Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-09-09

clouds in the sky and a shade of palm
bark could take the place of the laths.
y present most Of the Porto Ricau fruit
is grown without shade. The growing J..
interesting. The plants are cultivated Ike
CabbaSes. At first blossom comes Uut ~
big as your fist with a little pineapple Do
low it. The pineapple at the start is OF
about the size of q peach. 1t rapidly grow
until al last it has become as big as a gal
lon crock when well cultivated the size
or a peek measure.
On the top of the pineapple and about
its base suckers slips sprout out. T,i@st
used for replanting and in Florida They
command good price. The best of them
sold at II cents apiece, and those not
so good bring as much as 81 and s. hun
dred.
Among the best known pineapple growers
of Florida is man named Van Houten.
He has a grove near Orlando, from when
he receives al times as much as $t,'*p Il
year. A large part of his profits comes
from the sale of the slips or shoots wnlch
he ships by the car load 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 as smooth as an ample and so
juicy that it can be eaten with "a spoon
The Florida men here believe that all 81
these varieties can be grown in Porto Rico,
and that they will produce better here than
anywh here 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. L
saw one grove of many thousand trees in
eastern Porto Rico, not far from Runacao
There are men here who have large in
comes from cocoanuts. One man is re-
ported as making $4,000 year out OF his
orchard. He has more than 2t,UWi trees
and they pay him on the average 81 each
yearly.
1t is not difficult to start a 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 d short
time each nut sends out sprout from one
of the little eyes at its ends. The sprout
grows up into the air and at the same time
a root shoots out OF its base down into the
ground Within few months the sprout
has grown as high as d table. The root is
now broken off 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 tightly down over the nut, and the
planting is done.
The trees here have been set out rregu-
larly. They should be planted about fifteen
feet apart, just about as far apart as
the trees of our peach orchards This will
give 49,; trees per acre. They begin 10 bear
walton. Grass can be sown in cocoanut
orchard and cattle pastured upon it. Such
an orchard in full bearing would produce,
with the present facilities for shipment,
$l93 per acre, with no other labor than The
gathering and shipping of the fruit.
The cocoanuts ripen all the year round.
They drop off themselves when ripe, and
the men go daily from tree to tree to pick
up the nuts. Each nut has a thick green
husll upon it. This is torn Oft, and the
nuts then look as we see them in our
stores.
Cucoanut Milk.
Many cocoanuts in Porto Rico are picked
green. This is when they are to be
sold for their milk. The cocoanut milk
which you find In the ripe nuts, as, for in
stance, those which exported to the
United States, is nothing like the milk of
the green cocoanut fresh from the tree.
The cocoanut milk we drink here is as clear
as pure spring water 1t is far more de-
licious than the fluid which you find in the
ripe cocoanut The method OF getting it is
to send a boy man up a cocoanut tree.
He climbs up using only his feet and hands, |
almost walking, as 1t were, to the top. and
pulls off the green fruit. Then he takes a
machete or big knife and slices off the top
of the husk, making a hole in the nut as
big around a 2J-cent piece He hands 1
you the cocoanut. You lift it up that
the hole rests against your lips and pour
the cool, delicious water down your throat |
1t is drink for king.
Cocoanuts of this kind cost you about 2
or 3 cents apiece. They are for sale in the
stores, they are peddled upon the streets
and you can buy them in the markets The
milk forms a good substitute for water and
it has the virtue of being positively free
from the disease germs which are usually |
found in the Porto Rican cisterns.
Uncle Sans Banana Land.
Porto Rico might be called Uncle Sans
banana land. The crop of this year has
been destroyed by the storm, but in or
binary times bananas grow almost wild all |
over the island. They cover the lowlands
and are found even on the submits Of the