CHAP. IV. OF THE DIFFERENT MODES OF CULTIVATING THE PINE APPLE WHICH HAVE BEEN, AND ARE PRACTISED IN BRITAIN BY PRACTICAL GARDENERS.

The Pine Apple plant, as already observed, seems to have been first introduced by Mr. Bentick, afterwards re-introduced from Holland in 1719, and then first cultivated for its fruit in Sir Matthew Decker’s garden at Richmond. Here, according to Professor Bradley, the gardener, “Mr. Henry Telende, imitated so successfully M. Le Cour’s newly discovered method of cultivating this delicious fruit, that he is likely to ripen forty of them in the present (1724) autumn.” (Husb. and Gard. for June 1724, p. 161.) He elsewhere tells us that “the late instance of bringing the Ananas or Pine Apple to perfection in England, by the ingenuity of Mr. Telende at Sir Matthew Decker’s, has so far gained upon the curious, that already many of our nobility have undertaken the same improvement; and ’tis not to be doubted but a year or two more will make this undertaking much more general.” He mentions “their being brought to extraordinary perfection at the garden of the right honourable Spencer Compton, Speaker of the House of Commons, at Chiswick; and at that curious gentleman’s, Mr. John Warner, Rotherhithe.” He informs us that an excellent stove on a new plan, with a bark pit, was built by William Parker, Esq. near Croydon, in Surry, to make “experiments in ripening fruits that has not been tried;” and that Mr. Fairchild, in 1722, built one at Hoxton for Pine Apples and other tender plants, in which the fire flues were raised above the surface of the floor, by which means all danger from damps was avoided. Mr. Cowel, as before observed, (p. 4.) states that in 1730 Pine Apple stoves were to be found in almost every curious garden. Mr. Telende’s mode of cultivating the Pine Apple is detailed by Professor Bradley in 1724, and the most generally approved mode of culture from that time to the middle of the eighteenth century may be considered as given by Miller in his Dictionary. The improvements which have since been made by practical gardeners, may be ranged under the heads of Justice, Speechly, Abercrombie, M’Phail, Nicol, Griffin, Baldwin, Andrews, Oldacre, Gunter, Grange, and Aiton. To each of these names we shall devote a section; and under each, consider in succession, the form of house, soil, general treatment, insects, and fruit produced.

Sect. I. Mode of cultivating the Pine Apple practised by Mr. Henry Telende, in the Garden of Sir M. Decker, at Richmond, 1719, to 1730, or later.

Form of House. For the education and ripening of this fruit, Mr. Telende employed a frame made of deal, closely jointed: the length eleven feet, divided equally into four lights; the width seven feet and a half; three feet high at the back, and about ten inches in front. The pit was somewhat more than five feet deep in the ground; the sides were lined with brick, and the bottom covered with pebbles.

The stove or fruiting-house used was that with iron plates over the flues; which, for greater warmth, was covered thick with thatch, and the glasses were well guarded with shutters; and that the fire might be constant, he burnt only such turf as is commonly used in Holland, agreeable to M. Le Cour’s method.

General Management. About the middle of February, he “puts in as much hot dung or horse-litter as will raise the bed about a foot high, and then lays on the tanner’s bark as equally as possible, till the case of brick-work is filled, beating down the tan gently with a prong, or pressing it down easily with a board. A bed of this kind will take up three hundred bushels of tan, and if it be well made, will heat in about fifteen days, provided the frame and glasses are set over it. When the bed breathes a right heat, which we are to judge of by a thermometer, the plants are brought from the stove to it, either to have their pots quite plunged into the bark; or, if upon opening the holes for them, the bark be found too hot, then to be set in only half way, laying a few pebbles under the bottom of each pot, that the water may pass freely through them. Care must be taken not to remove the pots in frost or snow; and to examine the bed from time to time, whether the bark grows mouldy, musty, or dry, which it will often do in the summer: in such case, it must be watered to recover its heat. A bed thus prepared and managed will maintain a constant degree of heat, sufficient to give these plants the utmost vigour they require, from the end of February to the end of October; and then the plants must be again removed into the stove or conservatory. In excessive heats the glasses are tilted up at the back of the frame; and when the evenings are cool, the bed must be carefully covered with substantial mattresses of straw. A bed of this kind sinks about a foot, which is convenient; for otherwise the plants would be too tall for the frame, before the time of housing them.

