If there is one fruit that Queensland can grow to perfection, it is
undoubtedly the pineapple. This is not merely my own personal opinion,
but is the universal admission of all who are qualified to judge. On
many occasions I have taken men thoroughly conversant with
pineapple-growing, and who knew what a good fruit really is, through
some of our plantations, where I have given them fruit to test, and,
without exception, they have had no hesitation in saying that they have
never tasted better fruit. Our fruit has a firmness, freedom from fibre,
and a flavour that is hard to beat. It is an excellent canning fruit,
superior in this respect to the Singapore article, which it surpasses in
flavour. This is admitted by English and European buyers, and its
superiority is bound eventually to result in a great increase in canning
and the establishment of large works run on thoroughly up-to-date
lines.
[Illustration: Picking Pines for market--Woombye District.]
[Illustration: Pineapple Plantation--showing plants of different
ages--Woombye, North Coast Line.]
Like the banana, the pineapple is a tropical fruit, and is very
sensitive to cold, hence its culture is confined to frostless districts.
It is grown all along our eastern seaboard, where, when planted in
suitable soils and under suitable conditions, it is, undoubtedly, our
hardiest fruit, and is practically immune from any serious disease. Its
culture is entirely in the open, no shelter whatever being given, so
that we are not put to the great expense that 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 established, they prove
themselves to be extremely hardy. Pines will grow and thrive on
comparatively poor soil, provided it is of suitable texture, but in such
soils it is necessary to supplement the plant food in the soil by the
addition of manures, if large fruit and heavy crops are to be obtained.
Pineapples are propagated by means of suckers coming from the base of
fruit-bearing plants, or from smaller suckers, or, as they are termed,
robbers or gill sprouts that start from the fruiting stem just at the
base of the fruit. They are also sometimes propagated by means of the
crown, but this method is usually considered too slow. Well-developed
suckers are usually preferred, as these come into bearing earliest, but
equally good, if not better, returns are obtained by planting gill
sprouts. The latter have the advantage in that they always develop a
good root system before showing signs of fruit, hence their first crop
is always a good one, and the fruit is of the best, whereas suckers
sometimes start flowering as soon as they are planted, before they are
properly established, with the result that the first fruit is small and
inferior, and the plants have to throw out fresh suckers before a good
crop is produced. Gill sprouts are slower in coming into bearing than
suckers, but the results are usually more satisfactory. Like the banana,
once a pineapple plant has borne fruit the fruiting stalk dies down, and
its place is taken by one or more suckers, which in their turn bear
fruit and die. Pineapples are planted in Queensland in several ways, but
by far the most common method is to set the suckers out in single or
double rows, from 8 to 9 feet apart, with the plants at from 1 to 2 feet
apart in the row. The rows soon increase in width by the growth of
suckers, and the throwing up of ratoons--surface roots thrown off from
the original plant, which send up plants from below the ground as
distinct from suckers, which come from the base or even higher up the
stem of a fruiting plant. It is not at all an uncommon thing to see the
rows grown together, so that the plantation appears to be a solid mass
of plants, but pathways have to be kept between the rows to permit of
gathering the fruit, manuring, &c. Pineapples have been grown in the
Brisbane district for the past sixty years, and I have been shown beds
of plants that have not been replanted for over forty years that are
still producing good fruit. This shows how well at home this fruit is
with us; but, in my opinion, it is not desirable to keep the plants so
long in the same ground, as the finest fruit is always obtained from
comparatively young plantations, the older ones producing too large a
proportion of small fruit. From the Brisbane district this fruit has
spread all over the eastern coast, and its production is increasing
rapidly in several districts. Once the pine is planted, its cultivation
is comparatively simple. If in single or double rows, all weed growth is
kept down between the plants, and the ground between the rows is kept in
a state of good cultivation by means of ploughing or cultivating, the
soil being worked towards the rows so as to encourage the formation of
suckers low down on the fruiting plants. Manure is given when necessary,
the manure being worked in on either side of the rows.
[Illustration: Smooth-leaved Cayenne Pines in fruit, planted 15 months,
Woombye District.]
