The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1898-04-13
THE PINEAPPLE.
How This TrOpic Fruit Grows in
south Florida.
Correspondence of The Times.)

Correspondence Of The Times)
Linton, Dade Co, Fla, April s.
The pineapple. the king of trop-
ical fruits, was first introduced in
Florida about 1860, but it is only within
recent years that the quantity planted
has been worthy of any consideration.
Fields of them from one-half TO sew
enty-fiVe acres in pines" are scatter
ed all over the southern section of the
State. For many years ii has been
recognized as one of the finest of trop-
ical fruits, and not only are the people
Of the North cultivating a taste for this
class of fruit, but large patent med
icine manufacturers are increasing
their orders. Canning factories handle
the inferior stock classed as 'culls,'
and the rind is used for making wine
and cider
A decided increase was noted last
Summer in orders from fruit juice
Manufacturers and confectioners- The
pineapple will in q few years rank
equal to the orange in acreage planted.
The bulk of the Florida product is
consumed east of the Mississippi
River. being handled by commission
merchants and then sold to fruiterers
and private consumers. The unmarked
able fruit is sold to canning factories
in the South. Florida furnishes about
One-fourth of the pineapples used in
the United States, the other three
fourths coming mainly from the West
Indies and the Sandwich Islands. The
bulk of the Bahama Island crop comes
by fruit steamer to Baltimore and New
York where il is sold at auction as a
rule. canneries being the chief buyers
Most Of the fruit peddled by push carts
and hucksters is from the West In
dies. as the Florida product commands
a better price, being much jucier and
free from acid.
The western part of the country is
supplied through San Francisco from
lower California and the Sandwich
Islands.
A shipment of Florida pines was
sent to England last Summer and was
pronounced by experts far superior to
any others handled there.
A great many articles are written
about pineapples from the pens of peo-
pie who never spent any time on a
plantation. 1 noticed an article some
time ago by a prominent writer stating
| that pineapples cannot even stand a
slight frost. This is a mistake. Pine
| APPLES in Florida excepting on the keys,
are visited by light froSts more or less
every Winter, but they cannot stand
| a freeze. The writer had a few acres
| in vegetables on the lower east coast
| last Winter and some pineapples. The
vegetables were killed outright by the
| frost. but the''pineS" were not at all
damaged. On the Indian River there
was a thin skim of ice during the cold
snap of January 1 and 2. and the crop
was damaged only 80 per cent in the
| omen field, while plants under half
| shade escaped. The pineapple can only
| no grown with success in the southern
part of the State. 1t is estimated that
| the acreage last Summer was increas-
ed by about ], 900 acres.
The best soil for pine apples is the
high pine land, with a yellow subsoil
| although a great many prefer the
spruce pine land with pure white sand
The pineapple demands a high soil, a.
on low ground they are likely to be
flooded during the rainy season. The
soil on the keys is composed mainly OF
leaf mold. covering the coral rock
few inches, and a crop can only De
grown in one place for a few years
owing to the thinness of the soil.
The most general way of planting
the pines is in the open field. but II
is safer to have a half shade covering
the finer varieties as a protector
against cold winds. Some of the shed:
are erected from seven to ten feet high
as the larger varities of plants reach
height of almost six feet. These art
mostly of the Porto Rico and Abbakf
kinds. Stats about three to five inche:
apart are used for top covering. Some
of the finer plantations in the northern
part of the belt have pipes that hea
the plants under cover on cold nights
but that is quite expensive and no
necessary farther south. The bulk o.