“The thermometer used by Mr. Telende had a tube twenty-four inches long, and one-eighth of an inch in diameter. When the spirit rose only to fifteen inches, he accounted the air cold for his plants; at sixteen and a half temperate; at eighteen warm, which was his standard for Pine Apple heat; at twenty inches, hot air; and at twenty-one inches, sultry.”

Insects. Nothing is said on this subject.

Fruit produced. Mr. Cowel says (Curious and Profitable Gardener, p. 27.) that all gentlemen who had eaten Pines abroad allowed those raised by Mr. Telende to be as good and as large as they found in the West Indies. Bradley says, forty Pines were likely to ripen in the autumn of 1724.

Sect. II. Of the Culture of the Pine, as given by Phillip Miller in his Gardener’s Dictionary.

Form of House. It was formerly the practice, Miller observes, to build dry stoves, in which the plants were kept in winter, placed on scaffolds, after the manner in which orange-trees are placed in a green-house; and in summer, in hot-beds of tanners’ bark, under frames. But it is now the practice, he adds, to erect low stoves, called the succession-house, with pits therein for the hot-bed. It is also necessary to have a bark-pit under a deep frame, for bringing forward the suckers and crowns to supply the succession-house.

Mr. Miller’s fruiting-house has upright glasses in front, high enough to admit a person to walk upright on the walk in front of the house. Over the upright glasses there must be a range of sloping glasses, “which must run to join the roof, which should come so far from the back wall as to cover the flues and the walk behind the tan-pit; for if the sloping glasses are of length sufficient to reach nearly over the bed, the plants will require no more light: therefore these glasses should not be longer than is absolutely necessary, that they may be the more manageable.”

The difference between this stove and that of Speechly is, that in the latter the sloping sashes reach to the back wall, by which means, instead of a useless opaque roof over the path, an excellent place is formed for training a vine; and this being at all times the hottest part of the house, such vines as are there trained will produce very early and high-flavoured fruit.

The succession-house of Miller has no upright glass, and only a walk at the back of the house: the bark-pit may be partly sunk in the ground, if the situation be dry; or if wet, kept above it. The flue makes three returns against the back wall, beginning from the level of the walk. Many persons, he says, have made tan-beds, with two flues running through the back wall, and covered with glasses, like common hot-beds; but, besides the inconvenience of taking off the glasses when the plants want water, the damps rise in winter when the glasses are closely shut, and there is danger of the tan taking fire.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 at the top. Inches deep.

1. Pots for full-sized crowns and suckers 6 5 ¹⁄₂

2. Pots for plants to fruit the following season when shifted in March 8 ¹⁄₂ 7

3. Pots for fruiting plants 11 ¹⁄₂ 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.

9

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 5¹⁄₄ 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.

10

“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.

General management. “The method which I used to cultivate the Pine Apple is the following: The fruit being partly over, and a cucumber brick bed prepared for unstruck crowns and suckers, towards the end of August or September, I planted them in rich earth in pots suitable to the size of the plants; I then had the pots plunged to their rims in the tan bed in which there was a good growing heat; the lights were then shut down close, and as great a heat kept among the plants as the heat of the tan and sunshine could raise, and when the sun shone long and very bright, the plants were shaded a few hours in the middle of the day. The plants were thus managed till they had struck root and begun to grow, when a gentle watering was given to them, and a little air admitted daily. About the end of October or beginning of November, if the state of the bed required it, a little fresh tan was added, and if the plants by growth had become crowded, some of them were removed into another place, and the remainder plunged into the tan bed, in which they continued till February or March, when of course the bed required an addition of fresh tan, which was given it, and the plants plunged again into it at such distances one from the other as to give them room to grow; here they remained till May or June, at which time they were shifted into larger pots with the balls of earth about their roots entire, and at this shifting, if the tan bed wanted it, fresh tan was added to and mixed with the old, which in general enabled it to retain a sufficient heat till the month of August or September, when the plants, with their roots unhurt, were shifted into pots large enough to admit earth easily round their balls between their roots and the sides of the pots. In these pots I let the plants remain in general till the fruit was over. At this time of shifting, the rotten part of the tan was taken away, and a sufficient quantity of new tan added, which generally, with an addition to the upper part of it, retained its heat till the latter end of February or beginning of March; at this time the plants were divested of a few of their lower leaves, to let young roots spring freely out of their stems, the surface of the earth in the pots cleared down to the roots, and fresh earth laid on, pressing it close to the stems of the plants. After this dressing, the plants needed not to be moved again till they ripened their fruit, unless they required more bottom heat. This is the general process which I used, though I found it necessary to vary according to occurring circumstances, regarding the heat of the tan bed, the condition of the plants, and the state of the weather.

