Chapter II: Part 2

The improvement on this plan consists in detaching the flue from the back wall, and separating it from the tan by a vacuity of two or three inches; or, what is still better, placing the flue in front similarly detached, and surrounded by air on all sides.

_Soil._ “As to the earth in which Pines should be planted, if you have a rich good kitchen-garden mould, not too heavy, so as to detain the moisture too long, nor over light and sandy, it will be very proper for them without any mixture: but where this is wanting, you should procure some fresh earth from a good pasture, which should be mixed with about a third part of rotten neats’ dung, or the dung of an old melon or cucumber bed, which is well consumed. These should be mixed six or eight months at least before they are used, but if it be a year, it will be the better; and should be often turned, that their parts may be the better united, as also the clods well broken. This earth should not be screened very fine, but only cleared of the great stones. You should always avoid mixing any sand with the earth, unless it be extremely stiff, and then it will be necessary to have it mixed at least six months or a year before it is used: and it must be frequently turned, that the sand may be incorporated in the earth, so as to divide its parts; but you should not put more than a sixth part of sand, for too much is very injurious to these plants.

_General Management._ “There are some persons who frequently shift these plants from pot to pot; but this is by no means to be practised by those who propose to have large well-flavoured fruit: for unless the pots be filled with the roots by the time the plants begin to show their fruit, they commonly produce small fruit, which have generally large crowns on them; therefore the plants will not require to be potted oftener than twice in a season. The first time should be about the end of April, when the suckers and crowns of the former year’s fruit (which remained all the winter in those pots in which they were first planted) should be shifted into larger pots. The second time for shifting them is in the beginning of August, when you should shift those plants which are of a proper size for fruiting the following spring. At each of these times of shifting the plants, the bark-bed should be stirred up, and some new bark added, to raise the bed up to the height it was at first made; and when the pots are plunged again into the bark-bed, the plants should be watered gently all over their leaves, to wash off the filth, and to settle the earth to the roots of the plants. If the bark-bed be well stirred, and a quantity of good fresh bark added to the bed, at this latter shifting, it will be of great service to the plants; and they may remain in the same tan until the beginning of November, or sometimes later, according to the mildness of the season.

“In the summer season, when the weather is warm, the plants must be frequently watered; but you should not give them large quantities at a time: you must also be very careful that the moisture is not detained in the pots by the holes being stopped, for that will soon destroy the plants. In very warm weather they should be watered twice or three times a week; but in a cool season, once a week will be often enough; and during the summer season, you should once a week water them gently all over their leaves, which will wash the filth from off them, and thereby greatly promote the growth of the plants. During the winter season, these plants will not require to be watered oftener than once a week, according as you find the earth in the pots to dry: nor should you give them too much at each time; for it is much better to give them a little water often than to over-water them, especially at this season.”

_Insects._ After describing the white scale or mealy pine-bug (_coccus hesperidum_, L.) he says, “wherever these insects appear on the plants, the safest method will be to take the plants out of the pots, and clear the earth from the roots; then prepare a large tub, which should be filled with water, in which there has been a strong infusion of tobacco-stalks; into this tub you should put the plants, placing some sticks across the tub, to keep the plants immersed in water. In this water they should remain twenty-four hours; then take them out, and with a sponge wash off all the insects from the leaves and roots, which may be easily effected when the insects are killed by the infusion; then cut off all the small fibres of the roots, and dip the plants into a tub of fair water, washing them therein. Then you should pot them in fresh earth, and having stirred up the bark-bed, and added some new tan to give a fresh heat to the bed, the pots should be plunged again, observing to water them all over the leaves (as was before directed), and this should be repeated once a week during the summer season; for I observe these insects always multiply much faster where the plants are kept dry, than in such places where the plants are sometimes sprinkled over with water, and kept in a growing state. And the same is also observed in America; for it is in long droughts that the insects make such destruction in the sugar-canes. And in those islands, where they have had several very dry seasons, they have increased to such a degree as to destroy the greatest part of the canes in the islands, rendering them not only unfit for sugar, but poison the juice of the plant, so as to disqualify it for making rum; whereby many planters have been ruined.

“As these insects are frequently brought over from America on the ananas plants, those persons who procure their plants from thence should look carefully over them when they receive them, to see they have none of these insects on them; for if they have, they will soon be propagated over all the plants in the stove where these are placed: therefore, whenever they are observed, the plants should be soaked (as was before directed) before they are planted into pots.”

_Fruit produced._ Miller finds suckers and crowns, if equal in size and strength, fruit equally soon; and has seen as good fruit produced from plants received from the West Indies, as from any he has seen, and some three times larger than any he saw in M. Le Cour’s garden.

SECT. III.

_Culture of the Pine Apple, by James Justice, Esq. F.R.S. at
Crichton, near Edinburgh, in 1732, and for some years afterwards._

This gentleman was one of the greatest amateurs of gardening of his time, and a most successful cultivator of every thing he attempted. He had a fine garden at Crichton, near Edinburgh, and corresponded with various foreign horticulturists of Holland and Italy, as well as with Miller, Bradley, and other eminent English gardeners of his time.

