Four men around a load of harvested pineapples. John Isaac "Ike" Craig at top, Caesar Dean on far right. Craig's 40 acre pineapple field was located near the intersection of Monterey Road and Kanner Highway (in 2023). Handwritten on back: Caesar Dean once set 10,000 plants in 10 hours. A "good" man could average 4,000 a day and was paid $2 for a day's work.
Published in the Florida Dept. of Agriculture Pineapple ABCs Bulletin #125, May 1956 with the caption: "Red Spanish Pineapples grown under shed at Stuart. Capt. W.H.Bessey is said to have planted this acre without paths and to have produced 600 crates, which would be over 20 tons. Pineapples thrive better in half shade than in open. Quite a numbers of acres were shedded around Stuart and Jensen."
Caesar Dean (abt. 1874-1947) was a diver, boat captain, and agricultural worker, and also appeared in the 1916 film "Robinson Crusoe" as Friday.
