Sept, i, 1885.] The Australasian Scientific Magazine. 51 
cocoa-nuts now planted in groves along the lake, and others are being 
planted. The tree bears in about six years, having, when in full bearing, 
at ten years, say, between 100 and 300 nuts a year. A hundred, however, 
is considered a good average for the tree. A company have planted just 
south of us a grove of 214,000 nuts. They are put about 100 to the acre 
generally. The nuts now sell at six cents apiece ; but the market price, 
alter the flurry of novelty passes away, will probably be about two cents 
each, making the crop worth about two dollars a tree a year, or 200 dollars 
the acre. Limes have been grown with great success here. Captain K. 
N. Dimick, who has lived here some ten years, has a lime tree near his 
kitchen, from which, he assures me, he one year gathered and sold fruit to 
the value of twenty dollars. This is, of course, an exceptionally fine tree. 
It was at the time referred to less than five years old. The lime may be 
planted 100 to the acre. It is not easy to reckon the probable value of a 
lime grove ; but it would be safe to count on perhaps three dollars the tree, 
or 300 the acre, with good attention. But the possibilities, as in the one 
instance of Captain Dimick, are immense. Twenty dollars the tree at the 
same rate would be 2000 dollars the acre. The limes may be pickled in brine 
and kept indefinitely ; but the price of these is much less than for the fresh 
limes, the barrel of pickles bringing from five to seven dollars in the market, 
while the fresh sometimes reach fifteen dollars a barrel. They are, how- 
ever, frequently sold, as are oranges and lemons, in bushel crates, or boxes. 
The pine-apple has been grown here, but has not received the attention it 
probably merits as a tropical fruit The fruit grows on a stalk from one to 
two feet in height. They may be planted, some say, as many as 15,000 to 
the acre ; but, perhaps, 10,000 to the acre — which is two feet apart for the 
plants— would be better. They fruit in from eighteen to twenty-four 
months after setting out the slip or sucker, the usual way of planting. It is 
considered a good yield to get seventy- five per cent.— that is 7500 from 
10,000 plantings. With good attention and cultivation a greater yield can 
be secured. The common small pine-apple usually sells for about ten cents, 
large ones more, smaller ones less. Better varieties, such as the Trinidads, 
command larger prices, as they grow larger fruit, choice fruit bringing some- 
times a dollar each. In London the prices are often very high. Messrs. 
Robert Tucker and Co., of that city, mention some pine-apples from 
Florida that sold a few years ago (in 1882), there for twenty-five shillings 
each. And I have seen mention of one weighing fifteen pounds that sold 
during the season in London for fifteen dollars. It seems reasonable to 
believe that the grower here, where cold does not interfere with the fruit, 
may count on at least ten cents for the common or Spanish fruit, and fifty 
cents each for the Trinidads. 
The banana grows on a stalk from six to ten feet high, and may be 
planted in hills eight feet apart, giving 680 hills to the acre. The 
yield of a hill is one, two, or three bunches of bananas, having between one 
hundred and two hundred fingers. The net price to the grower is about a 
dollar a bunch. A thousand bunches to the acre is not unreasonable under 
good cultivation. The sportsman finds in the woods an abundance of deer, 
an occasional bear and turkey, with plenty of squirrels, rabbits, opossums, 
wild cats, quails, eagles, etc. ; while on the waters ducks are everywhere 
and nearly all the year. The waters abound in fish, the best of which is 
the pompano. The lake is salt water. It was originally fresh water, but 
for the convenience of travel and traffic an inlet has been cut that lets in 
the Atlantic salt water. 
