58 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
Good plants should be eight inches or 
more in length. These are cut off slightly 
at the base and enough of the leaves or 
boot peeled off to expose the root system 
and planted with a dibble or trowel, 
twenty inches each way and in beds 
twenty to forty feet wide being found 
most satisfactory. At this distance it will 
require about twelve thousand per acre, 
more or less, according to the space given 
to paths. Some, immediately after plant¬ 
ing, put a pinch of cottonseed meal, or 
cottonseed meal and tobacco into the heart 
of each plant, but generally this is not 
done until the plant begins to root. From 
this time till the plants bloom, the scuffle- 
hoe is the grower’s best friend, and its 
constant use without fertilizer will make 
better plants than the feicilizer without 
the scuffle-hoe. Neither should be used 
sparingly if the best results are to be se¬ 
cured. When well rooted an application 
of five hundred pounds to the acre of cot¬ 
tonseed meal and tobacco or of high grade 
blood and bone will keep them growing 
nicely. If the weather does not become 
cold enough to check growth, still another 
application of the same kind, say one 
thousand pounds per acre, may be applied 
in the late fall or winter though this may 
be delayed till February or March. 
By mid-summer the plants should be 
nearly full grown and stocky at the base. 
Until recently it has been usual to apply 
at this stage simply an ammoniated fer¬ 
tilizer and if they are at all backward that 
will be best, but otherwise I prefer to add 
a slight percentage of phosphoric acid and 
potash to the ammoniate. One hundred 
pounds of fertilizer to each one thousand 
plants is sufficient. The plants will then 
need nothing further until they are ready 
to fruit and this is applied any time be¬ 
tween September and March, owing to the 
condition of the fields, the weather or the 
ideas of the individual grower. A for¬ 
mula for this last application often used is 
3 to 4 per cent of ammonia, 7 to 8 per cent 
phosphoric acid and 10 to 12 per cent pot¬ 
ash. 
I have thus outlined as briefly as pos¬ 
sible one system of cultivation which has 
given good results, but of course there are 
many variations from this, both in the 
amount of fertilizer, proportions, and 
time of application. The pineapple is 
tenacious of life and lives to fruit so it 
does its level best with whatever comes to 
it, but repays richly for good feeding and 
care. An acre well cared for will, if the 
plants were vigorous and all conditions 
favorable, produce go per cent or from 
300 to 400 crates the first crop, but as 
neither slips nor suckers are uniformly 
good and "some years are all below par, 
the average yield is not so high. After 
plants cover the ground, cultivation ceases 
and fertilizer is applied broadcast, two 
applications a year being considered suffi¬ 
cient in our locality. Formerly cotton¬ 
seed meal and tobacco dust was the uni¬ 
versal summer fertilizer, but recently a 
more or less complete one of high grade 
materials is growing in favor, especially 
when there is much fall fruit. 
Believing that those who have never 
seen a pineapple field or seen the fruit 
handled would be interested, the writer 
takes pleasure in showing some pineap¬ 
ple views taken in the East Coast pineap¬ 
ple belt in St. Lucie county. The pack¬ 
ing of the fruit will be of especial inter¬ 
est to many. 
The growing of pineapples is no longer 
an experiment. The problems remaining 
to be solved are largely economical and 
commercial. Increased production means 
smaller profits and must induce better 
