PINEAPPLE CULTURE IN SOUTH AFRICA 



SOILS SUITABLE FOR PINES. 



Provided there is good drainage, pines will thrive on any soil, 

 from almost pure sand to a clayey loam. The quickest returns 

 are realised from a very light soil, but it must be remembered 

 that the life of such a plant will not exceed five or six years at 

 the most, and that its life as a paying proposition will be less 

 than that, unless fertiliser is used in heavy quantities, in other 

 words, if the food necessary for the production of decent-sized 

 fruit is exhausted, although the plant may grow, the resultant 

 fruit will be too small to pay for marketing. A good deal of the 

 land devoted to pines in Natal is of this light nature, and the 

 life of the plant, even under the high temperature prevailing 

 there, is a short one as compared with that in the richer soils 

 of the Eastern Province of the Cape. Whilst the more forcing 

 climate <jf Ns.tal produces a somewhat larger fruit, the shipping 

 and mating qualities of the fruit from the latter district are fre- 

 quently commented* on by the market agents in England. That 

 botli di so'-icts can produce good pineapples I am quite certain, 

 but the treatment; of the two soils and methods of growing must 

 vary. 



PINES IN CLAYEY SOILS. 



Some writers are fond of stating that the pine will only thrive 

 in sandy soils. This is incorrect. They have been, and are grown 

 in Porto Rico on clayey -soils, i.e. on loam which contains a large 

 percentage of clay. Although slower in maturing their first crop 

 of fruit, such soils will bear crops regularly and outlast the 

 lighter soils, provided the subsoil drainage is good. It has been 

 found by experiment that the average depth to which the roots 

 penetrate is from 8 to 10 inches. It will be seen, therefore, that 

 other things being suitable, the pineapple may be grown where 

 many other fruit crops would be a failure owing to a shallow 

 surface soil. 



LIME IN SOILS. 



As no data are available in regard to soils, in the areas in 

 which pineapples are produced or are likely to be produced in 

 South Africa, I have made a resume of the experiment carried 

 out by the U.S.A. Agricultural Department on the subject of 

 Lime in the soil and its action on the pineapple plant. It is ad- 

 visable for anyone who may intend to start planting in an area 

 which has not been previously tested, to obtain an analysis of 

 the chemical constituents of the soil, bearing in mind the result 

 of these experiments. These experiments were undertaken 

 owing to large losses which had occurred in Porto Rico through 

 the plants suffering from a complaint known as " Chlorosis ". 



NOT A DISEASE. 



"Chlorosis", or bleaching, is the name applied to that condi- 

 tion of the leaves of plants, which under natural conditions fail 



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