THE PINE-ArPLE. 



451 



dozen, tlie great bulk of which went to the United States. In 1871 

 there was a much larger shipment, amounting to 449,418 dozen, 

 valued at 41,876/. 



The prices for pine-apples range from 3s. to 4s. per dozen, plan- 

 tains and bananas, 2s. to 3s. the bunch, oranges 4s. 2<i. the 100. In 

 1872 pine-apples in New York fetched 15 to 17 dollars the hundred. 



There are numerous varieties of pine-apples; one of the best is 

 said to come from Guayaquil. Nichau, one of the Sandwich Islands 

 group, produces an exquisite fruit, such as is rarely met with either in 

 the East or the Pacific. In Europe some of the varieties cultivated 

 are the Montserrat, Cayenne, Enville, and others. 



Although the culture of the fruit for export was at first restricted to 

 the Bahamas, now Jamaica, St. Bartholomew, Trinidad, the Azores, 

 and other quarters, have entered into the trade. The first shipments 

 were made in 1842 to Liverpool from the Bahamas. 



The Jamaica Colonial Botanist, writing in 1875, reported that 

 five acres of this valuable fruit were being planted, and two acres of 

 this plantation would consist of the fine variety known as the Ripley. 

 About sixty plants of the fine new varieties, viz. : Enville, prickly 

 Cayenne, smooth Cayenne, Providence, and Charlotte Eothschild, 

 introduced several years ago at Castleton, have been transferred to 

 Hope; and the stock plants, numbering as many more, were to be 

 removed from the same place shortly, as the climate of Castleton was 

 found far too damp for the successful growth of this plant. It is 

 remarkable that the Hope, and the locality immediately surrounding 

 it, to the extent of a few square miles only, is the best adapted spot in 

 Jamaica for their culture. This is attributable in a great measure 

 to the peculiar conditions of climate, which are exactly suited to the 

 development of the plant, and also in some measure to the suitability 

 of the soil. On the extension of the plain to the south of Hope the 

 climate is too arid. 



Notwithstanding the advantages indicated for the production of 

 this fruit, as well as the existence of a fortnightly line of steamers 

 plying between Kingston and America, where the demand for this 

 and other fruits is unlimited, it is a matter of notoriety that the 

 largest plantation of pines, as far as I am aware, is in extent not 

 more than about a quarter of an acre, and probably the five-acre 

 plantation will comprise an area equal to the whole extent under 

 cultivation in the locality. Choice pines from this district are sold 

 in Kingston at from 9s. to 12s. a dozen. The price realized in New 

 York for the best Jamaica pines is upwards of Is. each. It will, 

 therefore, be a moderate estimate if each pine is valued at 6d. In 

 the Bahamas 20,000 suckers are usually planted to the acre ; but this 

 appears excessive overcrowding, and as a consequence the plants and 

 fruit must receive a constitutional check in their maturation. The 

 distances apart, at which they are planted at Hope, are 3J feet be- 

 tween the rows, and 2 J feet in the rows ; this gives 4840 plants to 

 the acre. Out of this number it may be safely computed that from 

 the first crop, IG or 18 months after planting, 4000 fruit will be 

 obtained from each acre ; considerably more would be procured from 

 the second and third years' crops from the suckers produced around 



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