growers of this fruit in
Florida and some other pineapple-producing countries must incur if they
wish to secure a crop. Here we have no severe freeze-outs, and, though
dry spells retard the growth at times, we have never suffered any
serious injury from this cause. In the Southern part of the State, the
coolness of the winter retards growth somewhat, and occasionally the
tops of the leaves and young fruit are slightly injured, particularly in
low-lying land, or where the plants are growing on land having a cold
subsoil. When grown under more favourable conditions, however, they
sustain no injury, and produce fruit, more or less, all the year round.
Pines are always in season, though there are times when they are
comparatively scarce. There are usually two main crops a year--viz., a
summer and a winter crop. The former is the heavier of the two, and the
fruit is decidedly the best, as its sugar contents are much higher. The
main summer crop ripens in the North from the beginning of November, and
in the South from January to as late as March in some seasons. The main
winter crop is usually at its best in July and August, but there is
always more or less fruit during the other months of the year. The
pineapple likes a warm, free, well-drained soil, that is free from frost
in winter, and that will not become soured by heavy rain during summer.
Sandy loams are, therefore, our best pineapple soils, though it does
well on free loams of basaltic or alluvial origin. Unlike the banana,
the pineapple does not do too well in newly burnt off scrub land, owing
to the difficulty in working the ground and keeping it clean. It
requires a thorough preparation of the soil prior to planting in order
to be grown to perfection. In the case of new land of suitable texture,
the timber should all be burnt off, and all stumps and roots taken out
of the soil, which should then be carefully broken up and reduced to a
fine tilth, all weed or grass growth being destroyed. It should then be
again ploughed, and, if possible, subsoiled, so as to permit of the
roots penetrating the ground to a fair depth instead of their merely
depending on the few top inches of surface soil. Careful preparation of
the land and deep stirring prior to planting will be found to pay well,
and turn out far the cheapest in the end. Given suitable soil, well
prepared, the growing of pineapples is not at all difficult, as the
plants soon take root, and once they became establis