The pineapple comes into bearing early, and, except where suckers throw
fruit as soon as planted, bear their first crop in from twelve to twenty
months, according to the type of suckers planted and the time of year at
which they are set. Practically every sucker will produce a fruit at the
first fruiting, and these will be followed by succeeding crops, borne on
the successive crops of suckers, so that when the whole of the ground is
occupied by plants, the returns are very heavy. One thousand dozen
marketable fruits is by no means an unusual crop for Queen pines in a
plantation in full bearing, and, taking these at an average of 2-1/2 lb.
each, you get a return of 30,000 lb., or 15 tons American per acre. The
illustrations herewith give a good general idea of the usual method of
growing pines, and the method of handling and marketing, as well as of
the nature of the country on which they are grown. The illustrations
are mostly of smooth-leaved pines, which bear a fruit averaging from 6
to 8 lb. each, but occasionally running up to as much as 14 to 16 lb.,
though the latter is an extreme weight. The single pine shown is just
under 12 lb. Several kinds of pines are grown, which are generally
classified into roughs and smooths. The rough, or rough-leaved pines,
such as the Common Queen and Ripley Queen, and local seedlings raised
from them, are very prolific, and though not equal in size and
appearance to the smooth-leaved Cayenne, our principal smooth-leaved
kind, are usually considered to be of superior flavour, and to be better
for canning or preserving. Rough pines run up to as much as 6 lb. weight
each, but this is uncommon, the best average I have met with being about
4 lb. per pine, and they were exceptionally good. The price at which
this fruit sells here seems absurd to those living in cold countries,
who are accustomed to look upon it as a luxury only found on the tables
of the wealthy, as good rough-leaved pines are worth about 1s. per dozen
during the summer season, and smooth-leaved pines from 1s. 6d. to 2s.
6d. a dozen. Prices are certainly higher during the off-season, but
growers would be well satisfied to get 1s. per dozen for rough pines all
the year round. I have no hesitation in saying that pines can be grown
at a profit at from L3 to L4 per ton, so that the cost of growing is so
low that there is nothing to prevent us from canning the fruit and
selling it at a price that will defy competition.
[Illustration: Pineapple Plantation--Pines packed for market, and
showing fruit-grower's home, Woombye District.]
Pineapple-growing has been a very profitable industry, particularly in
the older plantations of the Brisbane district, and still continues to
be so in many places despite the fact that prices are much lower now
than they were some years since. The plantations from which the
illustrations are taken are comparatively new ones, the land having been
in its virgin state from six to eight years ago, and, as shown, some is
only now being cleared. The owners of the plantations started without
capital, and, by dint of hard work and perseverance, are now reaping an
excellent return of some L50 per acre net profit. This is by no means an
isolated example, but is one that is typical of what can be done, and
has therefore been chosen. There is a great opening for the culture of
this fruit in Queensland, and its cultivation is capable of being
extended to a practically unlimited extent. We have a large amount of
land suitable for the growth of this fruit that is available in
different parts of the State, much of it at very reasonable rates, so
that there is no difficulty in this direction for anyone wishing to make
a start. It is an industry from which returns are quickly obtained, and
is a branch of fruit-growing that holds out strong inducements and every
prospect of success to intending growers. At present our production is
about sufficient for our presently existing markets, but there is
nothing to prevent these markets being widely extended. Our present
means of utilising our surplus fruits, by canning or otherwise
preserving same, are by no means as complete or up to date as they
should be, and before they can become so, it is necessary to greatly
increase our output. Small works cost too much to run as compared with
large canning establishments, hence we are not yet in a position to make
the most of our fruit. With increased production we will have an
increase in the facilities for utilising the fruit. This requires
labour, and there is right here an opening for many industrious
workers, a business that I have no doubt will pay from the start, a
business of which we have the Australian monopoly, and in which there is
no reason that I can see in which we should not compete satisfactorily
in the markets of the world.
[Illustration: Pineapple Plantation--Showing method of growing the
fruit, Woombye District.]
Queensland possesses many advantages respecting the growth of this fruit
as compared with other countries in which it is grown commercially,
which may be briefly enumerated as follows:--
1st.--Freedom from loss by freeze-outs;
2nd.--The ease with which the fruit can be grown, and its freedom
from disease;
3rd.--The large area of land suitable to its culture, and the low
price at which suitable land can be obtained;
4th.--The fine quality of the fruit;
5th.--The superiority of our fruit for canning purposes;
6th.--The low price at which it can be produced, and the heavy
crops that can be grown.
These are enough reasons to show that in the pineapple we have a fruit
well suited to our soil and climate, a fruit in the cultivation of which
there is room for great extension, and which will provide a living for
many industrious settlers.
[Illustration: Rough-leaved Pines, Redland Bay District.]
[Illustration: Pineapple Plantation--On virgin soil, showing scrub land
at back being cleared for fruit growing, Woombye District.]