Abstract

In all countries where the value of fruit diet has been recognised, pineapple occupies a high rank. In most of the western countries and in all tropical islands within easy reach of the West this has assumed. great commercial importance. In India where the plant seems to have been introduced about 300 years hack and has spread through the West Coast to Bengal Assam and Burma, little attention seems to have been paid to improve the quality or commercial possibilities of this valuable fruit plant. In this Presidency it occurs in several places as a hedge plant or as an ill-kept bush yielding stray fruits of small size and of an insipid sour taste. In the Simhachalam hills of the N. Circars and in isolated estates of the southern and western portions of the Western Ghats it has received some attention at cultivation. During the last decade the cultivation of this has been taken up in several places on the West Const through the activities of the Agricultural Department and this note deals with the experience gained in its cultivation on the West Coast both in the Government farms and outside.

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