146 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
PINEAPPLE GROWING AND SHIPPING. 
By B, K. McCarty. 
Mr. President , Ladies and Gentlemen: 
Growing and shipping—these two 
words represent the nucleus of the pine¬ 
apple industry, upon them rests success 
or failure; and I will treat the subject as 
fully and clearly as it is possible to do in 
a limited address. 
The first and most important step in 
the growing of pineapples is the choosing 
of the land. There are two kinds of this 
that are best adapted to pineapples, viz.: 
Spruce Pine and Hammock. Spruce 
Pine, as the name implies, is high dry 
land covered with spruce pines, the best 
having an undergrowth of scrub oak and 
hickory. Hammock land is more densely 
grown with larger timber usually of 
hickory and oak. Opinions differ as to 
which is the best, but it is generally con¬ 
ceded that the hammock land raises the 
largest pines both as to plant and size; 
the spruce pine land does not seem to 
have as much humus in the soil, but the 
plant seems to last a greater number of 
years upon it. A combination place con¬ 
taining some of each kind of land is de¬ 
sirable if you can obtain such. After 
the careful choosing of the land, the next 
step is the clearing, i. e. placing in proper 
shape; this is done by first removing the 
tree’s brush, etc. The process of grub¬ 
bing the land consists in taking a tool 
known as a grub hoe about six inches 
wide and shaped like a mattox; with this 
implement all the roots are removed to 
a depth of about fourteen inches. Ground 
should be grubbed during the winter for 
the summer planting; do not, however, 
remove the roots and brush until sum¬ 
mer when you fork the land, because 
this shades the ground and prevents the 
sun from baking the same. Pine stumps 
are not grubbed out, only the roots are 
cut up to the stump and the tree is cut 
down. This stump soon rots and makes 
humus for your land. Hickory, Bay and 
all other stumps are dug out either with 
a grub hoe or a stump-puller. All brush 
and large roots are forked into the trails 
which are from four to six feet wide, six 
feet preferred; here it is burned. The 
land is now ready for raking. Before 
this is done, in order to level, a harrow 
is run over, thus removing all bumps; the 
land is now raked; all the fine trash and 
rootlets are raked into where your trail 
is to be, or the same place that the trash 
was burned. When these rootlets and 
fine trash are worked into the ground 
by rolling over it with the wheelbarrow 
and other work done in the trail, it forms 
a hard path which enables the man who 
wheels to carry bigger loads. We have 
now reached the point of setting. 
Select good plants; of whatever va¬ 
riety you wish to plant, the universal 
opinion is that Red Spanish are the most 
desirable both from the commercial and 
safety point of view. The slips range 
in length from eight to fourteen inches; 
the stocky heavy-butted ones are the best 
growers; slips are shucked or the hard 
butt is cut off, and the first eight or ten 
shucks are removed, thus allowing the 
roots to be exposed so when the slip is 
planted they will start quicker and be 
