A DELICIOUS FRUIT 
39 
apple-plant and growing at the base of the fruit; by suckers, young 
plants growing from 1 the mother-plant at or near the place where the 
mother-plant emerges from the ground; and by rattoons, which grow 
from the roots. Sucker-setting is most common, for plants raised from 
suckers will mature and produce fruit in fourteen or eighteen months, 
while the other methods take a year longer. Large suckers are always 
preferred, because they start off vigorously and are less likely to be- 
A field of pineapples 
come sanded; that is, sand is less likely to find lodgment in their bud 
and retard their growth. 
The soil must he porous, moist yet well drained, and well prepared. 
If a sandy soil, it must be heavily fertilized, cotton-seed meal being one 
of the best fertilizers. In many places the fields are laid out in beds 
ten feet wide with paths five feet wide on either side. These paths 
serve as shallow drainage-ditches and as a standing-place for the work¬ 
men while cultivating. As the roots of pineapples grow so near the 
surface of the ground, the plants are cultivated with hoes only, and 
this must be done carefully lest the leaves be broken. 
The plants are set in rows about three feet apart and eighteen to 