“Some large kinds of Pine Apple plants require three seasons to grow before they can bring large sized fruit, such as the black Antigua, the Jamaica, the Ripley, &c.; therefore in the month of April or May, after they have been planted upwards of a year, it is best to take them out of the pots, and to cut off all their roots close to the stem, or leave only a few which are fresh and strong, and then plant them again in good earth in clean pots, and plunge the pots in a tan bed with a lively heat in it. After this process, a stronger heat than usual must be kept in the house, till the plants have made fresh roots and their leaves be perceived to grow, when a little water may be given to them, which, together with a good bottom and top heat, will make them grow finely.

“Crowns and suckers taken from the parent plants later than October, should not be planted before the month of February or March; for in the winter time, probably, they would not strike root, but rot: they may be hung or laid in a dry part of the hot-house. By some writers on the culture of the Pine it has been observed, ‘that any off-sets from the Pine will succeed as well when planted in the hour they are taken off, as if laid by to dry till the wound be healed, provided the parent stock received no water for the ten days preceding.’ If off-sets or suckers be grown to such a size, so that they be easily separated from the parent plant, they may be planted immediately; for, in that case, it may be seen that they had begun to push forth roots, and required to be taken off and planted; but withholding water from the mother plant ten, or even twenty days, will not bring its offspring to a state of maturity fit for planting the day when taken off. So that it is best to let unmatured young suckers and crowns lie implanted, till their natural juices be so exhausted that there may be no danger of their rotting after being planted.

“The brick beds of my inventing, in which I struck and reared Pine Apple plants many years, were close and warm, the crannies between the lappings of the glass being filled up with putty; consequently, in these close frames, especially in the short days and long nights in winter, when the sun has little influence, the moisture arising out of the tan lodges on the glass, and drops from it, upon the plants; but, contrary to the opinion of some authors, who have advised to draw the water out of the hearts of plants when it falls into them in winter, I find, by experience, that it does them no harm, if the heat in the place where the plants be, is not too little. Indeed, if plants be kept in a climate which suits their nature, it is only reasonable to suppose that they are possessed of properties capable of disposing of water which happens to fall on them by accident or otherwise.

“No vegetable substance that I know of retains heat so long, and of a less violent nature, than oak bark after being used by tanners; and, as the vapours arising out of it are of a wholesome nature to plants, it is well calculated for helping to make the Pine Apple plant grow vigorously. Where the Pine Apple is wished to be cultivated, and tanner’s bark cannot be procured, horse-dung well prepared, by shaking and breaking it small, will do. If plenty of the leaves of trees can be had, they are preferable to dung. When leaves cannot be collected plentifully, dung and leaves may be mixed together, and used successfully; and if it be ascertained that a good lively heat cannot be kept in the bed for want of good materials, let the heat of the flues warmed by fire, or linings of dung, be close or near to the pit, which will cause the heat in the bed to be more brisk and durable.

“If it be intended to make a bed of leaves, they should be collected as soon as they have all fallen from the trees, and in a wet state, and thrown together in a large heap; and after fermenting a few weeks, they may be put into the pit for the pines. They should be well shaken, and trodden down gently when they get into a fermentation, which will keep them from sinking quickly afterwards, and prevent them from heating violently. When the heat in the bed declines much, it may be increased by turning and shaking the leaves over with a dung-fork.

