FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
i53 
ration at all times and results with me 
have proven satisfactory in using a 5 per 
cent ammonia, 6 per cent potash 2 
per cent phosphoric acid formula, from 
the budding of the young plants to old 
age. The fact that I have some fields that 
have borne consecutive crops for 21 years 
tends to prove that I am right. 
The fruit is harvested in the latter part 
of May, June and July, the Abbaka and 
Smooth Cayenne varieties coming Hast 
as a late variety. 
The Smooth Cayenne, Porto Rico and 
Queen have almost disappeared from the 
Indian River section as the fields are 
shorter lived than the Red Spanish. 
Some fruit is harvested during every 
month, with a light crop in the fall dur¬ 
ing October and November. 
The fruit is sold mostly through brok¬ 
ers and commission men, but is sold at 
the track from day to day at varying 
prices and some is sold as a crop by sizes 
as well as a flat price for the whole sea¬ 
son’s output for the field run. 
At the present time there is no selling 
organization among the growers oil the 
East Coast, but there is a strong proba¬ 
bility of organizing in future as a branch 
of the Florida Citrus Exchange. Speed 
the day! 
300 to 350 crates of 80 lbs. weight, 
containing 16, 18, 20, 24 Abbakas or 
18, 24, 30, 36, 42 and 48 Red Spanish 
apples, to the acre is considered a good 
output for the first two years, after that 
an average of 250 crates per acre per 
year for a period of the next 12 or 14 
years are considered good crops. 
It costs about 85 cents per crate to 
grow the fruit, pack it and get on the 
cars ready to move. 
In 1913 crops netted about $1.60 aver¬ 
age, leaving net profit of about 75 cents 
per crate. Of course it may be guessed 
that some growers made more and some 
less. 
This year the crop will be small owing 
to frost damage in all sections, together 
with the effect of a long drought and 
net returns for desirable fruit will be 
much larger than last year. 
Large quantities of cull pines, bald- 
heads, ill shaped and over ripes are 
thrown away every season and it may 
seem that a cannery would pay. 
No doubt that if a grower had the fa¬ 
cilities and time during a busy harvest 
season he could can or preserve some of 
this fruit to profitable advantage but we 
have a canning factory on the Ejast Coast 
that I understand has never been a profit¬ 
able pineapple proposition and though 
many professional canners have visited 
the section they apparently cannot see the 
profits ahead to make them invest. 
In conclusion, I want to say that I 
am ready and willing at all times to give 
any information that I may possess re¬ 
garding pineapples or my section of Flo¬ 
rida and if in this paper I have failed to 
cover any point fully I expect that you 
will ask questions, either at this time, 
through the question box, or by mail. 
Discussion. 
Mr. Floyd: Cannot some person give 
us some experience of pineapple growing 
on the west coast? This 'paper dealt 
with pineapple growing on the east coast. 
