182 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
soil conservation and a more intelligent 
use of fertilizers under varying weather 
conditions, which we have dearly learned 
in the past, the pineapple industry is one 
of the safest money crops in Florida at 
this time; provided our Democratic 
friends in Congress do not open up our 
markets to the importation of foreign 
grown fruit. 
DISCUSSION. 
Mr. Goodwin: I would like to ask 
Mr. Painter what experience he has had 
with pineapple wilt, its cause, prevention 
and cure. I would like to have that on 
record. 1 
Mr. Painter: Pineapple wilt is one of 
the mysteries of the pineapple business. 
No one has been able to ascertain the 
cause of it, but we believe it is some form 
of fungous growth that attacks the root 
and has done its work before the grower 
knows it. He will observe a plant going 
backward, and when he examines the 
roots he will find they are almost totally 
decayed. Different experiments have 
been made in an endeavor to eradicate 
this trouble, but the only sure method we 
have found is to pull up the plants and 
re-set. Different remedies have been 
tried, such as bluestone, sulphate of iron 
and different insecticides and fungicides, 
but they all seem to give about the same 
results. They do little or no good. We 
have to go back to the first principle of 
digging up the old plant and replanting. 
Mr. Goodwin: In the same spot ? 
Mr. Painter: Yes, in the same place. 
In our pineapple field at Boynton we are 
at present carrying out a series of 
experiments that I hope are going 
to prove of great value in solving 
this problem. On some of our beds we 
are making a monthly application of fer¬ 
tilizer, instead of three or four times a 
year. We find that where the same 
amount is applied, but divided in smaller 
applications, we get results that are al¬ 
most amazing. The greater growth and 
the better development of the plant shows 
up tremendously with the smaller and 
more frequent applications. 
We are also trying experiments cover¬ 
ing so many pounds to the acre and in¬ 
creasing it, or doubling it up each time. 
We are also experimenting with some 
of the chemicals as fertilizers that have 
been condemned by the pineapple grow¬ 
ers. I wish to state in this connection 
that while the fertilizer people have been 
condemned because more sulphate of am¬ 
monia has been found in some of the 
pineapple fertilizer, yet I can show pine¬ 
apple fields at Boynton where about the 
only source of ammonia they have had 
is sulphate of ammonia, and yet they are 
the finest in that section. 
We have also found that the combina¬ 
tion of plant food has a great deal to 
do with it. 
In those fields we consider we have 
met with great success, and yet we have 
picked only two pineapples. I say it 
is a success, because we have found out 
there what not to use, what combinations 
not to put together. In one instance, we 
found sulphate of ammonia, as the source 
of ammonia, combined with kainit, as 
the source of potash, very detrimental. 
And yet, taking these same sources of 