“It sometimes happens that tanner’s bark heats too violently; but when that takes place, it is either because there is too great a body of it put together, or because the heat of the flues is too close to the bed. If a tan bed get into a violent heat, it will not keep its heat so long as if it heated moderately; for it must lose its heat as hastily in proportion as it is deprived of its moisture by violent fermentation.

“It frequently happens that Pine Apple plants designed to bear fruit do not show their fruit early enough in the spring or fore-part of summer, to ripen their fruit before winter, when there is not sunshine enough to give the fruit any flavour. This may happen because the plants have not come to a proper growth, or their roots may have been injured by too violent a bottom heat, or by being over-watered, or they may have been shifted too late, or been put into pots too large for their roots to have filled them before the end of the growing season. To make Pine plants shew their fruit at an early time in the spring, some authors have recommended the cutting off some of the roots at the autumn shifting; but long experience has convinced me, that cutting off the roots, or destroying them by any means, instead of making them show fruit, is an effectual mean to prevent them from showing fruit, till they have again made long roots. The fruit of the Pine Apple is formed, probably, not less than seven or eight weeks before it appears among the leaves; and if a plant be divested partially or totally of its roots, its growth is stopped till it has made roots of considerable length, when it will grow quickly. And, if before the roots were destroyed, the fruit had been formed in the hidden secret centre of the plant, the fruit will grow and show itself when the leaves of the plant, excepting those on the stem of the fruit, will make no appearance of growing. This, perhaps, may be the reason which induces some persons to think that cutting off the roots of the plant causeth it to fruit sooner than it would do were the roots suffered to remain.

“If Pine Apple plants, intended for fruiting the following year, be shifted late in the autumn into pots, which their roots do not fill well before the month of January, they probably will not show fruit till late in the spring or summer months. For this reason it is advisable, when they cannot be shifted early enough in the month of August or beginning of September, so as to fill the pots with roots before the winter come on, to let them remain unshifted till the fruit appear, and the stem of it be grown to its full height, and then shift the plants into larger pots, in the manner before directed, disturbing the roots of the plants as little as can be helped. After the plants are shifted, they must not get much water till the fresh growth of the roots has somewhat exhausted the moisture of the fresh earth put round them. Of two evils, it is better to give the plants too little water than too much. But let it be remembered, that while the fruit is in blossom, and for some days afterwards, the plants should not be watered all over their leaves, neither should the plants be watered all over their leaves nor fruit, after the fruit is fully swelled, nor should the earth in which their roots are, be, after that time, kept very moist, for they do not require it, because the plant has nearly performed its office, which it never has to do a second time—it dies and leaves its offspring to succeed it.

“Although the Pine Apple plant is of such a nature that it will live upwards of six months without earth or water, yet to bring its fruit to perfection, a plentiful supply of both these is required. From the time that the plants are set in earth till they perfect their fruit, it should be endeavoured to keep them constantly in a clean healthy growing state; and when they be thus managed, they will not fail to show fruit when they be grown to a natural size. For these reasons, I would advise that no methods contrary to nature, but methods to assist, be used to make them fruit at certain periods. If Pine Apple plants be planted in rich earth, and get a sufficiency of heat and water, they grow luxuriantly to a great size, and do not show fruit so soon as they do when they are planted in a poor, hungry, or stiff soil.

“If the roots of Pine Apple plants be not put in too great a heat, it is a difficult matter to raise the heat in a hot-house to such a degree as is able to destroy the plants. In the brick bed of my inventing, a powerful heat can be raised by means of the linings of dung and the sun-beams, and in it the insects on Pine and on other plants may be shortly destroyed by heat and water.

