Year: 1878

A letter from the island of Eleuthera,
in the Bahama group, written to the
New York Sun, thus describes the Guilt
vation of the pineapple : That the soil
of Eleuthera should yield such an
abundance of delicious pineapples, is a
matter for wonder to a person who
has been accustomed to the fertile
lands of the United States. One who
has never been on coral island can
form but the faintest notion of the e1-
ceeding roughness of the surface and the
ungrateful aspect of the ground. The
island of Eleuthera. which furnishes such
vast numbers Of pineapples, is indeed
covered in the main by wild vegetation,
while the earth from which it springs is
in great part of the toughest conceivable
character of rock. Holes of every size,
form and description, some of them partly
or wholly filled with dirt, the debris Of
decayed vegetation, loose fragments,
large and small, round and angular,
sharp and hard, everywhere abound.
The rock sticks up its singing points and
cutting edges in the most irregular and
provoking fashion. No plough, no spade,
no hoe, can here be used. The only
thing that can be done is to stick sprout
into one of the holes and let it take care
of itself, which it almost invariably does
right well for it likes that kind of soil,
and sips it's sweet nourishment from the
little dirt it may happen to find in the
hollow of the rock.


The holes ere very close together, the
sprouts are placed scarcely foot from
each other, and as the plant grows up it
spreads it's long, sharp, hard leaf blades,
with edges armed with little rasping,
aaw-like teeth, up from the ground and
abroad in every direction. The plant
has thick supply of these outbending
leaves, Tapped closely one over the other
near the ground, and out of the centre of
which comes up the fruit, one pineapple
only to each plant, which then perishes,
but leaves behind progeny Of young
sprouts, and these being stuck into the
hollows insure new crop for the sue
ceeding year. This replenishing can be
kept up for about six years, and then the
whole field about exhausted, is left to
itself, the plants die out, in the course of
time the soil is renewed, and fresher
fields now demand the care of the pine
grower.


The only attention given to the plant
is to keep the field clear of weeds, and
that is almost daily work the year round.
One negro man can attend to about two
acres. The worst weeds to contend with
are a species of bidens, plant very we'll
known in the United States, as Spanish
needles, and kind Of crab grass. One
object of placing the plants 80 close to-
gether is to give the pineapple possession
of the soil, and the weeds little chance of
usurping the ground. The first sight of
pine field is astonishing, for it presents
broad intricate tumble, OF o vast mass
of interlacing leafy sword blades, and the
first impression is that such jam OF
vegetation would be utterly incapable of
producing any fruit whatever, whereas
the fact is, the acre properly attended to
yields the enormous number of ten to
twelve thousand pineapples.


There is another enemy, no less for
midable than the weeds that requires
looking after very sharply, and that is
the rat, which attacks the fruit iust as it
is about to ripen. If no measures we're
taken to prevent the depradations of
these troublesome creatures, very few
pineapples indeed would escape their
destructive jaws, The planter has a
remedy. Sweet potatoes are cooked, and
while they are yet hot, the sulphur ends
of common matches are broken off and
introduced into them. The phosphorus
is diff sed throughout the substance of
the potatoes, and these being placed
among the pineapple plants are eaten by
the rats, which almost Immediately fall
dead from the effects of the poison.