FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
1 77 
spending a vacation visiting friends, es¬ 
pecially if there be several friends in one 
vicinity. You are rushed from place to 
place, not having the opportunity to rest 
or to be really at home in any one spot. 
Everything and everybody for miles 
around must be visited, and you are real¬ 
ly glad when your vacation is over. 
I ask, are such vacations as satisfactory 
as the first one reported? 
Plenty of room, plenty of fruit fresh 
from the plant, plenty of leisure for read¬ 
ing and sleeping, no worry about the 
house always in order, no worry about 
your dress being up to the fashion. Time 
for a trip to take a dip into the surf, or a 
launch ride. Just a free pioneer life, tak¬ 
ing it easy, yet sufficient exercise to make 
commonplace, everyday food taste good. 
Then last, but not least, how about the 
satisfaction of a bank account with a 
nice margin. 
If, in this paper, I have brought to 
your attention the fact that a vacation 
spent packing pineapples is more an ideal 
one than a vacation at seashore or moun¬ 
tain, I will forgive our President for put¬ 
ting me on the program. 
PINEAPPLES. 
W. R. Hardee. 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen of 
the Florida State Horticultural Society: 
Having been assigned the subject of 
Pineapples it may not be out of order to 
say that this subject has been for a number 
of years written about by various mem¬ 
bers of this Society, covering its origin, 
the different sections where grown, the 
methods of growing, harvesting, shipping 
and selling. All of these points have been 
exhaustively and intelligently dwelt upon, 
and from the perusal of these articles, cov¬ 
ering the whole subject, it seems next to 
impossible to add any new information 
that would be of interest; yet, as the State 
of Florida is growing rapidly in popula¬ 
tion, it is certain that many new members 
are among us, and for that reason we may 
be excused if we repeat some of the 
things that are familiar to the older mem¬ 
bers. 
There seems to be some question as to 
where the first pineapples were planted 
and grown on the mainland of Florida, 
but from the best information obtainable, 
it must have been about the year 1881, for 
about that time a variety known as the 
Egyptian Queen were being cultivated at 
Cape Canaveral, on .the east side of In¬ 
dian River, opposite Titusville, in Brevard 
county. These plantings, however, were 
never very extensive; and, as far as we 
are aware, but few if any, were ever ship¬ 
ped for market out of the State. The 
next development was closely following 
this date at Eden (about ioo miles south 
of Titusville) where the business assumed 
its first real commercial proportions. As 
late as 1889 the development had proba- 
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