SOME OTHER TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL FRUITS. 215 



But the suckers must be thinned to one or two if market- 

 able size is attained. With needed care to regulate the 

 number of bearing suckers, and good cultivation and some 

 fertilizing of the soil, crops can be secured from the one 

 planting for many years. During a visit to Cuba in 1896 

 the writer gave much attention to their system of manag- 

 ing pineapple plantations. In some cases we found old 

 plantations that had not been renewed in twenty years, 

 but in no case were they equal in size or quantity of fruit 

 to the younger plantations. The more systematic growers 

 start new plantations to take the place of the old ones 

 about once in six years, as it is found that old plants give 

 too much trouble in thinning the sprouts from the buds 

 in the axils of the lower leaves and the rattoons or rooted 

 .buds below the crown, and the fruit on the old plants 

 becomes too small. In Florida the plantation is renewed 

 at the close of from six to eight years, but the best crops 

 often are harvested from the second and third years of 

 bearing. In Cuba the pineapple for market is planted on 

 upland suitable for tobacco-growing, in rows about four 

 feet apart, with the plants three feet apart in the rows. 

 Suckers are usually used for planting, as they are stronger 

 and will come into bearing in one year. If crowns or 

 rattoons are used they are grown in nursery until strong 

 before planting. 



The cultivation is only one way, and the usual plan is 

 to hill up the line of the rows as the fruit approaches 

 maturity, as we manage the sweet potato. This favors the 

 better rooting of suckers, but does not seem to benefit the 

 fruitage, as those who practised level culture secured as 

 good or better crops. All growers practise very shallow 

 culture, as the nitrogen-feeding roots run very close to the 

 surface. So far as observed in western Cuba the cost of 

 growing an acre of pineapples will not much exceed that 



