324 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15. 



PINEAPPLE-GROWING, ETC. 



Now, then, if you please, let us go back to 

 pineapples. I think my last Notes of Travel 

 were when I was stopping at Mr. Poppleton's. 

 It costs from $50 to $75 an acre to clear up the 

 land, and get it ready for pineapples. It is 

 mostly done by hand, digging out the saw- 

 palmetto roots and other trash. These saw- 

 palmetto roots, however, are quite valuable. 

 The State Chemist at Lake City told me that 

 fresh roots, burned to ashes, show 42 per cent 

 of potash— that is, 42 per cent of the ashes is 

 potash. This is remarkable, when we consider 

 that the best hard-wood ashes seldom contain 

 more than 8 or 10 per cent, and often not half of 

 that; and potash is in constant requisition in 

 Florida in considerable quantities. After the 

 land is all ready for the plants, it needs from 

 $25 to $.50 worth of fertilizers every year. The 

 crop of pineapples, however, brings from $100 

 to $400.* The fertilizers used are cotton-seed 

 meal principally; a good deal of sulphate of 

 potash, some fish guano, and large quantities of 

 fertilizers from the North, are used right along. 

 Mapes', Bradley's, and Bowker's are all largely 

 .used. Pineapples are cultivated about once a 

 month, with a scuffle-hoe. The work is all done 

 by hand. Mr. Dyer, a neighbor of Mr. Popple- 

 ton's. had a few that withstood the December 

 freeze, and we enjoyed beautiful fruit all the 

 time we were in that neighborhood. There are, 

 perhaps, a dozen different varieties of pine- 

 apples in cultivation. Some of the new vari- 

 eties sell as high as 40 or .50 cents per plant. We 

 rather thought the "sugarloaf" the most de- 

 licious. There is no seed to the pineapple— at 

 least, I never heard of one.t New plantations 

 are made from little plants, and the little plants 

 are obtained in four different ways: First, the 

 crown that comes out of the top of the pine- 

 apple; second,slips that grow around the bottom 

 of the fruit; third, suckers; fourth, rattoons. 

 The rattoon is a little plant that starts up out 

 of ground somewhere near the mature plant. 



In many places they protect from the frost 

 and sun by means of strips of board. This 



* Like most other fruits and vegretables, there is a 

 chance to do big thing's with pineapples under fa- 

 vorable circumstances Hnd with the best of care and 

 fertilizers. For instance, Mr. Poppleton sent six 

 pineapples to Jacksonville, and tliey sold for $1.25 

 each, and he actually received from the commission 

 merchant $1.(0 apiece for them I think ihe.v 

 weighed 15 or 16 lbs. each A pineapple has been 

 produced in tliat neighborhood, having the enormous 

 weight of tHriit)i-twi) pounds. 1 mention this only 

 to show the possibibties in tiiat line. 



tAfter the above was in type, friend Poppleton 

 kindly sets me right, and gives us the following 

 Information: 



Fi-irnd Roof .---Pineapples do have seeds, either 

 a mature or immature one in each ej'e. You ma.y 

 remember I told you that the apple had a small 

 purple blossom at the point of each eye. I don t 

 think any were quite far enough along when you 

 were here to be in bloom; but you might have seen 

 them later on when you were at Fort Myers. Mr. 

 Johns told us the sheds we visited near here were 

 so much of a protection that the February freeze 

 did his no damage. Ordinary seasons we have ripe 

 pineapples everj' month in the year. The main 

 crop comes in June and .July; but a plantation of, 

 say, 10 acres would ship a few crates to market 

 every month in the year, excei)t, possibly, April 

 and May, and would have enough more ripening 

 along at all times to fully supply a family. 



Potsdam, Fla., April 4. O. O. Poppleton. 



forms a sort of roof above the plants, just high 

 enough so one can walk under it. It is sup- 

 ported by posts. The strips of board are three 

 inches wide, and the space between the strips 

 is three inches. The cost of covering a whole 

 acre is about $800. This protection keeps ofT 

 any ordinary frost; but during the severe /reezes 

 of February, the protection did not seem to 

 amount to very much, unless it was pretty well 

 south. At Fort Myers, for instance, the plants 

 seemed to be almost, if not quite, uninjured 

 underneath the covering. 



Friend Poppleton kindly took us in his sail- 

 boat, and we visited pineapple-growers and 

 gardeners for quite a distance round. Florida 

 is just commencing to do considerable in the 

 way of irrigation. The nicest apparatus we 

 found on the East Coast was at Dr. Howland's, 

 who has a gas-engine, such as I have described, 

 for pumping water. We found it down in the 

 woods, at work all alone by itself, pumping the 

 water out of a spring. The doctor was in his 

 garden with his men, perhaps a quarter of a 

 mile away, at work with his crops. He has 

 iron pipes laid on top of the ground, 20 feet 

 apart. At intervals of 20 feet along these pipes 

 a 5^-inch standard goes up perhaps four feet 

 high, having a revolving sprinkler on top. This 

 gives the effect of a gentle rain all over the 

 ground where the pipes are laid. The capacity 

 of the engine is hardly sufficient to pump water 

 enough to sprinkle the whole acre at once. 

 Perhaps a quarter of an acre is sprinkled at a 

 time; but by running it about four hours, the 

 ground seedis to be sufficiently wetted. In 

 Florida they are hindered a great deal by dif- 

 ferent kinds of insect-enemies; and certain 

 kinds of garden vegetables, in some localities, 

 cannot be grown at all on account of these. 

 Well, the doctor informed us that the sprinkler 

 proved to be a perfect remedy for these pests. 

 There are not many kinds of insects that can 

 do much damage while it is raining; and with 

 the light, sandy soil they have, there is not 

 very much danger of injuring anything by too 

 much wet; therefore the doctor had some of 

 the most beautiful summer squashes, onions, 

 beans, and almost every other vegetable, just 

 smiling under the influence of water and sun- 

 shine all at the same time. 



During our many pleasant boat-rides around 

 the home of friend Poppleton, we met again 

 and again the queer phenomenon of a tree hav- 

 ing limbs at both ends. One set of limbs goes up 

 into the air, and the other set goes down into 

 the water. As a consequence, in the course of 

 time one single tree may cover an acre or a 

 whole island with its growth so dense that 

 nothing larger than a cat or dog would be able 

 to get through. This queer tree is called the 

 red mangrove, or aerial plant. According to 

 Webster it "spreads by emitting aerial roots, 

 which fasten in the saline mire and eventually 

 become new stems. The seeds also send down 

 a strong root while yet attached to the parent 

 plant. The fruit is sweet and eatable. The 

 bark is astringent, and is used for tanning." 

 It does not bear honey, or, at least, not enough 

 to be of any actual use like its near relative 

 the black mangrove. The seed is a queer- 

 looking thing, about the size and shape of a 

 cigar. When it drops off into the water, one 

 end sinks and the other end floats on top. 

 When it comes up near the shore, so the lower 

 end touches the bottom, then roots put out. and 

 the queer-shaped tree is the result. Whenever 

 one sees these queer-looking trees skirting the 

 edge of the shore or an island, he thinks of the 

 banyan-tree that we used to look at in our 

 geographies, away back in the old schoolhouse 

 on the crossroads. 



While visiting the pineapple groves we saw 



