ii4 TRUCK FARMING 



humus and fertility, which is very essential to their growth and 

 development. 



Our best growers usually fertilize four or six times a year, 

 taking extra precaution to use no phosphate containing acid. Bone 

 meal in its different forms is used for this purpose exclusively. 

 At the* same time no muriate of potash should be used as the salt 

 in it is very injurious to the pineapple. A good mixture is one 

 containing raw ground bone, cotton seed meal or castor pomace, 

 relying upon the bone meal for phosphoric acid and the sulphate 

 of potash for potash content. If not grown by the mulch method, 

 it will be necessary to use the scuffle hoe frequently as all weeds 

 and grass should be destroyed before they get large enough to 

 injure the plants or crowd them in any way. In fact, here, as 

 in all other cases, destroying the weeds before they get a chance 

 to show any considerable growth is preferable to attempting their 

 destruction after they have become established. 



If good stout suckers are used and carefully planted as out- 

 lined above, fully 75 per cent and sometimes as high as 95 per 

 cent will produce fruit inside of the next twelve months. I have 

 carried on in an experimental way small plantations of pineapples 

 on Everglade land, having planted them by the mulch method, 

 and out of 108 suckers planted had 96 apples averaging over four 

 pounds each within thirteen months of planting. This variety 

 was the Smooth Cayenne, which is considered a winter bearer and 

 for this reason is often very profitable. However, fruit of this 

 particular kind should be picked in rather a green state, as it is 

 so heavy and juicy that it is liable to bruise and leak if picked 

 when showing the least bit of color. 



The crop should not be picked until thoroughly filled; the 

 fruit is known to be ready to pick when the eyes are plump 

 and when the skin begins to color. Some of our growers here 

 are shortsighted and frequently pick the pineapples before they 

 are thoroughly filled, and for this reason great injury is done 

 annually. The importance of marketing nothing but nice plump 

 juicy fruit cannot be overestimated; partially ripe pineapples are 

 liable to wither and dry out, and this has a detrimental effect 



