68 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
will grow on the wall to the top of the 
highest conservatories. In such positions 
the trunk is rarely more than one and 
one-half to two inches in diameter. For 
fruiting purposes, however, it is better 
to prevent the vine from climbing at all. 
Under pineapple sheds it blooms profuse¬ 
ly, and it fruits rather abundantly. Every 
bloom is almost certain to make a fruit. 
PROPAGATION. 
For propagating purposes the trunks 
are cut into segments in such a way as to 
leave an eye on each segment. These 
segments are planted out and struck with 
a fair degree of success. In the course of 
two or three years, if these plants are well 
cared for ; they will produce fruit. It is 
about 14 months from the time of bloom¬ 
ing for the fruits to ripen. 
TYESS. 
This is also sometimes called egg-fruit. 
No systematic effort has yet been made to 
bring this fruit into the best state of cul¬ 
tivation. Only seedling trees have fruit 
and the product of these is exceedingly 
variable—good, indifferent, and bad, I 
think the extreme of inconsistency was 
met in this fruit in the tree which was 
fruited by Prof. Gale, at Mangonia. This 
tree fruited abundantly and gave a fine- 
looking specimen. Some of them were 
sweet and delicious, other fruits from the 
same tree were only indifferent, and some 
of the fruits growing on the same tree, 
and taken from among the good fruits 
were extremely bitter. Even the same 
fruits were somewhat variable; one side 
being quite palatable while the other side 
would be distinctly bitter. 
THE LOSS OF PLANT FOOD IN PINEAPPLE AND OTHER 
COARSE SANDY SOILS. 
BY A. W. BLAIR. 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
A very interesting point which has been 
brought out by the pineapple fertilizer ex¬ 
periment, is the great discrepancy be¬ 
tween the amount of plant food applied 
to an acre of pineapples and the amount 
that is acutally removed by the crop 
taken from an acre, inculding fruit, slips 
and suckers. 
AN UNBALANCED ACCOUNT 
To illustrate, we may first take one of 
the plots from the experiment, which has 
been fertilized at the rate of 3750 pounds 
per acre. This plot received annually one 
pound of actual phosphoric acid, one and 
one fourth pounds nitrogen and two and 
one half pounds of actual potash. Multi¬ 
plying these figures by 150 (the plots be¬ 
ing 1-150 of an acre in size) gives to one 
acre 150 pounds of actual phosphoric acid, 
187 1-2 pounds of nitrogen and 375 
pounds of actual potash, or 712 1-2 
pounds of actual plant food in one year. 
Now, if we allow that this acre pro¬ 
duces 500 crates of pineapples, each 
weighing 70 pounds net, the amount of 
plant food removed by this 35,000 pounds 
of fruit would l^e, as calculated from the 
