CHAPTER XXX. 

 CULTURE OF PINEAPPLES. 



ATIVES of cold countries and those living for 

 many years in the continuous heat of summer 

 between the tropics, are apt to suffer sometimes 

 from digestive derangements. Nature has 

 planted the remedy in the shape of various 

 fruits, such as the pineapple as well as the 

 melon paw paw. For instance, an authority 

 notes: "You can sup on many kinds of in- 

 digestible food and sleep the sleep of the just and put all night- 

 mares to flight if you who partake will assimilate a little pine- 

 apple or eat a melon paw paw, as he prefers, before retiring. Of 

 course, it will not neutralize acute indigestion but will prevent 

 it, and as stated, is a Godsend to him who dissipates." 



Pineapples are generally grown upon a soil which one who 

 is accustomed to grow plants of any variety would be apt to 

 call sterile or worthless. The simple fact that they will grow 

 upon this kind of soil, in spite of its sterility, does not prove by 

 any means that they prefer that class of soil. I have found in 

 my past experience that the pineapple will produce much better 

 upon a soil which, while light and porous, is at the same time 

 rich in such fertilizers as are essential for all crops. Choose 

 such a piece of land as is naturally well drained. It is not neces- 

 sary for it to be sand or even half sand, but better still a soil 

 that contains a considerable amount of decayed vegetable mold 

 or humus. 



Plant in patches (according to variety) from six to ten rows 

 wide. The larger growing varieties, such as the Smooth Cayenne 

 and Porto Rico, thrive much better if planted in wide rows, the 

 beds being put some distance farther apart. Rows eighteen inches 

 apart are considered about right for Red Spanish, twenty to 



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