Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-03-14

10 mature crop OF plne1pplcS. Iue
Hawaiian Pineapple Packers Associa-
ton, composed OF nine corporations.
will have 629lis acres in bearing IN
1914. They are planting 1881 addition
/ al acres this year, This does not in
IcIude the independent planters and
hoTesteaders who will have approxi-
mately 5000 acres in pineapples by
the end of this present year. Under
Hawaiian conditions. the first plant
crop will produce on the average II
tons of fresh fruit per acre. On vir-
gin soil. a yield of Il or Is tons is
not excessive The first ration crop
will produce up to u tons per acre
and the second ration from two to
eight tons per acre Ten tons per
acre is considered good average for
! all the land actually bearing pineap-
pies.
The improvements in the methods OF
canning pineapples and the machinery
used for that purpose. are very mark
ed and since there is but little general
information available on such subjects,
! am taking the liberty Of describ-
ing the operation of a Hawaiian can
merry. The pines are received from
the fields in boxes and landed on the
railroad platform. Here the crown of
leaves is removed and the fruit is sep
arated into sizes, each size being
adaptable to a special sized machine.
The fruit is conveyed on trucks to
the peeling machines. The individual
pines are placed on linked conyeyor
y--hicb oorTfa,, the fr4t;f 70 a h0Dnar
directly over the peeling knives, Here
side arm forces the pine against
four knives which split the rind into
four sections, to the depth to which
the pine is to be peeled The pins
is at the same time forced against a
circular brass cutter, the peeled por-
ton passing through this cutter into
a hopper. The Feelings, which are
quite thick because of the deeply en-
bedded eyes of the pineapple. are
passed over series of small sharp
knives which remove the surplus
flesh This pulp is canned as crushed,
shredded or grated pineapple. The
remaining Feelings pass on to the
juice extractor presses.
Returning to the eylindrical-shaped
peeled fruit. one sees them drop one
by one into set of revolving cylin-
.ders. Each fruit is firmly held so
that a revolving knife removes the
base peeling of the fruit; second
knife removes the top and finally a
central punch coring machine removes
the cores. These cores are conveyed
to series Of knives which cut them
into sections, which are preserved and
marketed to the glace fruit manufac-
turers.
The peeled and cored fruit is con-
veyed to tables where laborers, wear
ing rubber gloves to prevent their
hands from being eaten by the acid
in the pineapple juice, remove the
few eyes which penetrate deeper than
the peeler will cut The fruit then
passes on to another hopper from
which it drops into curved cradle
on plane with, and is pushed through
series of knives which cut the fruit
into slices These slices drop on a
conveyor from which the laborers
grade and fill the cans.
A Slated carrier which holds a
dozen cans of fruit is placed under
series of spouts and each can is filed
to the top with cane juice syrup. The
filled cans are then run through
steam exhaust chest where the liquid
is heated to 100 or 1870 degrees Fair
This drives out all the air in the can
which is Immediately capped by ma
chine by pressure process which
avoids the use of solder. The cap.
ped cans we're formerly cooked for 80
minutes in vats of boiling water but
by keeping the cans in motion by
linked conveyor in a live steam chest,
the time of cooking has been reduced
TO 10 minutes. When cool, the can
assumes denied condition which is
desired by the Gamers since it de-
notes vacuum and careful preser-
walton.
The cans of pineapples are stacked
away in the storage room. When
ready fer packing, the cans are run
through vat of lacquer and distillate
to prevent rusting in transit. The
cans are then labelled by machine or
by hand, packed and shipped.
There are several interesting by
products Of the waste pineapple. The
juice is all saved and treated by
secret process and it is later market
ed as pineapple juice. Some attempt
has been made to convert the surplus
juice into vinegar and alcohol As
yet these processes are not complete
successes. A chemist has recently
been working on the waste peel. The
acid of the expressed Juice is neutral
lied by the addition of a chemical
preparation. This juice is filtered and
concentrated to a pineapple syrup.
which, if practical ON commercial
scale, will eventually reduce the sugar
bills. There is also a chance that
citric acid may be separated and that
the refuse matter be used as stock
food s.