Oct. 1, 1901.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
225' 
Pine-apples seem to delight in stiff soil, fo/ ou 
such land are they found growing naturally wild. 
The land must always be well drained, if not na- 
turally, then artificially. You would, of course, 
fork or plough your land first; digging little holes 
and sticking the plants in, is no good at all, for 
remember, that it is not simply a fruit that is to 
be produced ; it is a good sized fruit that will stand 
a Journey, be attractive and have a good chance 
of fetching a fair price. The soil must be made 
loose, but not necessarily to any great depth as 
the pine is a surface feeder ; still the soil must not 
be only scratched loose for an inch or two ; the 
ordinary depth of a foot fork is a suitable depth 
to dig. Having forked the land, it will be all 
Inmpy and rough ; the sun and breeze will dry it 
Up, and then the rains will partially crumble it 
down : it is therefore well to commence on your 
land a month or two before you mean to plant ; 
you can assist this fining process by going over 
the land with an Assam fork, and smashing the 
clods, thereby making the soil smoother and more 
level. Of course if a plough and cultivator and 
harrow can be used, the land will be ready so 
much the quicker. These implemeut-i for saving 
labour are exceedingly handy and are now sold so 
very cheap as to be within the reach of nearly 
everybody. Neighbours can cooperate and one get 
a plough, the next a cultivator, and the next a 
harrow, and arrange to ij^e them consecutively; 
that is, when one man has had the plough a 
week, he passes it on, and starts out with the 
cultivator for a week to stir up and break the 
land more thoroughly after the plough has broken 
the soil up into clods: then he passes on the cul- 
tivator, and starts with the harrow to crumble 
the surface still finer, and smooth it down level. 
Of course the co-operators must not be of quarrel- 
some and jealous dispositions, else there will be 
disagreement. But with suitable people, the plan 
works well and saves outlay and waste, for few of 
the smaller cultivators require all three implements 
like a plough, a cultivator and a harrow constantly. 
Now when your land is prepared, in wettish districts 
it is good, 'hough not an absolute necessity, to 
put the pines in raised beds with small drains 
between, which also do as foot paths. This is for 
more complete drainage. It suits well to put pines 
in beds between young orange trees and thus utilise 
the land, while the cultivation given to the pines 
will leave the land in good condition for the roots 
of the orange trees when they extend in the course 
of a few years, and fill up the space between ; the 
soil will then be in fine tilth. The beds should be 
of a breadth to be reached at all parts between 
by a rake or hoe, from the walks, so 6, 7, or 8 
rows will be quite enough. 
The next great question is the kind of pines you 
will plant. There are far more varieties of what 
we call native pines than are generally known. 
There are the Ripley, (Red and Green,) Sugar 
Loaf, Bull-head Black and Cowboy which are more 
or less commonly known, though the Bull head and 
Cowboy are often mixed ; but they are not the same. 
There are other natiye pines, which are not so well 
distributed throughout the island, and yet are distinct 
from any of those I have named. The same pines, how- 
ever, often receive different names in some parts ofr 
the island ; thus the Cowboy, is the Man o' Wa 
Pine in Hanover, and the Mammee Pine in St, 
James and in other districts the " Crab Pine. " 
About Porus there is a Pine called the Chese Pine 
■which bears a fairly good fruit, and in the St. 
Thomas-ye-Vale district of St. Catherine, there is a 
Pine of very fine appearance, called the " Sam 
Clark"; it grows absolutely wild in the bush, and 
seems to delight to make head-way among the long 
rank, wet grass, for the district is rather a wet 
one. There is also a curious pine called — the "Jeru- 
salem, " which bears miniature pines — complete little 
pines, tops and ^U, rouQ^ (he )pas@i 0{ t^S im- 
ported pines, there are the Rothschild, the Abbaka, 
the Enville, the Golden Queen, the Porto Rico, 
the Smooth Cayenne, the last of which is prov- 
ing the best thrower and most marketable pice of 
all these. It has smooth leaves, no thorns, and 
grows to a large size, and is a quick, strong grower, 
and sure fruiter, the suckers are at present rather 
expensive, being from 9d. to Is. each, as they are 
in great demand both here and in Florida. Imported 
suckers take a year and a-half to fruit, and then 
bear at any time of the year, but the suckers 
from these bear fruit at 10 and 14 months from 
planting the same as native suckers, depending 
upon the season when they are planted. The 
Smooth Cayenne weighs from 6 to 12 lbs. — often 
more. If any one can afford to plant out such 
expensive pines, and has favourable land, I am 
snre it would be a profitable speculation, as hardly 
less than 23. a piece would be ihe return in the 
London market and if grown with some judg- 
ment and care, and brought in out of the usual 
seaeon in Jamica, (for our usual season is exactly- 
the worst season for foreign markets,) would 
fetch not less than Ss. 6d. each, if of good size. 
The only other imported pine that has been in any 
way freely planted is the Abbaka ; it grows to a 
good size, hardly so large as the Smooth Cayenne, 
and is screw shaped, large at the base and taper- 
ing up much like the Ripley. The Ripley stands 
easily at the head of all Pines for flavour; not 
one of the imported can cjompare with it in this 
respect, nor indeed with the Black and Sugar 
Loaf Pines. Uufortunately for us, pines sell almost 
entirely by their appearance ; if they are big, well 
shaped, with good tops and with an attractive 
colour as they ripen, they will sell well. The Ripley 
is not more than 4 or 51b. weight at the very 
best, generally 2 or 3 lb., though I quite believe 
that good cultivation and selection of the sucker 
from plants that have made the largest fruits 
would result in bigger fruits ultimately. Nor is the 
Ripley, as usually grown, a very nicely shaped 
fruit, and its top is generally small and often 
twisted. These defects, I believe, can be remedied. 
Otherwise the Ripley is an excellent pine, it packs 
easily, and stands transport very well. Perhaps 
the next best pine in flavour is the Black Pine ; 
and as it grows to a large size without much cul- 
tivation, is a very shapely and nice coloured pine 
when ripe, and stands transport exceedingly well, 
it is one of the best to plant ; its one weak point 
is that until it is very nearly full-ripe it does 
not colour-up, so that markets not used to it 
think that its dark colour means unripeness. Then 
there is the Bull-head, which is known by 
the smooth leaves of its suckers, which have only 
a few little prickles at the top or here and there 
on the leaves. I think that the smooth Cayenne 
may be a highly improved type of the same pine, 
or the Bull-head and uncultivated or degenerate 
Smooth Cayenne, at any rate they are like each 
other. The fruit of the Bull-head Pine under cul» 
tivatiou grows to a very large size, is shapely and 
stands transport exceeedingly well, but is not, as 
yet, palatable fruit. The "Sam Clark" has hardly 
more than been tried as a marketable fruit, and so 
I will not speak much of it, only to say that it 
has a very pretty appearance. By this time next 
year I hope to speak with authority on it. The 
Cheese pine, too, 1 have not yet had personal ex» 
perience of as a shipper. The Sugar Loaf, perhaps 
the most common pine in Jamaica, one which growi 
equally well from sea level to the hill tops, and 
a fruit which grows to a very large size, and which 
is very agreeable to eat, is unfortunately a rery 
poor shipper, I have noticed in the market reports 
of the United States this year, enormous — that ii 
the word — receipts of pines from Havana in Cuba, 
whole steamer loads, as many as 2,000 barrels in 
one cargo, and that often twice a week these 
were Sugar Lpaf Pines, the prices were often 
