210 

 PIXEAPPLES AXD DIVIDENDS. 



While pinea|)ples are probably grown with more profit in the 

 Hawaiian Islands than any part of the world, it is only because 

 the planters have studied this product, and applied to it the most 

 adaptable methods to produce a finely matured fruit. And the re- 

 sult has read something- like a fairy story from King Midas ; the 

 profits have even astonished the planters who were interested in 

 the estates growing pines, and ten years previous to their first 

 big crop in 1902. 3-ou could scarcely get a Hawaiian planter to 

 look at a pineapple. It was because a longheaded man, then sec- 

 retary of the Planters Association of Hawaii, told that body of 

 men that some day their sugar crop (which is the principal prod- 

 uct of the Islands) would fail. Then what would they have to 

 fall back on. except small crops of coconuts, rice and bananas, 

 which would not tide them over to another season. Some of the 

 members sat up and took notice. Immediately all the information 

 and samples possible were obtained from the other pineapple- 

 growing countries of the world. Companies were formed, areas 

 planted with dififerent species, and the authorities established an 

 experiment station, where a scientific study of pineapples was con- 

 (Uicted. The outcome has been a most delicious and healthy fruit 

 wliich is gaining a famous reputation around the world. The re- 

 newed interest in the pinea])ple situation here begins to look as if 

 the subjects would be taken up seriously before long, and investi- 

 gated with a view to undertaking the pineapple project on a sub- 

 stantial scale. While most of the planters of Ceylon have rubber 

 to fall back on if tea should fail, and vice versa, at the same time, 

 inter-planting has seen its best day, and even now many of our 

 largest planters are contemplating its abolition as a method con- 

 ducive to producing either better tea or better rubber, each planted 

 separately. Some of the planters will eventually devote them- 

 selves to one or the other exclusively. In any event, both rubber 

 and tea crops are subject to ravages by droughts, ]iests and storms, 

 while the pineapple, hardy and easily cared for. grows low, and 

 is in nine cases out of ten, a sure crop. 



That the ])ineap])le is to be one of the ])rinci])al fruit produc- 

 tions of all tro])ical countries is exemplified in the reports of the 

 agricultural departments from Japan (covering l-'ormosa). the 

 Philippines. Java, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Panama, Florida, Mexico, 

 Southern California, i)arts of India; and cxiicriments arc even 

 going on in certain districts of British South Africa. At first 

 the problem of shii)])ing from Ceylon seems a difhcult one; but 

 when it is considered that the ])ineai)i)le can be slup])ed, ]>artly 

 ri])e.- and by the time it reaches its destination, is in the i)ink of 

 condition; also when the shipments are once under way, and kept 

 going, the transportation (|uestion shrinks into insignificance. 

 Another point in favor of growing pineap])U-s is tliat first class, 

 finely matured fruit always brings a g 1 m.irket i)rice, and the 



