Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1896-09-21
FLORIDA PINEAPPLES.
A Glance at Their Culture and Shipme1
in the Keys.

A Glance at Their Culture and Shipment
in the Keys.
The pineapple field is traversed at in
tervals by narrow roads, whose cleaning
whitenesS is painful to the eye, and are
so strewn with loose rocks as to make
one ache III anticipation at the thought of
walking in them. Yet, if it be cutting
season, even us the visitor hesitates be
fore attempting to traverse these rugged
trails, he may see coming toward hIm
procession of coal-black negroes, Walking
in single file easily and without hesita-
ton, though each bears on his head an
immense burden of pineappieS in mat
baskets woven of palmetto. These bas-
kets are soft of texture, very tough, and
somewhat tunnel-Shaped, being larger at
the bottom than at the top. The average
burden to be 'toted' out lii some of
them by each man is four or five dozen
"pines, or from 200 to, $50 pounds If
the visitor happens to be on Elliot's Key,
he may chance to meet a file of ''toters,
headed by Black Caesar, a gigantic STeci-
men of human ebony. who maintains his
reputation as the strongest man of the
pineapple keys by posing on his head Il
burden of ten dozen pines having
weight of nearly 500 pounds. When it is
remembered that this weight is not mere
ly lifted into position and held there for
a short space, but is borne for long dis
tanceS over the toughest of rock roads
in breathleSS tropical heat several times
an hour for many consecutive days, the
performance becomes a marvellous eXhi-
bitiOn of human strength and endurance
The ''toters'' are clad in heavy bro.
gans, canvas trousers, and understands,
with an occasional bit of added color in
the shape of a scarlet sash, but all are
bareheaded, barearmed and barebreast-
ed Their burdens are deposited at the
packing houses if the pines are to be
I e IL
bottomed, bluff bowed lighters if the
fruit is to be laden in bulk on board the
awning-shaded vessels lying at anchor
half a mile off shore.
Back in the field the CUTTERS burly
Bahama negroes, wear heavy shoes, en-
tire suits of canvas, and stout gloves
to protect their hands from the poisonous
spines with which pineapple leaves are
armed from tip to base Injured as these
sons of the tropics are to the stinging of
insects, they are often obliged to further
protect themselves with head coverings
OF netting, for cutting season is also mos
quito season, and a disturbance of the
plants drives out these winged pests in
binding, suffocating myriads, whose
humming is like that of the wind through
taut rigging. In such dense clouds do
they appear, and so bloodthirsty are
they, that they would soon do to death
man or beast unprotected from their
venomous attack. When they are at
their worst no white man dares enter
the field, and even the thicker-skinned
negroes, provided with every protection,
will not do so until 8 or 10 o'clock in the
morning, when the sun, high and hot
has somewhat abated the nuisance by
driving the insects to the shade of foil
age. At such times work is again sus-
pended at 4 or o'clock in the. after
noon, when the suns heat begins to
wane, and the stalWart hands, exhaust
ed, not with labor, but by incessant war
fare, beat a retreat to their houses on
the beach. These they first fill with-a
dense smudge from slow-burning fires,
and then Theoretically close until the fol
lowing morning. -Harper's Weekly. -