_Form of House._ Justice, writing in 1754, says, “There have of late years been erected in England and Scotland, many sorts of stoves for the culture of the Pine Apple; but I am sure, after many experiments, that the plan here annexed is the best. In this stove, (fig. 5.) with one fire, I can do the business of two stoves, which must have two fires, and cultivate the old as well as the young plants.” The front and ends of this house are of glass, as well as the roof; the flue enters from behind at one end, passes along the middle of the house, returns on itself, and then makes four returns in the back wall. The path-way enters from behind, at the end opposite to that at which the flue enters; proceeds to the middle of the house, along the middle, till it meets the flue at the opposite; and then it turns round till it meets the flue against the back wall, close by the furnace. By this arrangement of the walk, no interruption is given to the flue; which is of great consequence, where it has so many returns to perform. A furnace invented by Mr. James Scot, of Turnham Green, a commercial Pine-grower of those days, is recommended. It is cast in one piece, and requires a wrought-iron door and a cast-iron plate to build over the chamber. Justice agrees with Miller in recommending the furnace to be built within the house, (but supplied from without) in order that no heat may be lost.

The plan given requires no succession-house; but he describes a frame used by many persons for growing young Pines, “made in the same manner as common hot-bed frames, but higher and broader; that is, three feet higher at the back, sloping to one and a half in front, and six feet wide.” These cover a tan-pit causewayed at bottom, and surrounded by a stone wall. It is very proper, he says, to have these frames at work as well as the stoves. He also mentions flued pits, such as are described by Miller (Sect. 2.) Both stoves and pits he covers with boards, tarpauling, or mats, at night; and the fuel he uses is coal or peat, avoiding wood as of too rapid consumption.

_Soil._ Two-thirds of good loamy kitchen-garden mould, one-third of old rotten cows’ dung, or hot-bed dung, and to every eight barrowfuls of this a barrowful of sea-sand. He adds, “If your ground is naturally sandy, after having mixed it with the dung above mentioned, add thereto a third of good fat marl; which succeeded so well with me, that in this compost I had much larger fruit than in any other compound which I used to give them, which induced me to put, at all times, a good _deal of marl_ in the compost I used for these plants.” This mixture should lie for six months in those parts of the garden which are airy and least exposed to the sun; after the first three months, turn it over every fortnight. _Scots Gardeners’ Directory_, 2d edit. p. 124.

_General management._ The same as is given by Miller. He tried some plants turned out of the pots with their balls, and planted in the bark for the last nine months before the fruit ripened, and found the fruit larger and earlier, but not better flavoured than that of the plants in pots. In shifting, he never cuts off any of the leaves; “for it is certain,” he adds, “that the leaves of all plants and trees bear the same office to them, as the pulmonary vessels do to human bodies.” He waters over the leaves when the plants have shewn fruit; because the fruit stalks, occupying what in young plants was a hollow tube, no injury can happen. P. 129.

_Insects._ At the first appearance of the bug, he picks off the scale with a pin; and if that does not clean the leaves, he washes with a sponge; and, in extreme cases, uses Miller’s mode.

_Fruit produced._ The object of all his directions is, “to have fruit large, good, and early, in a right season; viz. from the middle of June to the middle of September, but no later; for the rays of the sun, at that time, have not strength enough to give them that poignancy of smell and taste that they ought to have.” P. 134. “Cut fruit when their smell is strongest and most poignant; if too ripe, they soon turn insipidly sweet, and have no more taste than an orange. Cut them about ten o’clock in the forenoon, with about four inches of stalk to them. When the fruit is to be sent to a distance, cut a day or more before they are ripe, with a larger portion of stalk to them, and wrap them very close in paper, to preserve them from the air; otherwise their flavour will escape.” P. 132.

SECT. IV.

_Culture of the Pine Apple, by John Giles, at Lewisham, in Kent,
1767._

This author, who was gardener to Lady Boyd, and afterwards foreman in the Lewisham nursery, says, he writes after many years’ practice and observation; and that his treatise will be found “of more real advantage to a young unexperienced gardener, than his giving a premium of five or ten guineas to a mercenary old one (who perhaps might have had some practice, with a trifling degree of success,) to learn--what? why, to spoil his plants, with the loss of both money and reputation.”

“Notwithstanding the directions of Miller, Hill, (probably alluding to a letter on the Pine Apple in “Gardener’s New Calendar,” written by Sir John Hill, under his assumed name of Barnes,) Meader, &c. who have endeavoured to explore the method how the Pine Apple is to be grown; yet, upon trial, the success has always fallen much short of their expectation. For these reasons, Mr. Giles “presents the public with explicit directions for managing and bringing to perfection the Pine Apple; in which all the obstacles and difficulties which gardeners have met with in raising that fruit are remedied, and the true method pointed out in a clear and satisfactory manner.” Preface, p. vii.

