivation of any given 

 plant to know its composition as to the mineral matter which it takes 

 up from the soil : such knowledge will always remind him of the natural 

 requirements of the plant, and will enable him all the better to carry 

 out an intelligent and successful cultivation. The late Mr. John James 

 Bowrey, for many years Official Chemist in this island, has left us an 

 instructive analysis of the ash or mineral matter of the pine-apple, 

 which was published in the Bulletin of the Botanical Department for 

 October, 1896, page 236. It is as follows : — 



Potash (K.,0) 



Chloride of Potassium (KC1) 

 Chloride of Sodium (NaCl) 

 Magnesia (MgO) 

 Lime (CaO) 



Phosphoric Acid (P.,0 5 ) 

 Sulphuric Acid (H„SO j 

 Silica (SiO„) "... 



Phosphate of Peroxide of Iron. 



49-42 

 0-88 



17-01 

 8-80 



1215 

 4-08 



Trace. 

 4-02 

 2-93 



99-29 



There is no mention in the Bulletin of the relative proportion of 

 ash to the weight of the fresh fruit, a matter which is to be regretted. 

 in the view that the pine-apple is generally regarded as an exhausting 

 crop to the land on which it is grown, and also in the view that every 



