226 
THE TKOPiCAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [Oct. 1, 1901. 
low as 2^ to 3i cents,, that is less thau a " quatte ' 
each. Of course, these pines would not be in very 
good conditioD, and were roughly packed probably, 
and the fruit e,oea soft very easily. 
Having fixed on the kinds of pines yon will plant, 
you must see that yoa get good suckers, A ratoon 
Bucker is the young plant that springs from the 
root of the old one, othet suckers start out from 
the base of the fruit stem. The little plants start- 
ing out from the base of the fruit itself are called 
"slips, ' and the tops are the "crowns." A good 
sucker should not be less than 9 inches in Ungth 
or more than 18 inches to be at the best for 
planting. If the suckers a»-e very young and small, 
the eyes from which the roots are to start will 
not be sufficiently developed, and so will be 
ikely to lot out if the soil is wet or in 
a dry spell to dry up and wither, before the eyes 
can swell out sufficiently to start root=i, which develop- 
ment ought to take place while the sucker is grow- 
ing with its parent's support. Larger suckers than 
18 inches do well enough, but are too top heavy, 
BO that they have to be deeply planted to prevent 
the wind blowing them over ; deep planting is, 
however, one of the things to be avoided. To get 
over this dif&oulty, it is quite correct to chop ofi 
the ends of the long leaves, and plant a stump as 
it were, leaving all the heart of the sucker; the 
leaves will grow up again and the plant produce a 
very good fruit ; but if the sucker is too advanced, 
ftnd is thus cut and planted, it will probably send 
ont a young sucker instead of growing itself, which 
is just as good. The base of the root-stalk of the 
Buckers should always be cut smoothly across 
before planting, and the lowest leaves around the 
stem and which cover the eyes, peeled off ; this 
will allow the roots to start out into the soil 
at once ; if these lower leaves are left on, the 
young roots often cannot pierce through, and simply 
curl themselves round and round ; the plant is then 
spoken of as root-bound. It does not kill the plant, 
but retards its progress. The sucker is now ready 
for planting. Close planting has been found most 
suitable, for not only is there less ground to pre- 
pare and keep clean for a grater number of plants, 
but the grown plants leaning against each other 
support the fruits erect, as they have a tendency, 
through being top heavy, to fall over, and either 
break or get sun-scalded. Not more than three feet 
wide, between the rows for all Jamica pines, and 
two feet between the plants are now considered the 
regulation distances, and I think Bull-heads could 
be closer, such as two feet by IJ feet, with advan- 
tage, as not havi g thorny leaves, workers can go 
through them easily. When you plant, you scoop 
ont some of the soil, and put in your suckers, suffi- 
ciently only to cover the eyes, and press the 
earth tightly around it. Keep your ground clean; 
you will find a common garden rake a handy im- 
plemeut for stirring the surface soil, and there are 
small hand cultivators, one-wheeled and two-wheeled, 
with a variety of implements that can be fixed on 
at pleasure, such as little ploughshares, weed scra- 
pers, cultivator teeth, rakes — which are most expe- 
peditious and effective workers. For cutting ont 
weeds in pines when they are grown thick and for 
loosening the top soil, there is an implement 
called a Scuffle Hoe which is very well adapted to 
its purpose. 
About manuring, — if you can cover your ground 
with pen manure of any kind before cultivating, it 
will stimulate the growth of the plants greatly, 
and if you are able to find enough wood-ashes, 
these will be most beneficial to the pines as ferti- 
lizers used as a top dressing lightly raked in. If 
yon have not manures of any kind, and you wish 
to push your piues on faster, you can always buy 
artificial fertilizers in Kingston, specially made up 
for the needs of Pineapples. Your plants, if Jamaica 
planting if planted from June to Augus — if planted 
from November to January they will take over 12 
months, even to 15 and 18 months ; this is because the 
plant will ever make an effort to come in at itB 
natural season no matter when planted, and will 
try to delay blossoming nntil the hot dry months 
from January to March— with irrigation and some 
control of the elements it is likely this would 
not matter. If imported suckers, as I have already 
said, they will take longer, the Puerto Rico taking 
likely enough two years from planting, but although 
exceedingly large it is not a desirable pine to plant. 
The natural season for the fruiting of Pineapples 
in Jamaica is from May to August, and there is 
also nature's season for planting, as it is then the 
young plants are produced, but as it happens, late 
June, July and August, are just the times when 
our fruit is least wanted in northern countries as 
the fresh, home-grown fruits, cherries, strawberries, 
plums, tomatoes, gooseberries, etc., are just coming 
in then. The best time of the year to get our 
pines in is from November on to May ; before 
Christmas, pines are in beet demand. It is quite 
possible for large plantations to get them in then, 
but not for the small man, and this is how. Ton 
inust plant from September to December; at that 
time you cannot find medium sized suckers, unleas 
you have been planting out earlier simply to get 
8ucker.«, for as we have said the natural season 
is midsummer, so that the suckers have been grow- 
ing since then ; if you break these large suckers 
of six months' growth towards making a fruit, 
from the old stem and plant, it may cast them 
back enough for them to take about a year to 
fruit, but many will shoot their blossoms and fruit 
in their usual seasons all the same, and the Ifruits 
will be small, so that you may not have any gain 
at all, although the prices abroad may be better 
at the end than in the middle of the year. If 
persisted in, I think it sure that good young plants 
could be got in from October to December quite 
regularly, and the fruit brought in at the desired 
season, a year to 15 months later, and by replant- 
ing small suckers every year in August and Sep- 
tember, the fruits will mostly come from November to 
March. Slips take 18 months from planting to 
produce fruir, but they give fine fruits even better 
than from suckers. Crowns take 20 months to two 
years, to produce fruit. It looks as if there would 
be a good market in Great Britain, and after that 
the Continent of Europe, for all the pines we can 
produce, and 1 deem it very probable that the new 
Direct Line of fast fruit steamers will enable ns 
to supply the whole of Europe with pines, from 
Gibraltar to St. Petersburg, the only query left, 
but an important one, being the net profits to 
the growers. This remains to be tested. J. B. 
— Journal of the Jamaica JgricuUural Society. 
« 
Mango. — It may not be generally known that wheat 
is not the largest grain crop produced. Maize stands 
first with 2,778,108,000 bushels to its credit in 1900, 
against 2,468,799.000 bushels of wheat. Nearly the 
whole of the maize was grown in the American conti- 
nent — Journal of the Department of Agnculture. 
How TO Plant Cuttings, — Many amateurs make great 
mistakes, in planting cuttings. They leave three- 
fourths of the lengths of the cutting above ground, 
and very often push the cutting down by main force 
into the soil. The most successful way is to make 
cuttings from 6 to 12 inches long. Make a narrow 
trench, and put 1 inch of sand at the bottom, and 
place the cuttings at such a depth that only about 
two eyes or buds are exposed above ground. Throw 
a little more sand against the base of the cutting, fill 
in the soil a little at a time, and tread it very firmly 
against the base of the cutting. Leave the surface 
l<f(fa^,—Qncmhnii AgricwUiml Jownol, 