_Form of House._ The plants are brought forward in pits, and afterwards fruited in a stove forty feet long and twelve feet wide, with a pit six feet wide, surrounded by a path, and a flue which makes three returns in a flue close under the back wall. The front of the pit is about three, and the back about five feet from the glass. It will fruit, he says, a hundred plants annually, they being brought forward in the low pits or frames, and removed to the fruiting-house in September or October.

The obvious objection to the plan of his house is the having no flue in front.

_Soil._ A rich hazely loam from a well-pastured common. This soil alone, he says, not only answers well for Pines, but for most vegetables.

_General Management._ He recommends keeping a moist atmosphere in the house, and giving abundance of air when the plants are in fruit. His other directions relate to mere routine practices, and offer nothing else worth quoting.

_Insects._ A moist atmosphere, he says, will keep down these. “It is only poor plants,” he says, “which are not in a good state of health, that are infested with insects. They are encouraged by the warmth and dryness of the air of the stove, and the bad state of the plants; but where cleanliness and moisture are attended to, there will never be any worth notice.” P. 36.

_Fruit produced._ He fruits the Queen Pine in two years, at the usual season; but does not state to what size the fruit attains.

SECT. V.

_Culture of the Pine Apple, by Adam Taylor, Gardener at Devizes, in
Wiltshire, 1769._

This author, who was gardener to J. Sutton, Esq. at New Park, professes “to lay down a mode by which the Pine Apple may be produced in higher perfection, with more ease and less expense than has been hitherto known in this climate.” He offers his treatise with confidence, as not being founded on hypothesis, but on some years’ experience; and it may be depended on, as “it admits of the attestation of many persons whose taste and judgment are unquestionable.”

“The present way,” he says, “of raising Pine Apples, is made so chargeable by the erection of hot-houses, and the consumption of fuel, that many, even of tolerable fortunes, have been deterred by the consideration of it, from raising this desirable fruit. It is farther attended with trouble, and much uncertainty; and the fruit itself rarely answers the expense either in size, number, or quality. But by the practice now recommended, these several inconveniences are sufficiently obviated. There are very few, even of commercial gardeners, who are not able to accumulate the necessary quantity of horse-dung, which is the principal article for this valuable end. And by such application of it, they shall not fail to find their hopes abundantly answered, and their labour well repaid.” P. 3.

_Form of House._ He both rears and fruits them in a pit. This he forms either of boards, or of brick-work three feet deep, and of any convenient length and width; and on the walls or boards, which inclose the tan, he places a frame two and a half feet deep in front, and four feet high behind. The ends and front are of glass, and the latter is formed into small sashes, which slide in a groove. The back is formed of inch boards, and against these he places a powerful lining of dung.

The pit he fills with tan, or dung, as may be most convenient; dung, he says, does as well as tan, and only requires a little more trouble, which is amply repaid to the gardener by the value of the dung to the garden, when no longer in active fermentation.

An anonymous annotator (to the copy of Taylor’s book, in the library of the Horticultural Society) says, “I find by experience, that the dung of four horses is sufficient to work two frames twenty-six feet each in length, and six in breadth; one for the fruiting-house, the other for succession plants; and that it may be reasonably expected to cut forty fruit yearly after the first year, and the dung as valuable for the field or garden, as if this use had not been made of it.” P. 3.

_Soil._ “Take one load of mould from under the turf of a good pasture, and, if it be very light, add to it the fourth part of a load of good mellow loam: but if it be of itself of a loamy nature, mix into it two or three bushels of sea-sand. Then take the fourth part of a load of dung from a cow-yard, if it can be thence procured; but if not, take the same quantity of good rotten dung from your old cucumber or melon beds. Mix these well together, and turn the whole three or four times, that it may thoroughly imbibe the air. All the large clods should be well broken, but not sifted or screened, as is the practice with many; so shall you have a compost, which is excellently adapted to the growth and nourishment of the plants.” P. 15.

_General Management._ He takes great care to keep his plants in a dormant state during winter; but about the end of March and April, he applies linings, and brings them into a growing state, shifting all those not intended for fruiting that season. He covers the frames at night throughout the year with straw, and a sail-cloth over, excepting in the warmest part of summer; at that season, during fine showers, he removes the sashes entirely, and lets the plants receive a gentle watering. He frequently waters over the leaves in the afternoons with a pot having a fine rose, and shuts up early; which he finds produces a moist heat, rapid growth, and keeps down insects. In winter he uses a tin pipe, to keep the water from touching the leaves of the plants; and as he has a very low temperature at that season, he gives them very little.

_Insects._ These he is not much troubled with; but he says, “Such plants as are attacked by them, should be immediately taken out of the frame, and plunged into a moderate hot-bed made of dung; this hot-bed should be covered with one or two cucumber-frames, adapted to the height of the plants. Let these frames be covered with lights; so as to confine the steam of the dung. As soon as the plants receive the heat of this bed, water them all over the tops of the leaves with cold water. This will effectually destroy the insects; after which the plants are to be restored to the covered frame again. A trial or two of this will convince any person of the infallible efficacy of it.” P. 38.

