Harvesting Indian River Pineapples


Harvesting Indian River Pineapples in Florida. This is a pineapple farm not far from Palm Beach, Florida. Pineapples are grown only in warm countries where the soil is sandy. This limits the area in which they can be grown in the United States to a very few states. Florida is our pineapple center. Some grow also in California. Certain islands in the West Indies have large plantations.Pineapples are planted in fields of sand. They will grow in other kinds of earth, but unless the soil is well drained they rot easily and the fruit is likely to be poor. The ground is plowed, laid off into furrows, and slips or suckers are set out. The rows are from 20 to 30 inches apart and the plants are about this distance from each other in the rows. Young plants are set only a few inches in the ground. It depends on whether slips or suckers are used as to how soon the crop may be harvested. July, August, and September is the usual planting time. The plants flower in midwinter. The late spring and the early summer months is the time for harvesting. The fruit is carefully broken from the stalk and put into baskets. These baskets are being carried out to a truck. This truck runs on a small railway which leads to the packing house in the center of the view. Great care must be taken in handling the fruit so it will not be bruised. It must be remembered that the pineapples are to be shipped, and bruised fruit will decay if it has to be transported very far. The fruit gets its name because of its resemblance to the cone of a pine tree. The United States census for 1910 shows the value of our pineapple crop to have been $734,000 in the previous year.

Photographer:	Unknown	Date:	Unknown
Publisher & City:	Keystone View Company: Meadville, Pa., New York, NY, Portland, Oregon, London, Eng., Sydney, Aus.
Series & Number:	13740

Scan courtesy of The Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida. Image retouched and converted to anaglyph in 2005 by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology at the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida. View this image using 3D glasses with the blue lens over the left eye and the red lens over the right eye.


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