“Some persons may think that the Pine Apple cannot bear to be watered all over its leaves in winter, because it is of a succulent nature, and able to live long in a hot-house without being planted in earth or set in water. But, for instance, the common house-leek is of a very succulent juicy nature, and will bear the greatest heat of a hot dry summer on the warm tiles of a house: but it is well known that this plant thrives best when it gets occasional showers of rain. The case is exactly similar respecting the Pine Apple, and several other plants, of a similar nature. In regard, however, to the best method of cultivating the Pine Apple, there have been and will be persons who differ in opinion. I here give my opinion, which is founded on practice, that there is not the least danger in watering the plants plentifully all over their leaves in winter, or in any time of the year, provided there be a sufficient heat kept up in the tan bed and in the air of the house. But remember, I do not recommend watering the Pine Apple plants all over their leaves in winter as a general rule, only when it is necessary to free the plants from insects and filth; then the heat in the house among the plants must be kept strong, not lower than 70 in the morning, and raised to 85 or 90 in the course of the day.

“It is indeed evident that some of the most able writers on the culture of the Pine Apple have wanted that experience which may by practice be obtained. They have asserted, that it is impossible to keep the Pine Apple plant throughout a severe winter without the assistance of fire. But ingenious practical gardeners have ascertained, that Pine Apple plants require nothing more than a gentle heat in the tan bed, in which the pots of plants must be plunged, and a medium heat of air of about 60 degrees, to keep them through the most severe winters in England. To maintain this temperature of heat without the assistance of fire, is no difficult matter; it can be done by the assistance of horse-dung; for a dry heat is not at all necessary to preserve the plants, and to keep them in good health, in the brick beds, in which I kept Succession Pines all the year round without the aid of fire heat. The sun for about two months in winter had very little effect to warm or dry the leaves of the plants, so that during the dull months in winter, the plants were continually in a moist state, and water standing in the hearts of some of them, and the heat of the air among them was from 55 to about 65; and I do not recollect of having any of the plants die for want of heat.

Insects. By many experiments which I made, it is evident, I think, that in the process of managing and cultivating the Pine Apple, all injurious insects may be destroyed, and prevented from breeding on them, by a judicious application of the elements necessary, though in a less degree in regard to heat, for the production of any vegetables or fruits whatever. That this is true, may be proved by a reference to the state of fruits and vegetables growing, either spontaneously or assisted by cultivation, in every part of the kingdom, without the aid of artificial heat or impregnated air. For instance, the strawberry, the raspberry, and some other fruits, which grow naturally in some parts of this country, and peas, beans, cabbage, and cauliflowers in gardens, and the different sorts of corn and grass in the fields. These, in unkind seasons, we see affected by blights and by insects of various kinds, which prevent them from coming to good maturity, and make them less productive than we wish them to be. But in propitious seasons, the earth being refreshed occasionally by showers of rain, they are preserved from the inroads of insects and from blights, and are enabled to produce abundant crops, for the use of man and beast.”

Mr. M’Phail has thus the merit of being one of the first practical gardeners who freed themselves from the trammels of receipts and secrets for destroying insects. He says, “after having studiously observed the nature and causes of the vigorous growth and healthfulness of plants, and of fruit-trees of different kinds, I have been induced to believe that a fruit-tree or plant of any sort requires nothing but proper cultivation in good earth, and in a kindly climate adapted to its nature, to prevent it from being injured by insects, or by blights of any kind, and to enable it to produce, of its kind, abundant crops. However, I wish it not to be understood that I disapprove of using means of any kind to destroy insects which are injurious to plants; but I conceive that all methods used for that purpose, ought to be such as are conducive to accelerate the growth of vegetables, by having at least a tendency to purify the air, and to make the circumambient atmosphere about them congenial to their nature, unless when the destruction of the insects by the hand is effected.”

“Every insect has its proper plant, or tribe of plants, which it naturally requires for its nourishment, and on which it generally lays its eggs, and that on the most concealed parts of the plant; and the plant, and insect which attacks it, are always natives of the same climate, and therefore endure the same degrees of heat and cold; consequently, when plants are attacked by their natural tribe of insects, it is an exceedingly nice and curious operation to exterminate them without injuring the plants, or stopping them in their natural growth. But observing that insects increase rapidly in hot dry weather, and that they appear impatient of moisture, was the means of inducing me try which would bear the greatest heat and live.”