It thus appears that he destroys them by the operation of the ammoniacal gas, much in the same manner as does Mr. Baldwin.

_Fruit produced._ He says nothing of the weight of the fruit, but he calculates on fruiting the plants in two years, and ripening the fruit only in summer and autumn, or between July and October inclusive; and he prefers the Queen Pine to all others.

SECT. VI.

_Culture of the Pine Apple by William Speechly, gardener to his
Grace the Duke of Portland, at Welbeck, in Nottinghamshire, 1779._

The culture of the Pine, Mr. Speechly observes, has already been treated of by many persons, who have varied much in the methods they have recommended. Far from meaning to depreciate their labours, he adds, “my advice and pretensions rest solely upon the success which I have met with in my experiments.” He went to serve the Duke of Portland in 1767, and published his book after eleven years’ experience. He continued at Welbeck till about the year 1800.

_Form of House._ The great object of Mr. Speechly seems to have been to combine the culture of the Pine and Vine; and for this purpose he adopted one form both for his succession and fruiting-house; training Vines up the rafters, and on the upper part of the back wall.

In many places small stoves of a particular construction (in the which the Pines stand very near the glass) are erected solely for the purpose of _Fruiting-houses_. These, from their being always kept up to a high degree of heat, are by gardeners usually termed _Roasters_. (fig. 7.) When there is such conveniency, it is customary, when any Pine-plants show fruit in the large stoves, to remove such plants (especially the most promising) directly into the fruiting-house; where, from the high degree of heat kept, they generally swell their fruit astonishingly.

It is observable that Pines always succeed best in stoves that have been newly erected; on which account, some of the more curious in the cultivation of this fruit have judged it expedient to pull down and rebuild their Pine-stoves every ten or twelve years. Although I cannot subscribe to such expensive mode of procedure, I shall here beg to state the many advantages that accrue from keeping Pine-stoves in good and proper repair.

First, by keeping the flues clean from soot, and air-proof, they will heat the house better, and much less fuel will serve.

Secondly, by a due attention to keeping the inside of the roof, &c. duly painted, and by constantly white-washing the walls and flues in every part of the house, the plants will be greatly benefited, both from having a better reflection and from cleanliness.

A further advantage in stoves newly built may also here be remarked. Where tan only is used, the beds are always filled at the first with new tan entire; but afterwards, constantly with new and old tan intermixt.

Lastly, it is probable that stoves, newly erected, derive their greatest benefit from the good condition of the glass-work; for, however well it may be kept in repair afterwards, it is certain that there never is so much light in an old stove as was at the first. Dirt will find its way into the cavities between the squares, &c. which, obstructing the sun’s rays, darkens and gives a gloominess to the stove.

He describes a Pine-stove to be heated by steam, in which the vapour is admitted to a brick vault, over which is the bed of tan or earth; this is surrounded by a path and smoke-flues, exactly as in the common form of hot-house.

He also gives a plan of a furnace for burning lime as well as heating hot-houses, as erected at Billing, in Northamptonshire, and at Lady E. Ponsonby’s, at Bishop’s Court, in Ireland; and, subsequently, at various other places in that country.

In these _kiln-furnaces_, (fig. 8.) the heat, after passing through the limestone in the kiln or crucible (_a_), enters the flue (_e_), and passes through it in the usual manner. The grate on which the fuel burns (_d_) is contrived to draw out by means of a grooved frame (_c_), as soon as the lime in the crucible is burned, which then falls into the ash-pit (_b_), and is removed.

_Soil._ Alter numerous experiments made with mixtures, of cow, deer, sheep, pigeon, hen, and rotten stable dung, with soot, and other manures, in various proportions, with fresh pasture-soil of different qualities, he says, I can venture to recommend the following:

In the month of April or May, let the sward or turf of a pasture, where the soil is a strong rich loam, and of a reddish colour, be pared off, not more than two inches thick: let it then be carried to the pens in sheep-pastures, where sheep are frequently put for the purpose of dressing, which places should be cleared of stones, &c. and made smooth; then let the turf be laid, with the grass-side downwards, and only one course thick; here it may continue two, three, or more months, during which time it should be turned with a spade once or twice, according as the pen is more or less frequented by the above animals; who, with their urine and dung, will enrich the turf to a great degree, and their feet will reduce it, and prevent any weeds from growing.

After the turf has lain a sufficient time, it should be brought to a convenient place, and laid in a heap for at least six months, (if a twelvemonth it will be the better,) being frequently turned during that time; and after being made pretty fine with a spade, but not screened, it will be fit for use.

