100 TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



the disease does not greatly prevail. Hawaiian fresh pineap- 

 ples have recently been shipped in carload lots from the branch 

 office of the territorial marketing division in San Francisco as 

 far east as Chicago and other cities. A large industry has also 

 been worked up for the fancy trade in which 9 and lo-pound 

 pineapples are sent in heavy paper cartons by express to vari- 

 ous parts of the United States. The preferred package for this 

 kind of shipment holds four fruit and weighs a little under 50 

 pounds. 



For canning purposes, pineapples weighing from 3J/2 to 5 

 pounds are preferred on account of the fact that there is less 

 loss. Some attempt has been made to select plants which pro- 

 duce cylindrical fruit rather than conical fruit, since in cylin- 

 drical fruit a large number of slices of the same diameter could 

 be obtained. This also prevented undue loss of fruit. Per- 

 haps the largest and most efficient pineapple canneries in the 

 world are located in Honolulu. The process of canning has 

 been systematized until the whole operation is practically a 

 continuous one from the lug boxes in which the pineapples 

 are brought from the field to the sealed can. The business of 

 pineapple canning has undergone a quite phenomenal develop- 

 ment in Hawaii. In 1908 the output was about 350,000 cases, 

 while at present it is nearly 2,000,000 cases. Even the core of 

 the fruit is used. The paring and slicing machinery removes 

 these cores in the form of cylindrical "candles." A great de- 

 mand has been developed for these candles, all of which are 

 shipped to New York. The candles are cooked in the same 

 manner as the pineapple slices, canned, and shipped to New 

 York, where they are used in the glace fruit industry. 



The pineapple juice was formerly allowed to go to waste in 

 large quantities. At present more attention is paid to the pres- 

 ervation of this material. Some of the canneries offer a bottled 

 pineapple juice, which has been merely sterilized by heat and 

 filtered and is otherwise unmodified. This product for the 

 most part, however, does not have a very agreeable flavor and 



