THE PINEAPPLE. 683 



sists in keeping out the sand, and helps to fertilize. Eighteen 

 to twenty inches apart is considered a good distance, with a 

 wider space at short intervals for convenience in passing 

 through and gathering the fruit. Farther apart they do not 

 support and shade each other, and the fruit is liable to fall 

 over and break off, or spoil and sunburn. From twelve to 

 twenty thousand plants are set to the acre. The offsets are 

 planted as fast as they become large enough, preferably dur- 

 ing the summer and fall months, when the moisture needed 

 for root development is supplied by showers. It is of great 

 importance that they should strike quickly and grow off at 

 once ; should they become stunted the fruitage is correspond- 

 ingly diminished and retarded. 



While the plants are young the cultivation must be thor- 

 ough and shallow, care being taken not to cut the feeding 

 roots, which run near the surface. A wheel-hoe is an effec- 

 tive implement before the leaves begin to spread. Until 

 some length of stalk is made, sand will be liable to wash into 

 the bud during heavy rains, and if not removed check the 

 growth. It may be forced out by pouring in water from the 

 height of a few feet, and a little cotton-seed meal dropped in 

 afterward will assist in keeping it out for some time. By the 

 second year the leaves cover the ground and no further culti- 

 vation is needed. Fertilizers can be applied by sowing broad- 

 cast. 



Mulching is not recommended for the reason that it in- 

 creases the liability to injury by frost. After producing for 

 six or eight years, a pineapple-field does better to be entirely 

 reset with fresh young plant^. 



Diseases. 



Spike or long leaf is a condition sometimes produced by rank 

 unfermented manures, or other causes, and recognized in 

 stunted plants with long and very narrow leaves. These will 

 never fruit, and should be replaced by young and healthy 

 suckers. It is well for a pineapple-field to be laid out in 

 squares, with alleys between broad enough to head off fire, 

 which, should it get in during a dry time, could not otherwise 

 be checked and would lay waste the whole. 



