PINEAPPLE, a perennial herb (ilnanas sativus) of the family Bromeliacem It is a native of the American tropics, but has been in troduced into warm climates throughout the world. It grows about three feet high, bears long, stiff, sword-shaped, brittle leaves in an elOn gated rosette, from the centre of which arises the fruit, surmounted by a crown of stiff leaves. After fruiting another stem may arise and bear a fruit, the process being repeated sometimes for 10 years or even more. The fruit vary from 4 to 10 inches or even more, and from 4 to 20 pounds, but the average 'weight is prob ably about eight pounds. Until the introduction of recent methods of rapid transit the pineapple was confined to warm countries, or to hot houses, in which large quantities were for merly grown. Very few are now cultivated under glass, but immense and annually increas ing numbers are shipped from tropical and sub tropical fields to the markets of cooler coun tries, and also are used for canning. The prin cipal fields are the West Indies, Florida, north ern Africa, Queensland, Hawaii and Azores Islands.
The pineapple thrives best in an equable cli mate where the temperature averages between 70° and 80°, and where dry and rainy seasons alternate. Whatever the soil it must he thor oughly drained, even dry. Depth is inconse quential; the plants produce well in the Florida Keys, where the soil is often only one or two inches deep above the coralline rock. They will withstand months of dry weather but quickly succumb to an excess of moisture, either in the air or the soil. Florida pineapple land frequently contains only a trace of the fertiliz ing elements considered essential; hence appli cations of plant-food must be liberal, care being taken to avoid an acid phosphate. Dried blood, nitrate of soda, ground bone, carbonate and sul phate of potash and cotton-seed meal are favor ite fertilizers. The plants are never raised from seed except for the production of new varieties, since 10 years is often required to bring such plants into bearing. Rattoons, crowns, slips and suckers are used instead. Crowns, or the ros ettes of leaves upon the fruits, are little used except when varieties are rare. Suckers de velop from military buds near the ground and produce thrifty plants which usually bear before 18 months old; slips, taken from the base of the fruit, require fully a year longer to reach bearing age. Rattoons, which develop from buds beneath the ground and form a root-sys tem of their own, are relied upon to a large extent to replace the plants that have borne.
The land having been prepared, the plants are set in checks 18 to 36 inches apart, with alleys left at intervals of six or eight feet. Cultiva tion consists in keeping the surface loose with a scuffle hoe. With reasonable care a plantation should bear for 10 years without resetting. The fruits are gathered about a week before full maturity, wrapped individually in brown paper, packed firmly in half-barrel or barrel crates and shipped.
Pineapple sheds are built of slats upon a framework of posts and beams high enough to permit a man to stand upright under them. The slats are about three inches apart, to permit the ingress of light. The sheds protect the plants from excessive heat and from frost, and they improve the quality of the fruit. Only choice varieties are so grown, the cost of erec tion, .about $500 an acre, being prohibitive of inferior sorts.
The principal enemies the pineapple are red spider (Stsgmeus flortdanus); scale insects and mealy bugs (Dacty lopius awl, etc.). The first appears upon the tender leaf bases and causes rot. A handful of tobacco-dust placed in the crown of the plant is effective; rains dissolve and carry the solution to the infected parts. Resin wash, whale-oil soap and kerosene emulsion are used for the scale; these and the tobacco are used for the mealy bugs. The scale usually appears on the under surfaces of the leaves, but produces a yellow spot on the upper; the mealy bugs attack the bases of the leaves below ground, the buds and the fruit.
Blight or wilt is said to be due to a soil fungus at the roots. Removal and resetting are practised, though plants of valuable varieties are sometimes trimmed and replanted. Sand ing, which follows the filling of crowns of young plants with sand, may be prevented by filling the crown after planting with cottonseed meal, or other loose material which will not prevent growth but will keep out the sand. Spike, non-expansion of the leaves, is due to unfavorable conditions of the soil. Change of fertilizer is recommended. Heart rot or bitter heart, which often accompanies wet seasons, is of unknown origin. The affected part, the heart, looks watery, and the whole fruit be comes bitter. If not serious in nearly mature fruits the pineapples may be marketed; other wise destroyed. Consult Bailey, 'Cyclopedia of Standard Horticulture' ; Rolfs,