Pineapple

a fruit without relationship to either the apple or the pine, but so called from its resemblance to a pine cone. The entire plant as seen above ground consists of three parts: first, a rosette of prickly, rigid, bayonet-like, fibrous leaves like those of an aloe; second, a short stem consolidated with a mass of succulent bracts and flowers into a cone-shaped fruit; third, a small tuft of short prickly leaves terminating the fruit and stem. The pineapple is a native of tropical South America. It is now cultivated chiefly in the West Indies. Large numbers were exported formerly to the United States, but our supply now comes chiefly from Florida. Pineapples are used for making preserves and other delicacies, or sliced fresh and served with sugar.

In spite of one or two setbacks from frost the pineapple industry of Florida has risen to considerable proportions. Not less than 4,000,000 Florida pineapples have been marketed in a single year. Dry, sandy lands have been found very favorable to its growth. A considerable part of the pineapple crop is raised on the Florida Keys, where the soil resting on the coral limestone is barely an inch in depth. The plant is propagated usually from suckers which sprout from the short stem after the fruit has been cut off. The plants are set in short rows in beds so that they may be cultivated with a long-handled scuffle hoe without entering the bed. The fruit is cut about a week before it is fully ripe. Each "apple" is wrapped separately in a piece of brown paper. The fruit is sorted according to size and is packed 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, and 54 to the half bushel crate. A single fruit may weigh anywhere from half a pound to fourteen pounds.

Of late pineapple growers have fallen in with the idea of building sheds to protect their beds. Sides and tops are built of lath or slats nailed to stringers or woven with wire to form open lattice work or screens. It is claimed that the heat of the sun is tempered, and that in frosty, catchy weather the screens afford protection against freezing. Such sheds cost $500 an acre. An acre well set begins to yield in eighteen months and produces from 8,000 to 15,000 pineapples a year for eight or ten years. A heavy expense for fertilizers is required. Heart rot, blowing sand, blight, a red spider, a scale insect, and mealy bugs combine to render the growers' lot far from an easy one.