IVE Id, XC (Oe; A SII IL IO A 17 
flavor, finding favor with many. The mature fruit is much longer than broad, and of a 
deep yellow color when thoroughly ripe. Its large size and the extreme care with which 
this fruit has to be treated in transportation, make it, however, a fruit not for the masses 
but for only select trade, as the price at which it must be sold to give a profit prevents it 
competing with the other varieties mentioned. 
From a commercial standpoint, therefore, the Red Spanish pineapple is pre-eminent. 
In size it is adapted to the use of the individual or small family. It is a tough fruit lending 
itself to much more careless handling and transportation methods than is possible with 
either the Sugar Loaf or Smooth Cayenne varieties. Moreover, when properly matured 
and brought to the right degree of ripeness before removal from the plant, its flavor is 
excellent, its flesh tender and juicy, and its aroma strong and fragrant, excelled by that 
of no other variety. For these reasons its plantings have been extended until today 
they form, as we have said, about ninety-nine per cent. of the commerical plantings of 
the Island. 
Careful preparation of the soil before planting is essential. It should be thoroughly 
plowed, cross-plowed and harrowed, and these preparations repeated a sufficient number 
of times to convert the soil into a finely subdivided mass furnishing a suitable medium 
in which the plants can develop their root systems with rapidity and freedom. The plan 
of planting varies with different individuals. Some plant on the flat, that is, without 
hilling up the soil at all, while others mound the soil up in beds sufficiently wide to contain 
from two to as many as six or eight rows of plants. In Cuba, however, the number of 
rows of plants is almost always confined to two rows at most to each bed. Experience 
indicates, however, that when the best class of soil is selected, planting on the flat is 
best, as it prohibits the too great drying out of the soil in our winter dry season, during 
which the pineapple almost invariably forms its fruit, the conservation of the soil moisture 
being necessary in order that the fruit attain the desired market size. 
Pineapples are not grown from seeds, although the production of new varieties is 
brought about through planting them. Small plants springing from various parts of the 
parent plants are used instead. From the central stem of the pineapple plant there 
spring young plants, some of these coming from buds situated on the stem below the 
ground and others from those found in the axils of the leaves of the parent plant. These 
young plants are known as suckers, and those springing from beneath the ground, unless 
too numerous, are left attached to the parent plant, in order to continue production in 
the fields after the first crop of fruit is taken off. They send out roots of their own and 
each soon becomes an independent plant. Thus the second year the field contains 
double or treble the number of plants as during the first season. The suckers springing 
from the axils of the leaf are removed and used for setting out new fields, they being 
merely set in the soil, soon sending out roots from the portion under the short leaves at 
their base. Another class of plant springs from the stem of the fruit itself Just beneath 
the fruit. The number of these varies from three or four to as many as a dozen. These 
young plants are called slips. They are always smaller than the suckers, and are planted 
in the same way, but they require a longer period in which to produce fruit than do the 
latter. A further means of propagation is furnished by the crown or tuft of leaves found 
upon the top of each pineapple and by still smaller slips which in some varieties and in 
some instances spring from immediately around this crown. These young plants, how- 
ever, are always very small and are used for propagation only in case of extreme necessity 
or when the variety to be propagated is a very valuable one. The crowns, of course, 
can be utilized only when the fruit is used for local consumption, as it is always left at- 
tached to the pineapple when it is sold for export. 
It can be readily realized that the weight of a maturing pineapple at the end of a 
stem from eight to eighteen inches long, increased in weight by rain, and blown by the 
wind, would very soon bend over and even break down the pineapple plants themselves, 
if these were left unaided to sustain the burden of their fruit. It is for this reason that the 
method of planting prevalent has been adopted, in which the plants are set at distances 
varying from twelve to twenty-four inches apart in the rows, and at slightly greater 
