176 SOILS AND AGRICULTURAL CONDITIONS 



newly-cleared land, three-fourths of the plants usually bore fruit, while now, in 

 average seasons, only about 40 per cent of the plants are fruitful. That is, 

 where the yield, until only a few years ago, was about 3000 dozens per acre, it is 

 now from 1000 to 2000 dozens. In order to increase the production the 

 planters have resorted to the use of larger amounts of fertilizers. The in- 

 crease in exports in recent years has been due not alone to this fact, but to a 

 greatly increased acreage. The known pineapple lands have now all been 

 more or less under cultivation, and good land is rapidly becoming scarce. 

 The problem now confronting the planter is to find some means of restoring 

 and maintaining the productiveness of the " worn-out " fields, without the 

 necessity of throwing them out of cultivation for a long period of time, 

 as is the present custom. The Bahama Marl, or "scrub land," which has 

 just come into prominence, has done much to keep up the production to this 

 time. 



The markets of the United States are depended upon entirely to take 

 the Bahama pineapples, and until the last few years the fruit was in good 

 demand and the prices were fair. In late years, however, the prices have 

 fallen greatly. Official reports of the Islands show that the exports of 1900, 

 which were over 7,000,000 dozens, brought but little more than the crop of 

 1892, which was not quite one-tenth as large. The low prices are not due 

 entirely to the competition of other pineapple-producing countries, but in 

 some measure to the poor condition in which the fruit reaches the market. 

 The fruit as grown is of fairly good quality, but in a desire to put it on the 

 market at the earliest possible time, in order to secure high prices, it is gath- 

 ered too long before maturity. Then, too, the fruit is roughly handled in 

 transporting it from the fields to the boats, and finally it is packed in bulk 

 in the hold of the vessel, without any assortment whatever as to size or con- 

 dition. The fruit is more or less bruised, and soon deteriorates. 



Sailing vessels are depended upon to carry the product. If the weather 

 be favorable and the vessel arrives within a reasonable time, the cargo will 

 sell at fair prices, but if, as often happens, the voyage be prolonged by calms 

 or adverse winds, the fruit arrives overripe and in a more or less unmarketable 

 condition. It is then necessary to dispose of the cargo at once for what it 

 will bring. Under such conditions only the lowest prices can be expected, 

 and occasionally a cargo will not sell for enough to pay the duty. It is the 

 poor cargoes that bring down the total receipts, so that the final outcome is 

 that the grower has received but little, if anything at all, for his crop. The 