In places where the above mode cannot be adopted, the mixture may be made by putting a quantity of sheep’s dung (or deer’s dung, if it can be got) and turf together. But here it must be observed, that the dung should be collected from the pastures when newly fallen; also, that a larger proportion should be added, making an allowance for the want of urine.

1. Three wheelbarrows of the above reduced sward or soil; one barrow of vegetable mould from decayed oak-leaves, or leaves of other deciduous trees, and half a barrow of coarse sand, make a compost-mould for _Crowns_, _Suckers_, and _Young Plants_.

2. Three wheelbarrows of swarth, reduced as above, two barrows of vegetable mould, one barrow of coarse sand, and one-fourth of a barrow of soot, make a compost-mould for _fruiting plants_.

The above composts should be made some months before they are wanted, and very frequently turned during that time, that the different mixtures may get well and uniformly incorporated.

It is observable, that in hot-houses, where Pine-plants are put in a light soil, the young plants frequently go into fruit the first season, and are then what gardeners term _runners_; on the contrary, where plants are put in a strong rich soil, they will continue to grow, and not fruit even at a proper season: therefore, from the nature of the soil from whence the sward was taken, the quantity of sand used must be proportioned; when the loam is not strong, sand will be unnecessary in the compost for young plants.

I conceive that the _urine_ of sheep contains a greater quantity of mucilage, or oleaginous matter, than the _dung_ of those animals: and this opinion is founded upon observations made in sheep-pastures; where, during the summer months, the effects of both are easily distinguished. I also presume that the reduced sward in the pens receives a very considerable degree of fertility from the feet of the sheep.

Where oak-leaves are not used in hot-houses instead of bark, the vegetable-mould may be made by laying a quantity of them together, in a heap sufficiently large to ferment, as soon as they fall from the trees: they should be covered for some time at first, to prevent the upper leaves from being blown away. The heap should afterwards be frequently turned, and kept clean from weeds: the leaves will be two years before they are sufficiently reduced to be fit for use.

I shall just observe, that it will be proper to keep the different heaps of compost at all times clean from weeds, to turn them frequently, and to round them up in long rainy seasons. If covered, the better: but they should be spread abroad in continued frosts, and in fine weather.

_General Management._ The pots he recommends are:

_Inches diameter _Inches_
at the top._ _deep._

1. Pots for full-sized crowns
and suckers 6 5½

2. Pots for plants to fruit the
following season when
shifted in March 8½ 7

3. Pots for fruiting plants 11½ 10

I wish it to be understood that the above dimensions are only used for full-sized plants, at their different periods: plants below the standard must have less-sized pots in proportion.

Sometimes, he observes, hot-beds are made for the suckers. When that is the case, they should be prepared at least fourteen days before the suckers are taken off, in order that the violence of the heat may be over: after the bed has been made ten days, it should be levelled, and covered eight or ten inches with tan; and after this has lain four or five days, in case the heat of the bed should not be violent, the pots may be plunged into it.

In respect of temperature and water, he advises only a moderate heat, and not much water, during the winter months; but an increase of both, accompanied with more air, as the season advances.

There is nothing, he says, so prejudicial to the Pine-apple plant, (insects and an over-heat of the tan excepted,) as forcing them to grow by making large fires, and keeping the hot-house warm at an improper season; which is injudiciously done in many hot-houses. It is inconsistent with reason, and against nature, to force a tropical plant in this climate in a cold dark season, such as generally happens here in the months of November and December; and plants so treated will in time show the injury done them: if large plants for fruiting, they generally show very small fruit-buds with weak stems; and, if small plants, they seldom make much progress in the beginning of the next summer.

As the length of the days, and power of the sun increases, the plants will begin to grow, and from that time it will be absolutely necessary to keep them in a regular growing state; for if young plants receive a check afterwards, it generally causes many of them to go into fruit. From the time they begin to grow they will demand a little water: once in a week or ten days, as the weather may prove more or less favourable, will be sufficient till the middle of March, which is the most eligible season to shift them in their pots. If that work is done sooner, it will prevent the plants from striking freely; and if deferred longer, it will check them in their summer’s growth.

In this shifting I always shake off the whole of the ball of earth, and cut off all the roots that are of a black colour, carefully preserving such only as are white and strong. I then put such plants as are intended to fruit the next season into second-sized pots with fresh mould entire.

The bed at this time should be renewed with a little fresh tan, in order to promote its heating, and the pots plunged therein immediately. The hot-house should be kept pretty warm till the heat of the tan begins to arise, as it will be the means of causing the plants to strike both sooner and stronger. As soon as the heat of the bed begins to arise, it will be proper to give the plants a sprinkling of water over their leaves; and as soon as they are perceived to grow, they will require a little water once a week for a short time, and afterwards twice a week till the next time of shifting them in their pots.

