Edible Products. 



528 



[June 1908* 



straight rows each way, they should be 

 pulled up and planted again. If the 

 larbourer who plants them is charged 

 for his mistakes, he will be more parti- 

 cular in future as to getting them per- 

 fectly straight. 



Cultivation. 



After the plants have been set out, 

 they can be left alone for five to six 

 weeks to allow them to become well 

 rooted, unless weed growth becomes too 

 vigorous. If weeds become at all pre- 

 valent, the beds must be hoed without 

 delay, for during this early stage of 

 growth weeds and grass should never be 

 allowed to grow or get ahead so as to 

 cause the plants to receive a check, as 

 plants that have their growth checked 

 at this early stage rarely, if ever, recover. 



Nothing but a push or scuffle hoe 

 should be used in the cultivation of pine- 

 apples. A special hoe, 10 inches wide 

 and about 3 inches deep and sharpened 

 on both sides with a handle about 8 feet 

 long has proved a very useful tool.* 



The hoer should be a careful worker 

 and should be instructed to stand in the 

 trenches between the beds. He should 

 never be allowed to walk among the 

 plants or trample down the soil. The 

 usual method of cultivation is to hoe 

 from each side, pushing the hoe between 

 the plant, gauging so that the hoe will 

 cut about half an inch beneath the sur- 

 face of the soil so as to cut off every weed 

 or piece of grass showing. Great care 

 should be taken not to disturb the plauts 

 by knocking the hoe against them, 

 because when they are just beginning to 

 take root the slightest jar will check 

 their growth. 



In about six weeks after the suckers 

 have been planted, they should, under 

 favourable conditions, be showing gowth. 

 The best time to plant is probably during 

 June, July and August. It is frequently 

 a difficult matter to procure plants 

 before July, for the reason that suckers 

 and slips are hardly ripe enough for 

 planting. If gathered immature they 

 are liable to rot. 



After the plants show growth, an 

 application of tobacco dust will prove 

 highly beneficial. This dust contains 

 to 8 per cent, of potash, 3 to 4 per cent, 

 of ammonia, and about 2 per cent, of 

 phosphoric acid. Besides being a good 

 fertiliser, it is an insecticide, and thia 

 makes its use doubly valuable. The 

 best method of applying tobacco dust is 

 to have the labourer handle it in buckets. 

 He carefully walks among the plants 

 and drops a pinch of the dust into the 



* Such hoes may be obtained from Messrs, 

 garkes, BiEmmguam, 



heart or bud of each. This, of course, 

 necessitates walking on the beds, but it 

 can be done with care, and the beds can 

 receive another hoeing afterwards. Dust 

 is often applied before hoeing, so that 

 the beds are left in a good condition. 



Tobacco dust should be applied at 

 intervals of two or three months in 

 small doses, each application requiring 

 about 600 lb. per acre if carefully dis- 

 tributed. Such applications can be con- 

 tinued until three months before flower- 

 ing of the plants, when all applications 

 should cease. As pine apples generally 

 blossom or show fruit in January, no 

 dust should be applied after October. 



Gathering the Fruit. 



In twelve to fourteen months fruit 

 should be in proper condition to pick, 

 and if intended for foreign markets, 

 should be gathered green but perfectly 

 full. Experience can be the only guide 

 in pioking for shipment, so that a good 

 colour may be obtained, for if pine- 

 apples are picked too green they would 

 never assume a good rich colour. The 

 method practised is for a picker to go 

 into the fields followed by another man 

 who should have a wicker basket of 

 about one or more bushels to carry the 

 fruit. This man takes each pine-apple 

 from the picker and carefully places it 

 in his basket. When the basket is filled, 

 it is carried either to the packing house 

 or placed in a spring cart or waggon 

 padded with bagging to prevent the 

 fruit from being bruised. It is thought 

 that many growers in cutting the pine- 

 apple from the plant with about 2 inches 

 or more of stalk attached to the fruit 

 makes a mistake ; for this stalk in a few 

 days becomes sour and decays the 

 fruit. The better method probably is to 

 snap the fruit from the stalk. With a 

 little practice this can be done without 

 breaking the stalk, by gently pressing 

 the knee upward under the pine-apple, 

 and with the hand bend the fruit in- 

 wards until it snaps from the stalk. (A 

 few slips removed from the side towards 

 which the ft ruit is bent will cause the 

 pine to snap from the stalk easier, but 

 in no case remove all the slips during 

 the early or latter growth of the pine- 

 apple, because they protect the fruit 

 from the sun. Besides, the slips when 

 allowed to grow the proper length are 

 well worth planting and torm a valuable 

 asset to the planter.) 



Packing. 



When the fruit is delivered at the 

 packing house, it is carefully piled not 

 more than three pines high, on tables or 

 on a clean floor. It is left over night to 

 cool off, before being wrapped. 



