FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
39 
I have had to stand on the seat. I have never advised any 
man to invest one dollar in Florida until he came to look at 
it and get advice from the men in the community in which he 
desired to locate. I say that I have more than made a living 
in the state by my efforts, and I propose to stick to it. 
Mr. Richards —I have been asked how long a pineapple 
plantation would stand. I must say I have not been in the 
business long enough to know. I haye been at it fourteen 
years and I have plants growing yet and they do better to-day 
than they did five years ago. All that is necessary is atten¬ 
tion and plenty of fertilizer to make them last an indefinite 
period. Use phosphate (Florida soft phosphate ground and 
dried,) potash (derived from kanit and cotton seed meal); that 
makes a cymplcte fertilizer. My pineapple plants bear all 
the year. „ I have shipped a good many in the winter. The 
new ones come on in the summer. We plant about 16,000 to 
the acre. When the plants are two years old we get from 200 
to 300 per cent, and we get less after t hat. 
Speaking of the pineapple being a good medicine for indi¬ 
gestion, I found out long ago that the pineapple was a good 
medicine, and when I came to Florida I was a dyspeptic, but 
I am not now. When I can get a good ripe pineapple to eat 
I do not have indigestion. 
Mr. Rooks —If I understand correctly the captain states he 
plants 16,000 pineapple plants to the acre; the first year they 
will average 60 per cent, in fruit; the second year from 200 to 
300 per cent. Do I understand that in the second year they 
will produce from thirty to forty thousand apples to the 
acre ? 
Mr. Richards —The first year they produce 90 per cent, 
and the second year they will produce 300 per cent. 
Mr. Rooks —You plant 16,000 plants to the acre? 
Mr. Richards —Yes, sir. 
Mr. Rooks —That is 45,000 apples the second year. I can¬ 
not raise it on my ground. 
Mr. Richards —Some of myr plants have five to six apples 
on them. 
Mr. Rooks —I could never do that. I would like to ask 
Mr. Martin if he is acquainted with the character of the land 
that Mr. Russell has. 
Mr. Martin —It is dry land. 
Mr. Rooks —I remember visiting his place once, but it ap¬ 
peared to me that the land was swampy. 
Mr. Martin —His place was on wet land. It has been 
thoroughly drained. It is rich, good land. 