During the summer months give the plants plenty of air whenever the weather is warm, and water properly, as has been described: let the pots be kept in a regular constant heat, and clean from weeds; but above all, avoid an over-heat of the tan. Some persons plunge a thermometer in the tan, with the ball of its tube as deep as the bottom of the Pine-pots; and by repeated observations, a point is fixed for the spirits in the part of the tube above the surface of the tan, to show when the pots should be raised. Whether the above, or the putting _watch-sticks_ in the tan (which is the most common method) is practised, too much attention cannot be had whenever there is the appearance of too violent a heat in the tan.

If the above directions are strictly attended to, the plants will be grown to a large size by the beginning of August; when they should be shifted into the largest-sized fruiting-pots, with their roots and balls entire.

But it will be proper here to observe, that in some hot-houses it is found difficult to get plants of the Antigua and Sugar-loaf kinds to fruit at a proper age; and, in that case, I advise the shaving off the roots on the outside, and reducing the balls of _them_ at this shifting. A greater proportion of sand should also be added to the compost, which will be the means of bringing them into a fruiting state at a proper season.

The disproportion of the second-sized and fruiting-pots is so great, as to admit of a good quantity of fresh mould at this shifting, which is absolutely necessary to support the plants till their fruit becomes ripe: it also affords an opportunity of performing the operation of shifting the plants without injuring their roots. As there will be a large space between the ball and the side of the pot, the mould may be put round the ball with great ease; whereas, when plants are shifted into pots only a small size larger than those from whence they were taken, they are generally much injured by the operation of shifting: besides, even with the greatest care, there will frequently be spaces left hollow between the ball and the side of the pot.

A little fresh tan should be added, and the bed forked up, but not to the bottom of the pit, as the tan is liable to heat violently at this season of the year; of which when there is the least appearance, the pots should be raised immediately. The delay of doing it one day may be attended with very bad consequences.

The plants will continue to grow very fast this and the following month, and should therefore be watered pretty plentifully, at least twice a week; and, in the summer waterings, it should be observed, that it will be of great service to the plants to be watered once a fortnight all over their leaves. If the month of October be wet and cold, the plants should not be watered above twice in that month; but if fine and clear, once a week: and here ends the watering of the fruiting plants for the season. I never give them any water in the months of November and December; and during that time I keep the hot-house in a cold state, but a bottom heat is always required; therefore the tan should have been renewed, and the old part of it screened about the end of October or beginning of November: from which time the bed will generally retain a moderate warmth till the beginning of January, when the tan should again be renewed. From that time the hot-house should be kept a few degrees warmer; and, as soon as the tan begins to ferment, the plants may have a little water given them.

In this month (January) some of the plants will appear set for fruiting, which may be distinguished by the short leaves in their centres; and from that time they should be moderately watered (till the middle of March) and the hot-house should be kept pretty warm; a little air should, however, be admitted, whenever the weather will permit.

About the middle of March it will be proper to renew the tan-bed, and, at the same time, the plants should be divested of a few of their bottom leaves; the mould on the top of the pots should be taken off as deep as can be done without injuring the roots, and the pots filled up with fresh compost-earth, which will add to the vigour of the plants, as well as give a neatness to the whole when finished.

It is very injurious to the plants, and greatly retards the swelling of the fruit, to remove them after this season; therefore, in case the heat of the bed should decline, a fresh heat may be got without moving the plants, by taking out the tan betwixt the pots as deep as possible, and filling that space up with fresh tan.--This method is practised by some even at an earlier season.

The plants at this season will demand a kind, lively bottom heat; and whenever the weather will permit, a great quantity of air should be admitted into the hot-house, the want of a due proportion of which would cause the stems of the fruit to draw themselves weak, and grow tall; after which the fruit never swells kindly.

As the fruit and suckers begin to advance in size, the plants will require plenty of water to support them, which may be given them at least twice, and sometimes three times a week; but too much should not be given them at one time; it is better to give them less at a time, and oftener.

Sticks should be provided to support the fruit before it is grown too large; and, in tying them, care should be taken to leave bandage-room sufficient, making allowance for the swelling of the fruit.

When the suckers are grown to about one foot in length, they should be taken off in the same manner that has been described; and from that time the fruit will swell very fast. As soon as the fruit appears full swelled, the watering such plants as produce them should cease: but it is too general a practice (in order to have the fruit as large as can be got) to continue the watering too long; which causes the fruit to be filled with an insipid, watery, and ill-flavoured juice.

It is easy to know when the Pine becomes ripe by its yellow colour; yet they do not all change in the same manner, but most generally begin at the lower part of the fruit. Such fruit should not be cut till the upper part also begins to change, which sometimes will be many days after, especially in the Sugar-loaf kinds. Sometimes the fruit will first begin to change in the middle, which is a certain indication of its being ripe: such fruit should be cut immediately.

Having thus laid down the culture of the Pine-apple plant, whether raised from seed, by crowns, or suckers, to its final perfection in the fruit, I shall now subjoin some hints and observations; most of which, I hope, will be of use.

