FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
49 
root system, and, after fruiting, nice- 
looking suckers. But I think that such 
suckers should not be used, for although 
they may not inherit the disease, they 
may inherit the tendency to contract it. 
Unless some blighted plants are wanted 
to experiment with, it is best to pull 
them up and throw them away. Plants 
on low ground are less subject to blight 
than those upon higher ground. 
This year five of our pineries have 
been affected by what is known as curl, 
which is a condition of the plant in which 
the bud turns over until it has assumed 
a horizontal instead of an upright posi¬ 
tion. During the winter it looked quite 
serious, as from five to fifteen per cent, 
of the plants of those pineries were af¬ 
fected, but now they seem to be out¬ 
growing the conditions. 
A committee from our local Pineapple 
Growers’ Association was appointed to 
examine into the cause of this defect. 
While we came to no conclusions as to 
the cause, it was found that pineries fer¬ 
tilized with blood and bone and potash 
only were free from this trouble, while it 
did occur in pineries where nitrate of 
soda or nitrate of soda and sulphate of 
ammonia were used. I would suggest 
that possibly it was caused by those 
strong forms of ammonia getting into 
the plant. 
INSECTS. 
Under this heading, only the mealy 
bug and pineapple scale come to trouble 
us, and they are seldom sufficiently nu¬ 
merous to justify a combat; and when 
they are they die easily when fought 
with any good insecticide, at one-half of 
the usual strength used for citrus scale. 
Ground tobacco used freely upon the 
plants has a strong tendency to keep 
them down, and it is worth from fifty to 
seventy-five per cent of its cost as a fer¬ 
tilizer. But few growers have paid any 
attention to either of these pests. 
As to the different kinds of plants, I 
can see no difference between the results 
from rattoons, suckers, slips, stool plants 
and crowns; provided that they are all 
equally good of their kind. Am inclined 
to think that crowns produce a slightly 
larger apple than the other plants, but 
they are somewhat subject to rot when 
planted. 
EFFECTS OF COLD. 
While it would perhaps not be desira¬ 
ble to have the temperature go below 
35 or 40 degrees Fahrenheit, the 
plants, even when blooming, have 
stood a temperature of 28 degrees Fahr. 
for some hours with a loss of the tips of 
the taller leaves only. I have never 
known of pineapple plants being killed 
in the neighborhood of St. Petersburg, 
when under a walled shed, but since 1895 
I do not go to bed on cold nights. 
As to varieties with us the Smooth 
Cayenne has taken the place of all oth¬ 
ers. 
COSTS AND PROFITS. 
At present prices, it costs about $1600 
to plant out an acre shed of Cayennes, 
and nearly $2,000 to bring the same to 
bearing, but regardless of this high cost, 
all pineries of one-quarter acre or more 
that I know of have paid all expenses 
with the first crop of fruit and suckers, 
and usually a good profit besides. The 
best returns that I have heard of for a 
single crop of fruit only was $700 from 
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