The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-09-10
INDIANAPOLIS MORNING.

tnat you can DO the same here Tor one
tenth the amount and the expense OF TAX
ing care of the crop after that would be
nothing like what 1t is in Florida.
PineappIes must be carefully cultivated.
They are planted from suckers, slips or
buds, which come out of the base Of the
pineapple and upon the top These slips
are set out about three feet apart. so that
you can grow about five thousand pines on
one acre A pineapple field looks very much
like field of cabbages. 1t is of a salmon
color mixed with green. The whole ground
is covered, the leaves or blades about the
pineapples reaching out and enveloping one
another. Every leaf is covered with thorns
or spines so that you have to use buckskin
gloves in working the crop.
II is much more expensive to cultivate
pineapples in Florida than in Porto Rico
| There the plants are shaded by great ar
| bors made of Stats or laths, so that at a
| distance the fields look like a fair ground
| Here the sun is not so hot, there are more
| clouds in the sky and a shade of palm bark
| could take the place of the laths.
| At present most of the Porto Rican frui.
| is grown without shade. The growing is in
| teresting. The plants are cultivated like
| cabbages. At first blossom comes out as
| big as your fist with little pineapple be-
J low it. The pineapple at the start is of
| about the size of peach. 1t rapidly grows
until at last it has become as big as a gall
lon crock, or when well cultivated the size
| of a peck measure.
| On the top Of the pineapple and about
its base suckers or slips sprout out. These
| are used for repIanting and in Florida they
| command a good price. The best of them
| are sold at 10 cents apiece, and those not
A hrip as nd HIN
| dred.
Among the best known pineapple growers
/ of Florida is a man named Van Houten.
| He has a grove near Orlando, from which
| he receives at times as much as $4,000
/ year. A large part of his profits comes
from the sale of the slips or shoots which
| he ships by the carload to the seaports to
be sent to Honolulu
There are different kinds of pineapples
| The finest growers in Florida are the
Cayenne. the Abak and the Queen. The
Cayenne is smooth as an apple and so
juicy that it can be eaten with spoon. The
Florida men here believe that all of these
varieties can be grown in Porto Rico, and
that they will produce better here than any
where else.
MONEY IN CoCoANUTS
A million and half Of cocoanuts are
shipped from Mayaguez every year. There
are large cocoanut groves along the west
ern coast of Porto Rico, and smaller groves
in the other coast lands of the island. ]
saw one grove Of many thousand trees in
eastern Porto Rico, not far from Humacao.
There are men here who have large in
comes from cocoanuts. One man is reported
as making $4,000 year out Of his orchard.
He has more than 10000 trees, and they pay
q
1t is not difficult to start cocoanut grove.
The only things needed are the land and the
nuts. The nuts are laid upon the top of the
ground, a few inches apart. The air here
is very moist, and after a short time each
nut sends out a sprout from one of the little
eyes at its end. The sprout grows up into
the air, and at the same time a root shoots
out of its base down into the ground. With
in few months the sprout has grown az
high as table, The root is now broken of
and the sprout and nut are planted where
the tree is to stand. The nut is buried about
six inches in the earth, the sprout remaining
above. The earth is now pressed tight,
down over the nut. and the planting is done
The trees here have been set out irregu.
larly. They should be planted about fifteer
feet apart, or just about as far apart as
the trees of our peach orchards. This will
give 1ss trees per acre. They begin to beal
at five years. and need practically no cult
walton. Grass can be sown in a cocoanu
orchard and cattle pastured upon it. Sucf
an orchard in full bearing would produce
with the present facilities for shipment
Sl93 per acre. with no other labor than tn.
gathering and shipping of the fruit.
The cocoanutS ripen all the year round
They drop off themselves when ripe, anc
the men go daily from tree to tree to picl
up the nuts. Each nut has a thick greer
husk upon it. This is torn off, and the nut
then look as we see them in our stores.
COCOANUT MILK AND BANANAS.
Many cocoanuts in Porto Rico are pickle,
; green. This is when they are to be sold 70
their milk. The cocoanut milk which yol
) find in the ripe nuts, as, for instance, thos
which are exported to the United States
is nothing like the milk of the green cocoa
: nut fresh from the tree. The cocoanut mill
We drink here is as clear as pure sprin
water 1t is far more delicious than tn
fluid which you find in the ripe cocoanut
! The method Of getting 1t is to send bo
, or man up cocoanut tree. He climbs ur
| using only his feet and hands, almost wall,
!, ing, as it were, to the top and pulls off tn
4 | green fruit. Then he takes a machete o
big knife and slices off the top of the husb
making hole in the nut as big around a
e a 25-cent piece. He hands you the cocoa
t nut. You lift 1t up so that the hole rest
n | against your lips and pour the cool, deli
n cious water down your throat. 1t is a drin
/. for king.
Cocoanuts of this kind cost you about
d or 3 cents apiece. They are for sale in tn
t stores, they are peddled upon the street
o and you can buy them in the markets. Tn
:. milk forms good substitute for water, an
y it has the virtue of being positively fire.
n from the disease germs which are usual
e found in the Porto Rican cisterns.
! Porto Rico might be called Uncle Sam
e banana land. The crop of this year ha
o been destroyed by the Storm but in OF
: binary times bananas grow almost wild a
n over the island. They cover the lowland
II and are found even on the SUBMITS Of tn
a mountains. They grow several years with
n out replanting. ] have seen stems as bi
d around as a mans leg at the calf, wit
s leaves from six to eight feet long and owe
: food wide. Bananas and plantains, &
large bananas, form the chief food Of Port
?. Rico. 1t was the destruction of the banan