The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-06-29

j, are often planted: if this method is
| used, two years are required before
the plants reach maturity. Two years
I are also required if the root or STUMP
| is planted. Then there are the suck
ers which grow out from the blossom
! These when planted will be ready to
/ bear in a year and a half. Aside from
these three ways of growing pineap-
| pies, there is the one of using the lit
| tie slips which spring up from around
the roots of the old plants.
Nearly every plant produces one
! pine, and very rarely two.
| The pineapple will grow in very dry
soil without irrigation, as the base of
the leaf is curved thus forming a
pocket to hold the rainwater. The first
crop of pineapples will average ten tons
to the acre, the second crop when rails
ed from the same plants will not be
as large. as each year the fruit de-
creases in size. 1t does not pay to
raised more than a second crop from
the first plants. for you will gain more
by planting a new crop and waiting
two years, then by waiting one year
and having small pineapples.
The average weight of pineapple is
from six to nine pounds, but some have
grown to the size of eleven pounds.
The cosG of production, provided the
plants can be secured at a reasonable
price is fifteen dollars per ton of fruit
and sometimes even less than ten dol
lars a ton. Cannery prices range from
twenty to twenty-seven dollars per
ton, and if the fruit is shipped
fresh to the Pacific coast or Eastern
markets, as high as two hundred to
two hundred and forty dollars per ton
are obtained.
The crop of Hawaiian pineapples in
1907 is valued at five hundred thousand
dollars and it is estimated that the crop
of 1912 will amount to a hundred thou
hand tons or more. The pineapple If
handled and packed carefully will
stand shipment at least five thousand
miles. The variety of pineapples chief
~ cultivated is the Smooth Cayenne,
although the Red Spanish, a smaller
and more woody variety, is preferred
by some growers. The principal crop
of Hawaiian pineapples ripen from
June to September during which time
there are no other pineapples in the
American market. From November to
February there is a second crop.
ne process Is very simple.
The fruit is run through a machine
which peels it deep enough to escape
the eyes; another machine removes the
core.
Next the pineapples are run through
a slicing machine which cuts them in
to slices and then they are packed into
tins by women with rubber gloves, and
sealed. These tins are thrown into
great trucks which take them to an
other apartment of the cannery where
they are plunged into boiling water and
steamed. They are then taken out,
cooled, and labeled About a hundred
thousand cases of VVahiawa pines were
packed and shipped last year, a case
holding about two dozen tins. Only
whole slices are packed into tins, the
broken slices being ground or chopped
to flavor ice creams and sherberts and
packed in jars.
Picked pineapple and preserves are
also made.
As there is great waste in the peel
ing and core there is much discussion
about utilizing this waste in making
denaturized alcohol.
On account of the superior quality
of the pines the demand for canned
fruit has been greater than it has been
possible to supply and in all probability
the pineapple industry will in a few
years rival the sugar industry of the
Hawaiian Islands.