and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



195 



The directors state that the decline in selling 

 prices of gutta-percha caused a loss as to the 

 product in stock at the beginning of the year. 

 There was large expenditure in starting the rub- 

 ber goods factory, at Passir Panjang. The hope 

 is entertained that better conditions will now 

 prevail. Additional capital has been provided, 

 and profits are looked for from the Singapore 

 plant, as well as from the leaf gutta business, 

 which is the primary object of the company. 

 The idea is being considered of manufacturing 

 goods from the company's own raw product. 

 The gutta-percha plantations were extended to 

 285 bouws[402'82 acres], and 15 bouws have been 

 planted in Hevea rubber — about 20,000 trees — 

 which number this year is to be increased to 

 75,000. The greater part of the gutta-percha 

 has been interplanted with cinchona (quinine), 

 and 5,500 norms, net, was derived during the 

 year from the sale of bark. The plantations are 

 in south-west Java, and the administration in 

 Holland.— Gratis Times, Jan. 11. 



THE PINEAPPLE INDUSTRY. 



The Pineapple Industry — is the subjoct of 

 an informing article reproduced on this page. 

 Who is there that grows pines on a large 

 scale in Ceylon?— and what has he to tell us 

 about them ? We protest against Ceylon pines 

 being called insipid, even if they have not the 

 flavour of those fine specimens which cost half- 

 a-crown or more at home. 



That there is a huge demand for first-class 

 pineapples in India, and almost a total absence 

 of supply, will not be readily denied. To be 

 sure, pineapples are grown more or less exten- 

 sively in almost every part of India ; but, in the 

 vast majority of cases, not the slightest attempt 

 has been made to improve the quality of the 

 fruit in any way and the actual result is that the 

 pineapples generally offered for sale in most of 

 the bazaars of India are not worth eating, and 

 would not be used except as cattle fodder in 

 countries growing good quality pines. It is not 

 that the pineapple is new to India; as a matter of 

 fact, it has been grown in this country for 

 several hundred years, and in small tracts on the 

 Malabar Coast, in parts of Northern Bengal and 

 in places of Assam it has been brought to a 

 certain state of perfection. But the demand for 

 Indian-grown pineapples with any semblance of 

 flavour is so greatly in excess of the supply that 

 unripe and often 



INSIPID PINEAPPLES FROM THE STRAITS SETTLE- 

 MENTS, CEYLON AND MAURITIUS 



find a ready sale at 2 to 4 annas each. On the 

 other hand, we have heard of a small garden in 

 Northern Bengal growing luscious pineapples 

 which has no difficulty in selling them at 8 annas 

 apiece. The same sort ot thing is probably 

 done in other parts of the country on a small 

 scale, but the broad fact is, as Sir George Watt 

 tersely puts it in his revised edition of tne Com- 

 mercial Products of India, just issued: "Little 

 or no effort has been put forth either to im- 

 prove the quality or to develop on a commercial 

 basis the industry of pineapple growing, which, 

 it would appear, might be originated with ad- 

 vantage to India and profit to tnoae concerned .•' 



It may be interesting at this stage to make a 

 rapid survey of what has been done in other 

 countries in establishing the pineapple industry 

 on a commercial basis. Fifty years ago the pine- 

 apple was unknown in Florida ; today one may 

 stand on any elevated position on the East 

 Coast of Florida and look out for miles over 

 solid fields of pineapples, no other cultivated 

 crop being in sight. The red Spanish pineapple 

 comprises about 98 per cent, of the total plan- 

 tings, Abbaschi, Smooth Cayenne and Porto 

 Rico making up the remainder. The crop an- 

 nually produced is considerable, being more 

 than half-a-raillion crates, each crate holding 

 from 18 to 48 pineapples according to size. In 

 Singapore the preserving and tinning of pine- 

 apples is a large and growing industry. In 

 1906 we find that 707,498 cases of preserved 

 pines were shipped from that port, while the 

 export for 1907, the latest figures available, com- 

 prised 845,976 cases. There is a very large de- 

 mand for preserved pineapples in the United 

 Kingdom and on the Continent and this demand 

 Singapore largely supplies. Florida chiefly con- 

 tines herself to the export of ripe fruit. But a 

 more striking example of what can be done in 

 establishing a pineapple industry on a sound ba- 

 sis in a short space of time is furnished by the 

 Hawaiian Islands, which promise to outstrip 

 both Florida and the Straits Settlements at an 

 (arlydate. Here the industry was only started 

 about three years ago; but, under the gui- 

 dance of an enthusiast, has made such gi- 

 gautic progress that the output of preserved 

 pineapples in 1910 is estimated at 24 million 

 cans. In 1907 the output was 190,000 oases, 

 each containing 24 cans, but this is less 

 than half the estimated output for last year. 

 Already Honolulu claims to be in pos- 

 session of the largest canning factory in the 

 world. This factory is to be capable of 

 handling 20 solid 3ar-loads, or 300 tons of fruit, 

 in 10 hours,or at the rate of half-a-ton a minute. 

 When running to capacity it is expected that the 

 factory will turnout between five and six thou- 

 sand cases of canned pines every day. And what 

 can be done on a commercial scale in Honolulu, 

 Florida and the Straits Settlements can pro- 

 bably be also done in a greater or lesser measure 

 in India, which boasts of every kind of climatej 

 from the mildest to the most severe. 



A point in favour of the piueapple industry is 

 that it is a comparatively simple one. The pines 

 may be grown upon land that will produce ordi- 

 nary vegetables, provided such land is well 

 drained even in times of excessive rain. To 

 obtain the very best results, however, a friable 

 soil and a porous subsoil are essential. Such 

 land stands drought well, as capillary attraction 

 is good under such conditions. In Florida pine- 

 apples are planted 18 to 24 inches apart, but in 

 the Bahama Islands as many as 20,000 pines 

 are planted on a single acre, each ulant pro- 

 ducing one pineapple. This number of pine- 

 apples at 8, 4, 2 or even 1 anna each would leave 

 a handsome margin of profit per acre. But it 

 is not only from the pineapples that the profit 

 is made : there are by-products. Pineapple 

 fibre fetches about £30 per ton in tbe London 

 market ; and, according to Sir George Watt, 

 there is a considerable demand for it in part o{ 



