The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-06-20


I want to tell your readers something
about the pineapple industry in Florida, how
they are propagated grown, cultivated and
marketed, and who buys them. Persons
outside the State have but little conception
of the wonderful growth and magnitude of
the industry, especially for the past year
or So A few of the pioneers in the business
have made fortune out of it in the sale
of fruit and scions, and their success has
given the business most wonderful i'm
petus. Pineries have therefore multiplied a
hundredfold. 1t is a fact that the best pine
apples grown in the world are produced at
Orlando. Soil and climatic conditions seem
to be just right, hence the size and quality
of fruit grown The five leading varieties
are the smooth cayenne abbakka, golden
queen, Enville City and the Prince Albert
the first named being favorite, mainly be-
cause leaves are devoid of prickers, hence
better to handle. The fruit in this section
is all grown under cover-in pineries-the
sides boarded up tight, the cover put on
with 1x3-inch Stats every other space being
left open to admit rain and modified sunlight
and to keep out cold. In quality there is but
little difference in varieties named the first
having little less of the teri flavor than
the other four, but all are most delicious,
the usual woody fiber and core being found
almost entirely absent so that lovers or this
fruit often eat it with spoon, without prep
aration for table, the same as they would
cantaloupe.
This fruit grows with us to most aston
ishing SIZE. Weighing from six to twelve
POUNDS each. The sorts named are good
keepers and would stand a shipment of three
or four weeks easily They are packed in
cases holding sixteen to twentyfour ap-
hni1 sod
sion. The pineapple is propagated from
slips, suckers and crowns-that is to say
pey put out shoots from the parent stalk
CLOSE TO the ground, called suckers and also
from the base of the apple, called slips, as
Well as from the top of the apple, called
crowns. Another way of propagating is
from STOOLS. A stool is a matured pineapple
stalk. the roots. leaves and top cut off, APP
parently a dry stub, resembling a cabbage
stump, only larger To propagate from them
you bury the stool oblquely in the ground,
top protruding.. From these stools from
ten to twenty offshoots usually appear To
start plnery you set out suckers or slips
In rows both ways eighteen to twenty-four
inches apart each way. affording room to
work them with the scuffie hoe. Eight to
ten thousand are grown on an acre. Several
ladleS mere own and manage pineries, one
than an acre
Blood and bone, cotton-seed meal mulch.
ana many other things are used as food 10
plants. l use with splendid results Florida
Velvet Deans, ground-up hullS and all, mixed
WIN S4udi OF TOBACCO aust. Pines,
as rule ripen in June and July, but that
depends on time of setting out plants, as
they ripen in all months of the year The
price Tor the best fruit here ranges from SO
cents 10 $l.50 each, as to size, weight and
perfection Large fruit dealers, hotels, res
taurants, caterers and private families are
our pest patrons A good revenue is also
derived from the sale of suckers and slips
being often more profitable than the fruit
The pineapple possesses rare medicinal
properties. being a sure cure for all malaria
diphtheria, dyspepsia, and is a valuable anti
septic.
An ordinary Spanish pine, canned, will
weigh one and half pounds can and all,
While one of ours will fill five or six of such
cans, and quality is not comparable at all.
There are two things we have to guard
against in pineapple culture, and that is
extreme heat and extreme cold The tight
board fence around the pinery and Stat roof
protects the plants from the burning sun CT
summer, but not sufficiently from freezing
weather To afford better protection from
cold have planted a hill of Florida velvet
beans at every post in my pinery, and will
permit the vine to climb, and by fall the
roof Will have "a velvety covering of vine
and foliage so dense that frosts will not be
reared. 1t is an experiment with me- but
l have faith in it, and will report results
later. would unhesitatngly say to all low
ers OF this fruit, buy and try the Orlando
pine, as 1t is In every respect the finest flaw
ored, most delicious and perfect appIe
grown. If any further informa ton is want
ed by your readers, if they will send postage
l will cheerfully reply.
CAPTAIN E. A. WILSON.
Orlando Fla. June Is