William King planted Avon Park’s first pineapples in August 1887
The Florida Agriculturist of 11 January 1893 prints a paper “read before a recent meeting of the Avon Park Township Horticultural Association by Mr. Wm. King, and published in a recent number of The Pineapple.”[fa-1893-01-11]
It opens:
At the last meeting of this society I was requested to make a report on the pineapple and pineapple culture. Five years ago last August I planted the first slips in Avon Park, just as an experiment, not knowing anything about their culture or whether they would be a success here. Since then I have continually been experimenting with them as to the best fertilizers, culture, distance to set out plants, etc. To those who have planted lately and those who contemplate doing so in the future, I trust this paper will be of some benefit, for experimenting costs time and money.[fa-1893-01-11]
“Five years ago last August,” from a paper read in the closing weeks of 1892, dates the town’s initial commercial planting to August 1887 — about one year after the founding party arrived on the site, and five years before William E. Pabor established the Pabor Lake Pineapple newspaper.
The Horticultural Association and First Settler Record
The paper provides the only substantial first-person text by any founding Avon Park settler known to survive in the historical record. William King (1844–1929), who served as the settlement’s initial resident and later as a school sub-district trustee and county commissioner, had previously been visible primarily through third-party directory listings and later recollections.[maxwell-1976]
The text also documents the Avon Park Township Horticultural Association, an organized local scientific body that met regularly, commissioned technical reports from experienced growers, and had its proceedings printed in the Pabor Lake Pineapple and subsequently reprinted in statewide agricultural journals.[fa-1893-01-11]
Cultivation Methods and Soil Economics
The paper outlines practical cultivation methods developed for the high pine lands of the Lake Wales Ridge:
- Soil and Fertilizer Economies: King noted that Avon Park’s yellow sand and high pine lands did not require the heavy applications of one to two tons of bone per acre customary on the white scrub soils of the Atlantic coast: “this is a great saving of dollars. The land does not cost a third per acre, but clearing is about the same.”
- Plant Spacing and Longevity: Slips set two feet by two feet, in beds eight rows wide, planted in 1887, had yielded three successive crops and were producing a fourth by late 1892. Mature plants stood four feet high and formed a complete ground cover.
- Fruit Yields and Weights: Specimen pineapples reached up to 8¾ pounds, with average yields ranging from three to six pounds per fruit.
- Intercropping in Citrus Groves: King interplanted pineapples between young lemon and orange trees spaced twenty-five feet apart, running four rows of pineapples between tree rows. The pineapples shaded the sandy soil and utilized shared fertilizer until expanding tree roots and shading canopies required their removal after six crops (around the trees’ eighth year).
- Trimming Practices: King rejected the common recommendation to strip lower leaves before setting slips, having tested stripped and unstripped plants side by side with identical results: “To do it is certainly a tedious and expensive job.”
- Varietal Selection: He favored Red Spanish as “the best shippers” for distant freight, while noting that Sugar Loaf produced superior dessert quality but bruised too easily for transport.
References
- fa-1893-01-11 — William King, via The Florida Agriculturist (DeLand, Fla.). The Florida Agriculturist, 11 January 1893, page 6: Pineapple Culture in DeSoto County, by Wm. King. 11 January 1893. florida-agriculturist.md
- maxwell-1976 — Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell. The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida. 1976. the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md
Related
- Finding: Avon Park had nearly half a million pineapple plants before the freeze
- Finding: The Avon Park Township Horticultural Association and the ridge pineapple industry
- William and Mary King
- Report: Avon Park in The Florida Agriculturist, 1890-1910
- Reference: The Florida Agriculturist, 1878-1911
- Reference: Pabor Lake Pineapple, 1892-1897
- Report: citrus, crates and cattle
Where this comes from
- Evidence
- corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.
- Review
- unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
- Rights
- society
Sources
- William King, via The Florida Agriculturist (DeLand, Fla.), The Florida Agriculturist, 11 January 1893, page 6: Pineapple Culture in DeSoto County, by Wm. King (1893)
- Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell, The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (Held at the Avon Park Historical Society Depot Museum, Avon Park, Florida) (1976) · book
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