September, 1910,/ 



217 



Edible Products. 



soils, and especially those containing no 

 joint grasses, beds wide enough to plant 

 from three to six rows of pine are 

 preferable. 



The Three to Six Row System, 

 In making beds for the three to six row 

 system the same method can be used as 

 for the one and the two row beds, but 

 considerable hand work is needed besides. 

 It is good practice to leave a space of 6 

 feet between the beds, which should be 

 excavated so as to leave the top of the 

 beds at least 12 inches above the bottom 

 of the walk between the beds. If the 

 plants are set 15 inches apart and six 

 rows to the bed it would require beds 

 fully 7 feet wide. This is not too wide 

 for working easily, provided the land is 

 not weedy, while it almost completely 

 eliminates the falling over of plants and 

 fruit. It has been found, however, that 

 where the soil is not physically well 

 suited to pineapples the rows in the 

 middle of the bed do not produce as well 

 as those on the outside, and one should 

 therefore carefully consider the condi- 

 tions before laying off the beds by 

 this method. 



The Wide-Bed System, 

 The method known as the " wide- 

 bed system" also called the "Florida 

 system," may be used where the condi- 

 tions are similar to those in Florida, 

 which does not often occur in Porto 

 Rico. The land is marked off with the 

 rows about 18 inches apart and the plants 

 set in perfectly straight lines, which may 

 be as long as the fields, bub for the sake 

 of passing through the field there ought 

 to be a roadway of 8 feet for every 200 

 feet of bed. The width of the bed is 

 made 30 to 50 feet, according to the dis- 

 tance a man can throw a pineapple. In 

 harvesting the fruit one man goes into 

 the bed and breaks off the fruit and 

 throws it to a man in the roadway, who 

 catches it and places it in baskets or 

 boxes, which are then hauled to the 

 packing houses. In practise, beds 30 

 feet wide with roadways 8 feet wide, 

 together with crossroads every 200 feet 

 make a very convenient field. 



Preparing ihe Plants. 



The young plants, whether suckers, 

 slips, or crowns, are covered with leaves 

 to the very tip of the base. In strip- 

 ping these leaves off and exposing the 

 stem a number of excrescences will be 

 seen, which are the root buds, some of 

 which may be already developed into 

 roots of considerable lengths. Many 

 planters maintain that it is necessary 

 to trim the plants, that is, to cut the 

 tip of the base and to strip the leaves 

 28 



off for a distance of 1 to 2 inches. 

 Other planters maintain that this pro- 

 cess is not at all necessary. Why is 

 this? The reason is simply the difference 

 in local conditions under which the 

 plants are grown. If a slip is planted 

 without trimming in a dry, sandy soil 

 the roots will form, but instead of 

 spreading out in the normal fashion they 

 will wind around the stem under the 

 leaves. There are two reasons for this. 

 One is, that on account of the dry soil 

 the leaves covering the stem remain 

 hard and dry, and the roots would have 

 to overcome great resistance in order to 

 penetrate them ; they therefore follow 

 the course of least resistance and de- 

 velop under the leaves. The other 

 reason is that the plant catches a 

 great deal of dew and water from 

 light rains, which is retained in the 

 heart and leaf axils, from which it 

 trickles down around the base and 

 makes the condition there favourable 

 for root formation, while at a distance 

 of an inch oi more from the stem the 

 soil is drier. This growing: of the roots 

 around the stem is called in Florida 

 " targleroot," and these plants are 

 trimmed in order to insure the desired 

 root development. If the plants are set 

 in loamy or clay soil that contains con- 

 siderable moisture, the leaves covered 

 up with soil will decay in a short time, 

 and as the soil is as moist a distance 

 away from the plant as close by, the 

 loots will spread out just as well as if 

 the plants had been trimmed. There- 

 fore, for planting in a dry soil or in a dry 

 season trim, but for planting in a moist 

 soil or in the rainy season the work is 

 not worth the cost. 



The trimming consists in cutting off 

 the base and stripping off the lower 

 leaves, leaving an inch or more of the 

 stem exposed. If large suckers are 

 planted, it is quite common to cut the 

 ends of the leaves off, but this is not 

 desirable, because cutting or breaking 

 the leaves lowers the vitality of the plant. 



Planting the Field. 

 The beds being prepared according to 

 the desired system of culture, the row? 

 can be marked off either with an ordin- 

 ary marker or with aline, but whichever 

 method is used the rows should be 

 straight, The distance between the 

 rows, as well as between the plants, will 

 vary according to the variety and also 

 according to the soil and the system of 

 planting. Pineapples, no matter what 

 variety, do not have an extensive root 

 system, and when planted in single rows 

 12 to 15 inches apart they have enough 

 room for root development. In beds 

 with several rows, 15 to 18 inches for 



