Fort Pierce news. (Fort Pierce, Fla.) 190?-1920, 1908-03-20

nau always Deen delicate. to come on, |
and as soon as the house was finished !
we moved in, That year from July 10
the first Of November the three Of us
set out 1900 pineapple suckers that
cost me 50 a thousand. Eighteen
months later I harvested 800 crates OF
pineapples averaging about thirty to
the crate
This cror sold for an average Of
$3.50 crate making the gross receipts
from that first year, crop $500, De-
ducinc .he cost Of the four acres OF
land, the clearing and building Of tho
house besides the railroad and other
expenses of getting my sister and
cousin to Florida an6 our living ex-
penses, we calculated that we had
cleared about $3.50, Not so bad for
the first eighteen months OF a farm
worked hg two women and q boy, at
least il didn't seem so TO US, who had
been accustomed to farming IN New
/ Hampshire
"That same year we set out suckers
from my own plants and also suckers
or the Abakka pineapple. Besides the
fruit of that first crop l sold several
thousand suckers, but as the money
went TO buy sukers of the Abakkas we
never counted that in the amount
saved.
LAS ny cousin returned home that
year my sister and ! had 10 call in help
both for wedding and for gathering,
! AS pinery only has to be reset every
six wears and there is little or no work
between gathering times If once the
ground is properly mulched have
never found It necessary 10 hire help
more than a few days each season.
"WLile ia this climate pineapples
can be planted every month in the
wear, the best results Gre obtained
when it is done between the first Of
July and the first Of November The
suckers and slips must be taken from
he plants after the fruit is gathered.
Suckers are the shoots which spring
rom The stem Of the pineapple plan
spoyo The ground. There are USUALLY
tvo a, each plant and they are much x
he nerterred TO slips, as they give
rror in eighteen months, while slip
remlire a full year longer. These slips
perhaps I had better explain arr
the shoots at the base Of the fruit
"Now that pineapple growing ma
become such q popular industry ,her'
, IS always ready sale for both sucker
eud slips from healthy plants M'n'
, aoe always spoken for months ahead
!, Smokers | sell for $40 Thousand an'
slips for half that amount
"Pinoapples are very shallow roo'a'
|, plants and after planting never us
and tool In their cultivation eYcep. IN
scnff,e hoe. No good pineapple lao'
, forns crus, after rain and there
no advantage 10 tilling the soil 70 say
moisture. From my experience ID
quicker the rain is soaked up ~ N
: soil the better effect it has on the PING
$ apple ..ons
the old plants fall to the ground al
after the first year form fairly goo
mulch. have always found 1t ad'ai
taUeous to spread thick layer OF PIN
needles on after setting out new plants
: This goes a good way to keep down %
weeds, which will otherwise spring u
; during that year s,,,u
: "There is, however, one great oraV
, hack to mulching. 1t is the danger
. Ere Once a well mulched heio
, n;nepples caught fire it would go III
finder.
nOne item of expense for the pm
= ample grower TO take into conS'uei
tion because it cannot be done VIII
d ont Is fertilizer. fertiliee my pm
avery two months, using one thousS'
mounds to the acre each time
= Experiments have proved that PIN
q apples need a lot Of nitrogen -, So"
= notasb ana little phosphoric acid
! use mostly dried blood and suipna'e
I" sa.A 9TH once in a while ccttonse
!. = neal. l scatter the fertilizer oro0
cast overthe leaves of the pines .
tbe rains wash it down into the axis