“To ascertain what degree of heat a Pine Apple plant can endure without destroying it, I filled four vessels with hot water. The water in the first vessel was 130 degrees hot; that in the second 140; that in the third 145; that in the fourth 150. Into each of these vessels I put a few Pine plants, divested of their roots, of their fibrous roots, and suffered them to remain in the water about an hour. The plants which had been immersed in the water heated to 140 and 145 degrees, were a little hurt in the extremities of their leaves, but after being dried in the hot-house, they were planted, and grew as vigorous as if they had not been put into hot water; the plants put into water 130 degrees warm were not in the least injured; but those put into water heated to 150 degrees were entirely destroyed.

“By this experiment I ascertained that a vegetable can endure, without hurting it, 130 degrees of heat, according to the degrees on Fahrenheit’s thermometer. I am inclined to think that no animal is able to endure such a heat and live. Undoubtedly, insects increase rapidly in hot weather in the open air, especially on the peach tree, and on other trees, against warm walls, both in the spring and summer months; and they increase most rapidly in dry weather; but the heat in the open air against walls seldom rises to 100 degrees. And in the hottest countries in the world, where vegetables and animals exist, the heat in the shade seldom rises to blood heat, which is about 97. Having considered these things, and ascertained that a plant can endure a heat of 130 degrees, I determined to try another experiment, that is, to ascertain whether heat and water would destroy insects, and keep plants alive. I therefore thought of, and determined to try, the following method:

“In the month of June I selected about twenty large Pine plants, some of which had green fruit on them, and their leaves, fruit, and roots, were almost covered with insects. These plants I plunged in a tan bed, with a very gentle heat in it. The tan bed was in a brick frame designed for rearing succession plants: it was nearly five feet wide, twenty feet long, and the glass frames were close and in good repair. These plants I watered frequently and plentifully, sometimes twice a day, with water not less than 70 or 80 degrees, and sometimes 100, warm: in short, I kept the plants constantly in a moist air, by plentiful waterings without measure; and, excepting the time of giving water, I kept the lights constantly close shut down, even in the hottest sunshine, without shading the plants. In this frame I had no thermometer, but the heat was, I think, sometimes about two or three o’clock in the afternoon, upwards of 120 degrees. This great heat and much moisture caused the plants to grow most vigorously; and having subjected them to the said mode of management for a few weeks, the insects, in the course of that time, were totally destroyed, many of them lying dead on the leaves and fruit. In the spring-time, before this operation, the plants had been strewed with sulphur, which, at least, is a harmless dressing to plants of any kind, and probably may be of use in preventing insects from breeding numerously, or the means of depriving them of part of their natural food. This circumstance, however, I just here mention, because, from experiments which I have tried since then, it is probable that the effluvia arising from flour of sulphur, being scattered on the leaves, or about in the hot-house, in conjunction with heated air and moisture, may more suddenly destroy insects than heat and moisture alone; but it ought to be remembered, that if sulphur be by any means set on fire in a confined place, among plants of any kind, it will either totally destroy or greatly injure them.

“Being satisfied with my success in the above-mentioned experiment, of having totally destroyed the insects on these plants without hurting them, I hesitated not to begin to water the whole of the plants under my care, whenever they wanted it, all over their leaves and fruit, with water about 85 degrees warm. This process I continued to practise for several months, during which time I do not recollect that the thermometer was ever below 70, and in sunshine it was raised sometimes to upwards of 110 degrees. I continued this practice longer perhaps than was absolutely necessary, but I was determined to destroy the whole of the insects in the house, whether on the plants, or in the tan, or in any part of the house; and this I certainly did accomplish effectually. Thus, by this easy, and not unnatural, mode of management, the plants became perfectly free of insects; they were perfectly cleansed of all filth; they grew vigorously; and the fruit swelled fine to a good size. After this I had several times Pine Apple plants from abroad, and out of hot-houses at home, full of insects, which, by the means that I have, without reserve, described, I effectually destroyed, and made the plants grow very fast indeed.”

