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MBCA CUTIE 
SOUL 
146 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Juny, 1901. 
cold to getin. A great deal has been said about the proper aspect for pines, but I 
have found that pines can be grown successfully, if the soil is good, upon any aspect, 
provided you have a good solid protection from the west. 
The drainage for pines requires to be good, and I would recommend hillsides for 
this purpose, as the pines seem to thrive much better there. 
reat care must be taken upon such hillsides that your soil will not wash or 
break away in the rainy season while your plants are yet small and have not covered 
the ground. Now, to prevent this, I have found it wise to always plant your rows 
across the hills, and to plant in double rows or two rows side by side, about 2 feet 
apart, and plants to be about 18 inches apart up and down the rows, and 8 feet 
between the main rows. 
Tf planted in this way, it will take about 4,500 plants per acre, and after the first 
year every row will form a complete hedge, so that the water from heavy rains will 
not wash or break through the rows. 
There are a great many ideas as to the depth at which pines should be planted, and 
some growers dig out trenches in their land as much as a foot deep eue lant their 
pines in the bottom to allow of the soil filling up as the plant grows out of the ground, 
and in this way the plant is supposed to last and bear its fruit much longer. 
But [ am not an advocate for deep planting for several reasons. It is welk 
known that the pineapple is a surface plant, and will only thrive on the surface. 
Now, the first foot of soil is the part from which the plant derives all its 
substance, and below that, in the subsoil, which in most cases is very poor, the plant 
will not grow. 
In my experience of deep planting I have found that you hold the growth of the 
_ plant back a great deal, as it will keep struggling till it gets to the surface before it 
makes a vigorous growth. As I have before stated, by deep planting the plant is 
supposed to last and bear fruit much longer, but I am sure, by so doing, the plant will 
be one year longer before it bears its fruit. 
In this way I have known plants to take three years before they would fruit, 
whereas they should have been Bier eighteen months. My advice to anyone would. 
be to plant in a furrow after a plough, but not deeper, and to be very careful not to: 
bury the neck of the suckers when planting, but just put them in deep enough so that 
they will stand firm. 
My idea in preference to deep planting is to fill up with soil and manure round 
the plant still as they grow out of the ground, ante Iam sure in this way better 
results are obtained. A great deal depends upon the nature of the soil as to the way 
pines grow out of the ground and fall about. for instance, heavy serub land that 
would suit corn and potatoes, if you were to plant pines in it you would find after a 
short time the roots of the plant come to the surface, and the plant will get very loose 
and fall over on its side. Before I leave this part I would like to say that I am sure 
three parts of the difliculty—that of pines growing out of the ground and falling down 
—is overcome by planting them in suitable land, where they seem to naturally take a 
much firmer hold of the soil. I willnow explain what I have found to be the most 
suitable land for this purpose. If possible, get a piece of forest land with the timber 
and undergrowth standing upon it. Then get it felled, and let it lie about six months 
todry. Then get a fire through it, and have it stumped and cleared ready for the 
plough. All this may seem a great deal of labour and expense, but it is far better to 
do this than waste time and money on land that has been lying idle, growing weeds 
and bushes for years and so has become very poor and. sour. 
Pines planted on new land such as I have pointed out will not need manure for 
years, as they get all the ashes from the burning, and there is a quantity of decom- 
rosed wood. ma vegetable matter in the ground which keeps the plant well nourished 
for some considerable time. 
Now as to the soil most suitable for pineapple-growing, I have found them to 
thrive best in a deep, loose, sandy loam, which may vary in colour from black to red, 
but of the two I would prefer the black soil. I consider a clay subsoil to be the very 
worst upon which pines can be planted. Clay subsoils keep the ground wet and cold, 
and, I am sure, is greatly the cause of disease in pineapples; therefore it is most 
necessary that your ground should be loose and open. Very beneficial results can be 
obtained by manuring pineapples, especially with ordinary stable manure. 
If this manure is dug or ploughed into the roots of the plant before the winter 
comes on, itseems to keep the roots of the plant warm, and, as a result, you get a very 
heavy crop of winter and intermediate pines, which, as I mentioned before, are a great 
consideration. Pines coming in in off seasons are of great value, as they will always 
find a good market; and I haveno hesitation in saying that manure is the only agency 
that will produce pines all the year round. 
