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Cultivation. 



The cultivation consists in keeping the plants cWn all the time. 

 Remember that the pineapple is an aristocrat which will sulk if re- 

 quired to share its surroundings with more plebeian plants. In Florida, 

 where the soil is practically barren of plant food, artificial manuring is 

 necessary, and in the covered pineries about Orlando as much as 3 tons 

 of highly concentrated fertilizers per acre are used. Again, the pine- 

 apple shows its patrician tastes in that it is decidedly capricious as to 

 its food. Such organic manures as cotton seed meal and castor pom- 

 mace invariably give poor carrying fruit, though dried blood does not 

 seem to be objectionable as a test of 193 plots treated with different 

 fertilizing ingredients and combinations of ingredients carried on by 

 the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station resulted in favour of 

 Blood, Bone and Potash. It is also strange that though superphos- 

 phates made of bone treated with sulphuric acid are not injurious, yet 

 when the base is of rock phosphate (marine bone deposits) this is gene- 

 rally regarded as poisonous to the pine. I may remark, however, 

 that I have never received any return from the money I have expen- 

 ded for phosphoric acid for this fruit. Up to the present, time, Ja- 

 maica soils do not seem to require artificial fertilizers while in some 

 cases their use seems to have resulted in actual disaster. It stands to 

 reason, however, that our soils cannot yield 10 to 20 tons of fruit year 

 after year without this drain needing to be made good in time, and I 

 am much interested in a series of experiments now being conducted 

 by the Island Chemist, which may also show some effect in the car- 

 rying qualities of our fruit. 



Gathering and Packing. 



"What a sense of satisfaction the grower feels as, after months of 

 anxiety and labour, his fruit approaches maturity and he begins to 

 think that his woefully one sided ledger account may begin to show a 

 better balanced appearance ! Yet beware the experience of the glass 

 vendor in Arabian Nights" whose day dreams had made him Grand 

 Yizier about to marry the Princess when a slip of the foot brought 

 his bright visions and his fragile wares in ruin to the pavement ! 

 " Eternal vigilance" is the price of satisfactory pineapple sales, and all 

 your hopes may be dashed even now by careless or improper methods. 

 The woeful inefficiency, indifference and lack of loyalty on the part of 

 the Jamaica lnbourer makes the unceasing personal attention of the 

 employer absolutely necessary while the fruit is being gathered and 

 packed for shipment. It is impossible for me to explain, save in the 

 field just when a pine is fit for picking. It v. ries, indeed, with the 

 season of the year and the distance it is expected to carry. One point 

 is vital — the fruit must have attained its full size. A pine not properly 

 matured will decay before it ripens, or if it ripens it will be a poor 

 apology in flavour for this luscious fruit. An inch or more of the stem 

 should be left attached to the fruit by which it is hung up to dry for 

 24 hours or more when it is ready for packing. A number of styles 

 of pineapple crates are used, the important thing being that they 

 should give good ventilation. U rifc'l recently I have used the " Orlando 

 Pineapple Crate" 12 x 20 x 22 inches, holding two layers of 8 to 14 