In treating of the culture of the Pine-apple plant, some persons have recommended the shifting of the plants, from first to last, with their balls entire; also the shifting of them oftener than I have here recommended. These methods I disapprove, for the following reasons:

First, it is observable that the Pine-plant begins to make its roots at the very bottom of the stem; and, as the plant increases in size, fresh roots are produced from the stem, still higher and higher, and the bottom roots die in proportion: so that, if a plant in the greatest vigour be turned out of its pot as soon as the fruit is cut, there will be found at the bottom a part of the stem, several inches in length, naked, destitute of roots, and smooth. Now, according to the above method, the whole of the roots which the plant produces being permitted to remain on the stem to the last, the old roots decay and turn mouldy, to the great detriment of those afterwards produced.

Secondly, the first ball, which remains with the plant full two years, by length of time will become hard, cloddy, and exhausted of its nourishment, and must therefore prevent the roots afterwards produced from growing with that freedom and vigour which they would do in fresher and better mould.

Thirdly, the old ball continually remaining after the frequent shiftings, it will be too large, when put into the fruiting-pot, to admit of a sufficient quantity of fresh mould to support the plant till its fruit becomes ripe, which is generally a whole year from the last time of shifting.

It is an object of emulation amongst gardeners to try to excel their neighbours in the size of their Pines. In order to produce very large fruit, I recommend the following method, which I have often practised with great success.

In the month of April or May, it is easy to distinguish, in a stove of Pines, which plants promise to produce the best fruit: this is not always the case with the largest. A few of the most promising being marked, a small iron rod, made with a sharp angular point, may be thrust down the centre of the sucker; which, being turned two or three times round, will drill out the centre, and prevent its growing. This must be performed on all the suckers as fast as they appear. Thus the plant being plentifully supplied with water, and having nothing to support but the fruit, will sometimes grow amazingly large. But this method should not be practised on too many plants, as it is attended with the entire loss of all the suckers.

It being a practice with some to fruit the Pine by setting the _pot_ in water; while others produce the fruit by setting the _plant_ only in water, (in a similar manner to what is often practised with Hyacinths and other bulbous roots,) the passing over these methods in silence may, by some, be deemed an omission: but as neither of these methods can be reduced to practice with any kind of success, except on fruiting plants, and just in the hot summer months, when the situation of the plant ought to be very near to the glass, they do not seem calculated for general practice.

However, as some persons are inclined to suppose that Pines raised by these methods are generally of superior quality, I shall just beg to say, that the first method, of setting the _pot_ in water, is greatly to be preferred, and that the best time for adopting it is immediately after the plants have shown fruit in the spring.

Mr. Speechly is minute in his directions as to air, water, the use of leaves instead of bark, the application of fire, heat, &c.; but as all these instructions are more to be considered as applicable to the general management of the hot-house, than the particular treatment of the Pine-apple, we do not think it advisable to trouble the reader with their perusal.

_Insects._ Those which more immediately infest the Pine, were first described in Speechly’s book. They are all species or varieties of the Linnean order Hemiptera, and genus Coccus. The first is the _brown turtle bug_, _Coccus hesperidum_ (_Fig. 9._) The female has at first the appearance of a flat scale (_a_); afterwards, when depositing its eggs, it becomes fixed and turgid (_b_); these eggs (_c_) are hatched under the mother, who soon afterwards dies; the young insects, seen under a magnifier, appear like turtles in miniature (_d_). Only the males, (_e_), which are few in proportion to the females, have wings; these devour nothing, and having performed the office of impregnation, die.

The _white scaly bug_, _C. hesp. var._ α (_f_ to _l_) bears a considerable resemblance to the above; but the scale (_f_) is somewhat smaller; the colour is white, and the males or flies (_l_) not so large as those of the brown.

The _white mealy crimson-tinged bug_, _C. hesp. var._ ϐ (_n_ and _m_) differs from the former in being larger and crimson-coloured. Speechly considers it as viviparous. This and the former species are much the most pernicious.

Mr. Speechly’s mode of destroying these and other insects, being much too elaborate for modern practice, it would be a waste of time to repeat his processes. Simple modes are always the most effectual, and nothing can be more so than M’Phail’s mode of applying the steam of water; or Baldwin’s, that of horse-dung.

_Fruit produced._ Mr. Speechly does not seem to have had a fixed object as to the production of fruit, unless it was to have it good. Some cultivators, as Justice, aim at having all the fruit ripe at that season when they will attain the greatest size and most flavour, viz. in August and September; others aim at having some weekly throughout the year. It would appear that the former was Speechly’s object, and that he did not contemplate the other as now generally practised. “Large fruiting plants,” he says, “will sometimes show their fruit in the months of August and September, but these are generally thought of no value, and, consequently, thrown away. To prevent this, I frequently take such plants out of the hot-house as soon as their fruit begin to appear. I then set them in a shed or out-house for five or six weeks; at the expiration of which time I pot them as in the month of March, after shaking off their balls. After this I plunge them into the tan.”

