10 



mg off, and it may often be necessary to sterilize the soil before plant- 

 ing. After the plants attain the size of small slips they can be set out 

 in nurseries and later transplanted into the field. Seedlings will bear 

 in from two and a half to three years, while slips bear in about one 

 year and a half, showing that it is not practicable to propagate from 

 seed, but it is of great importance in developing new varieties. The 

 seeds do not reproduce the variety true to name, and in propagating 

 from seeds the result is a number of different t} r pes. some of which 

 may be equal to the parent, some inferior, and some superior. 



SELECTING PLANTS FOR PROPAGATION. 



In growing pines, the first consideration is that the plants must be 

 free from disease, strong, vigorous, and mature. (See PI. IV. fig. 1.) 

 A well-matured sucker or slip can be pulled off and left exposed to 

 Avind and sun and even moisture for a long time, while the immature 

 plant will dry up in a short time, or decay if the air is laden with 

 moisture. There is no essential difference between a rattoon. a slip, 

 and a sucker. Suckers often develop on the mother plant before the 

 fruit, and such suckers will therefore be several months older than the 

 slips and, consequently, when planted will bear several months earlier 

 than the former. 



Rattoons, although they have a developed root system, are not 

 to be preferred to slips, because their roots die unless the plant is 

 removed with a ball of earth. Plants in any stage of growth may be 

 transplanted, but old, rooted plants should never be accepted in lieu 

 of suckers. Crowns are frequently used where they can be obtained 

 from canneries and, if large and well matured, there is no objection 

 to planting them. The small, immature crowns are subject to rot, 

 especially in rainy weather, and often the loss is very great. "When 

 crowns are to be planted, two precautions are necessary to avoid loss. 

 The first is to trim close to the base of the crown. The second, to 

 " cure " the ends by exposing for several days until there is a dry. 

 hard surface formed. This is best done by setting the crown, base up, 

 where the exposed surface will receive the full sunlight, which will 

 dry out the moisture. 



SOIL AND ITS PREPARATION. 



In Florida most of the pineapple soils consist of over 99.5 per cent 

 insoluble silica or sand of rather coarse texture. The mechanical 

 analysis shows very small amounts of organic matter, very fine sand, 

 silt, and clay. Soil of this character is not often found in Porto 

 Rico or, as a matter of fact, in the "West Indies. It was therefore a 

 question for the pioneer planters of Porto Rico what soil to choose for 

 pines. True enough, pines were found growing wild in many sec- 



