104 ISLES OF sumn:s. 



ajiple. One plant, producing one api^le at a time, "will continue 

 to yield an annual crop for three or four years. There are three 

 vurieties; the Hugar Loaf, which is juicy, of excellent flavor, 

 and excels the others in keeping qualities ; the Cuba, which is 

 of larger size, firni3r texture, and less sweet than the sugai loaf 

 and commands a higher price ; the Blnl's-eye, the cultivation 

 of which has been pretty much abandoned because of the de- 

 struction of the crop by rats and land-crabs. Gov. Eawson states 

 that of a forty acre field of the sugar loaf variety, the rats de- 

 stroyed 6000 dozen, or one-third of an annual crop. Land- 

 crabs, he says, "like locusts elsewhere, march straight through 

 a field and consume all the fruit in their course." 



It is raised from slips — 2000 dozen of the sugar loaf, and 1600 

 dozen of the Cuba to an acre. In the '^ orchard "we crossed, 

 the cocoanut had been planted among the pines so as to insure 

 a cocoanut grove when the pines ceased bearing. The rocky sur- 

 face was covered and concealed by the pines, and in ''clearing " 

 the plantation, (they evidently could not if they would hoe it), 

 it is said '"'the laborers are obliged to wear canvas leggings and 

 gauntlets to protect them from the spines of the leaves." Gov. 

 Eawson says, the fields are "or ought to be cleaned six times in 

 the year." He states also that the average weight of the sugar 

 loaf is three pounds, that it yields one-third of the quantity 

 planted, and lasts five years ; that the Cuba has an average 

 weight of three and a-lialf pounds, yields one-half of the quan- 

 tity planted, lasts only three years, and will thrive upon soil 

 considered unsuited for the other varieties ; also that the Cuba 

 is preferred in the United States, and that the sugar loaf, by 

 reason of its superior keeping qualities, is preferred for the 

 English market ; that it is uncertain whether the pine apple 

 is a native of the Bahama Islands, or has been introduced from 

 the Windward Islands or Cuba ; that the value of 229,226 dozen 



