Fig. 55.—A Group of the Washington Navel Orange on the Tree.—(Courtesy Bureau of Plant Industry.)
Pineapple.
—The pineapple is a fruit grown very extensively in tropical and also subtropical countries. It is a crop of great importance in Florida. The flavor and aroma of the pineapple grown in subtropical countries is often preferred to that of the tropical grown fruit. Pineapples grow best when sheltered to some extent from the direct rays of the sun. In Florida it is planted near live oaks, where a partial shade is secured. It is often artificially covered by means of narrow boards placed near together and yet leaving abundant space for the sunlight. Sometimes these covered fields are two or three acres in extent. In [Fig. 56] is given a representation of the pineapple growing under a covering of this kind in Florida at the Agricultural Experiment Station, Lake City.
Formerly pineapples were regarded as great luxuries, and often were set up in the center of the table as an ornament rather than as a dessert. They have now become very common and are frequently used as a dessert, for flavoring ice cream, for preserving, and for general use as a fruit.
Fig. 56.—Covered Pineapple.—(Courtesy of Florida Experiment Station.)
Adulteration of Pineapples.
—The only adulterations which are found in pineapples are of course in the canned product. Investigations in the Bureau of Chemistry show that adulteration is not extensively practiced, unless the addition of cane sugar without notice can be so regarded.
From the point of view of the collection of duties, the addition of cane sugar without notice is an adulteration, since under provision of law pineapples canned in their own juice pay one rate of duty and when preserved with sugar pay another. Inasmuch as the label of a food product should tell the whole truth concerning it, the addition of cane sugar, without notice to that effect upon the label, is calculated to deceive and should not be practiced. There is no objection of any kind to the use of cane sugar in the canning of pineapples if the label indicates that this has been done. On the other hand there is no reason why the addition of sugar should be practiced. The pineapples are bought and consumed for their natural flavor, and not on account of the added sugar which they may contain. In the canning of pineapples it is just as easy to secure complete sterilization in their own juice as it is to secure it with the added sirup. In practice, however, it is more convenient after filling the cans with the pieces of pines to add a sugar sirup to fill up the spaces than to secure sterilization by the application of heat alone, which would not cause a sufficient quantity of juice to exude to fill up the interstices of the cans, and they, therefore, would be partially empty.