104 _.. ISLES OF SUMMER. 
apple. One plant, producing one apple at a time, will continue 
‘to yield an annual crop for three or four years. There are three 
varieties; the Sugar Loaf, which is juicy, of excellent flavor, 
and excels the others in keeping qualities; the Cuba, which is 
of larger size, firmer texture, and less sweet than the sugar loaf 
and commands a higher price; the Bird'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. Rawson 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. 
Rawson 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-half 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 