What was the common weight of the Queen Pines produced at Welbeck, he does not inform us; but a fruit of the New Providence, produced in the gardens at Welbeck in 1794, weighed 5¼ lb., or 84 oz. He generally fruited the Queen Pine in the third season, being under two years of time; and the Providence and Antigua in the fourth season.

SECT. VII.

_Culture of the Pine Apple by James M’Phail, gardener to the late
Earl of Liverpool, at Addiscombe, in Surrey, from 1788 to 1808._

Mr. M’Phail, when in practice, was reckoned one of the first growers of the Pine Apple in England; he grew the plants, and also fruited them chiefly in pits; the pots plunged in bark, and the bark inclosed by a perforated wall of his invention, and heated by linings of dung. He also grew them in larger buildings.

_Form of House._ No great consequence is attached to the construction of the house by this gardener. Where Pines are to be grown in a hot-house along with vines in Speechly’s manner, he says, “I think a good method is to make it into one or more divisions of about forty feet long, sixteen feet wide;” the back wall thirteen feet, and the front wall nine feet, the upper four feet being composed of sliding sashes. The slope in the roof will, by these dimensions, be four feet, or about three inches to a foot. The pit is to be surrounded by a path, which behind will be four feet higher than in front, and, consequently, the end paths must have steps. The fire-place being placed in the back wall, and supplied from the shed behind, the flue should be carried round about the inside, stretching from the fire-place across the end and along between the path and the front wall, leaving a cavity of four or five inches wide between the flue and the wall, to admit the heat to rise freely, and to prevent the roots and stems of the vines planted in the border against the front wall from being too much heated. At that end of the division farthest from the fire, after going across the house under the back path, the flue must rise above the path, and go along close against the back wall communicating with the chimney, which stands at the end corner of the wall just above the fire-place. The flue from the fire-place along the front wall to the opposite end of the house, is to be made nearly three feet deep, seven inches wide, and when it riseth above the back side path against the back wall to the chimney, it should be about three feet six inches deep of brick, on edge two inches thick, besides the plastering, and covered with inch thick tiles closely joined with fine mortar to prevent the smoke from getting into the house among the plants. The mouths of the fire-places should be about sixteen inches wide, twelve inches deep, and the doors and their posts may be made of cast iron. The grates should be thirty inches long, and their bars of uncast iron made to take out at will. Some have the fire-places wholly of cast iron, one or more inches thick, in form of a square funnel about three feet in length. This appears to be a good method, because they keep in repair several years, whereas the sides of the fire-places built of brick generally require repairing yearly.

The tan-pit need not be deeper than three feet, or three feet six inches; and the path which surrounds it should not be narrower than twenty inches; but two feet, or for the back pit two feet and a half, will be better. The vines are introduced under the sill of the front glasses, and trained up the rafters; and Mr. M’Phail’s practice is not to withdraw them in the winter season as is done by other gardeners. The surface of the tan-bed should not be nearer the glass than five or six feet. Two houses, each forty feet in length, joined together, can be kept warm with two fires, better than one house of forty feet; but in cold, exposed situations, he would recommend diminishing the length.

With respect to pits, M’Phail observes, “Succession Pine plants grow exceedingly well in pits covered with glazed frames, linings of warm dung being applied to them in cold frosty weather. The north wall of a pit for this purpose had best be only about four feet above the ground; and if about two feet high of it the whole length of the wall beginning just at the surface of the ground four feet below the height of the wall, be built in the form of the outside walls of my cucumber bed, the lining will warm the air in the pit more easily than if the wall were built solid. The linings of dung should not be lower in their foundation than the surface of the tan in the pits in which the plants grow (for it is not the tan that requires to be warmed, but the air among the plants); and as during the winter the heat of the air in the pit among the plants, exclusive of sun heat, is not required to be greater than from sixty to sixty-five degrees, strong linings are not wanted: one against the north side, kept up in cold weather nearly as high as the wall, will be sufficient, unless the weather get very cold indeed, in which case a lining on the south side may be applied. In cold frosty weather a covering of hay or of straw, or of fern, can be laid on the glass above mats in the night-time.

“The brick bed of my inventing, (fig. 10.) for forcing early cucumbers, answers well for growing small succession plants. A pit built on the same construction, but of larger dimensions, without cross flues, is a suitable one for growing Pine Apple plants of any size; for by linings of dung the air in it can be kept to a degree of heat sufficient to grow and ripen the Pine Apple in summer, as well as it can be done with fire heat, only it will require a little more labour and plenty of dung.

_Soil._ “The Pine Apple plant will grow very well in any sort of rich earth taken from a quarter of the kitchen garden, or in fresh sandy loam taken from a common, long pastured with sheep, &c. If the earth be not of a rich sandy quality of darkish colour, it should be mixed well with some perfectly rotten dung and sand, and if a little vegetable mould is put among it, it will do it good, and also a little soot. Though Pine plants will grow in earth of the strongest texture, yet I have found by experience that they grow most freely in good sandy loam not of a binding quality.