The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1908-08-01
A PINEAPPLE FARM.

Three thousand dollars a year IS
the amount which Miss Christobelle
Macy has cleared on her pineapple
farm in the south of Florida for the
past five years. The farm comprises
four acres, and less than three is
planted in pineapples.
"Ten years ago l was teaching
school in New Hampshire, when the
physicians told me that the one chance
for prolonging my life lay in going
South below the frost line, and living
out DOORS said Miss Macy, when
describing her success as a pineapple
farmer. IT had been teaching IS
years and had saved 81, 900.
"After the first shock was over I
made up my mind to fight for my
health, just as 1 had had to fight for
my education and as the family of a
EnglaRd l farmer ua J1ig have 6. to ght
Fla, because it seemed bit nearer
home than Mexico.
"The second day after my arrival
began to look around to see what sort
of outdoor work / could find that
would pay me enough to live on. l
soon found that all the out of doors
work was done by negroes.
''I talked the matter over with the
woman In whose house was board
ing, and she explained to me that If
/ wanted to work out Of doors she
would advise me to rent garden.
"I followed her advice but later l
decided to try pineapple farming.
"When found some land to suit
the owner was quite willing tosell me
four acres for $40 an acre, with the
promise of as much more as l wanted
at the same price, provided nobody
came along and offered to pay more
for it in the meantime.
"It cost me $500 merely to have
that land cleared and to build a four
roomed log house with little log
kitchen at the back. Of course the
logs used in building the house were
all cut from the land.
GAS soon as work was well under
way on the place l wrote for my
younger sister and cousin, a young
boy who had always been delicate, to
come on, and as soon as the house
was finished, we moved in. That
year from the first of July to the first
of November, the three of US set out
IL, 900 pineapple suckers that cost me
So thousand. Eighteen months Ia
ter l harvested $40 crates of pineapples
averaging about 80 to the crate.
"This crop sold for an average o.
So. so crate, making the gross re-
ceipts for the years crop $500. De.
ducting the cost of the four acres oi
land, the clearing and the building o
the house besides the railroad and 9th
er expenses, of getting my sister and
cousin to Florida and our living ex'
penses. we calculated that we had
cleared about $3.50. Not so bad fol
the first eighteen months of farm
worked by two women and a boy, a
least, it didn't seem so to us, who hat
been accustomed to farming in New
Hampshire.
"That same year we set out suck
ers from my own plants and alst
suckers of the Abakka pineapple
Besides the fruit of that first crop
sold several thousand suckers, but al
the money went to buy the sucker
of the Abakkes we never counted
that in the amount saved.
"Now that pineapple growing ha'
become such a popular industry
there is always a ready sale for boil
suckers and slips from healthy plants
Mine are always spoken for month
ahead. Suckers I sell for $40 thou
sand and slips for half that amount
1 can now clear $1,000 year and m,
health is excellent.