The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1891-12-09
DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES.
the PINEAPPLE.

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esteemed of tropical fruits. IT is
indigenous to South America and
some of the West India islands, but
has become perfectly naturalized in
sany parts of the hot regions of
Africa and Asia. 1t is now found
in an almost wild state in most parts
of India and Ceylon, the Malay
! Peninsula, the Straits Settlements,
China, Mexico, Central America,
! Guiana, Brazil, the islands, of the
Eastern Archipelago and in some of
the South Sea islands. Many of the
ISLANDS in the Straits of Maucca are
covered with fields of wild pineap-
piles as inaccessible as field of cact.
1t is also indigenous to Jamaica,
where an inferior kind, known as
cowboy macca" is still found wild.
The pineapple is Incorporated in the
arms of Jamaica, in some parts Of
which island the pineapple beats the
world for size and delicacy. The
Bahamas, however, export more pine
apples in the fresh and preserved
state than any other part of the
world.
CULTURE culture of the
pineapple is easy and needs but little
labor, though it responds literally in
size and flavor to good cultivation
and moderate fertilization. When
the ground is once prepared and
planted it needs only to be weeded
four or five times year, and the
fruit is cropped three or four seasons
before it is necessary to replant.
PLANTS. The young plants are
called suckers, slips, crowns, crown
lets and eyes, according to the part
of the parent plant they are taken
from. Suckers sprout from the root
of the old plant after fruiting. Slips
grow at the base of the fruit itself.
The crown is the crest of the leaves
at the top of the fruit. Crownlets
grow at the base of the crown, and
the eyes are found on the fruit stalk.
All these may be used for planting
especially the suckers and the crown,
but the plant is best and most
usually propagated from the suckers
which come TO fruit bearing in from
twelve to eighteen months, whereas
the crown requires about three years.
From single plant an average Of
ten crowns, suckers and slips may be
obtained each season.
PLANTING. They should be plant
ed in rich red soil, which should
have a depth of at least two feet,
high and dry, never on moist land,
or where the water is liable to stand
after rain. The simple method of
testing the capability of the soil for
growing the pineapple in the Bahamas
is by running knife down it in dry
weather, and if any portion of the
earth adheres to the knife, it is con-
sidered by the planter an evidence
of the suitability of the soil. The
plants may be set out at any time,
but better in the fall, just before the
rainy season, and the first crop may
be taken off year from the follow
ing June. Some fruits will appear
before this, and afterward through
every month in the year, but the
bulk of the crop will be ready for
market at that time.
The distance apart that they should
be planted varies from eighteen inch
es to three feet according to variety
and custom and the number of plants
from 1000 to 10000. But the best
method is that practiced in Jamaica
with the varieties mostly produced
for commerce, where the distances
apart are 81 feet between the rows
and p feet in the rows, which gives
1910 plants to the acre. In the Ba-
hamas they plant about 6000 plants
of the sugar loaf variety and about
5000 of the scarlet variety to the
acre. The land should be planted in
parallel burrows, and moderate APP
plicaton of we'll rotted stable ma
nure or bone meal fertilizer applied
in the furrow and covered again with
the plow The plants should be set
out as soon as possible after rain.
In soils naturally adapted to the pine
apple, the fertilizer may not be nee
essary, though it would largely in
crease the product. The average life
of the sugar loaf pine is about five
years and other varieties between
three and four years. The weight of
the fruit averages to 81 lbs. They
do not need much moisture, the ordi-
nary rains being sufficient, and do
not need irrigation unless in an un-
usually protracted drouth. The av-
erage yield from an acre as usually
! planted is about 800 dozens. As
| planted in Jamaica with 1910 plants
to the acre it can safely be computed
! that 1000 will be obtained in the first
eighteen months after planting, and
considerably more would be procured
from the second and third years
crops from the suckers produced
around the parent plant, owing TO
sufficient space being provided for
each plant. Allowance has TO be
made for a certain percentage of the
/ plants that will not flourish.
VARIETIES. There are at least ~