“If Pine Apple plants be kept in a strong vigorous growing state by giving them plenty of heat, and water applied occasionally all over their leaves, whether they be in frames heated with dung, or in hot-houses heated by a fire, a few insects will do them little hurt. But if the methods which I have given for cultivating the Pine Apple plant be adopted, I am persuaded all sorts of injurious insects natural to these sorts of plants will disappear on them.

“When we see human creatures lean in body for want of a sufficiency of wholesome food, or, for want of cleanliness, lice and fleas breed upon them; and poverty in cattle for want of food has the same effect on them. Similar causes in vegetables has a similar effect, so that when Pine Apple plants are in a state of poverty, for want of a sufficiency of good earth, or of heat, or of water, insects natural to them, if there be any of them in the hot-house, will breed rapidly on them and hurt them. Those insects which naturally breed and live on the Pine Apple plant, appear to delight in a dry dirty situation. Where Pine Apples grow naturally and produce large fruit, they are not free of insects; and though plants be free of insects, they will not grow well, nor produce fine fruit, unless they get enough of good earth, sufficient heat, and be watered plentifully.”

Fruit produced. The green, and some other sorts of Pine, Mr. M’Phail “ripened in a shorter period of time than two years after planting,” (Gard. Rem. 87.) but some large kinds he found required three seasons, as the black Antigua, Jamaica, and Ripley. His object was to have his fruit come in for use between May and October, for he very justly remarks, that “the fruit of the Pine Apple, if it happen to appear ripe in winter, will have its flavour insipid.” He therefore recommends, that such plants as show fruit in September or October, had better be cast away, unless there be plenty of room for them in the hot-house; in that case they may be retained by way of experiment, and to obtain young plants from them. (Gard. Rem. 98.)

Sect. VIII. Culture of the Pine Apple in Fifeshire, by Mr. Walter Nicol.

Mr. Nicol was from 1790 to 1800, the best grower of the Pine Apple in Scotland; he had afterwards much experience as a constructor of hot-houses; and extensive observation of the practice of the best gardeners of the north.

Form of House. “Pineries,” he says, “are, and may be, very differently constructed; and we find plants thriving, and plants not thriving, in all kinds of stoves, pits, &c. The culture of Pine Apples is attended with a heavier expense than that of any other fruit under glass; especially if they be grown in lofty stoves, the erection of which is very expensive, and the keeping up proportionally more so, than that of humbler stoves, or flued pits.

“But, independently of all considerations of expense (which may not be valued by some, provided they can obtain good fruit), Pine Apples may certainly be produced in as great perfection, if not greater, and with infinitely less trouble and risk, in flued pits, if properly constructed, than in any other way. I would therefore have the Pinery detached from the other forcing-houses, and to consist of three pits in a range; one for crowns and suckers, one for succession, and one for fruiting plants. The fruiting-pit to be placed in the centre, and the other two, right and left; forming a range of a hundred feet in length; which would give Pine Apples enough for a large family.

“The fruiting-pit to be forty feet long, and ten feet wide, over walls; and each of the others to be thirty feet long, and nine feet wide, also over walls. The breast-wall of the whole to be on a line, and to be eighteen inches above ground. The back-wall of the centre one to be five feet, and of the others, to be four and a half feet higher than the front. The front and end flues to be separated from the bark-bed by a three-inch cavity, and the back flues to be raised above its level.

“The furnaces may either be placed in front, or at the back, according to conveniency; but the strength of the heat should be first exhausted in front, and should return in the back-flues. The fruiting-pit would require two small furnaces, in order to diffuse the heat regularly, and keep up a proper temperature in winter; one to be placed at each end; and either to play, first in front, and return in the back; but the flues to be above, and not alongside of one another; as in that latter way they would take up too much room. The under one to be considered merely as an auxiliary flue, as it would only be wanted occasionally.

“None of these flues need be more than five or six inches wide, and nine or ten deep. Nor need the furnaces be so large by a third, or a fourth part, as those for large forcing-houses; because there should be proper oil-cloth covers for the whole, as guards against severe weather, which would be a great saving of fuel.

“The depth of the pits should be regulated so as that the average depth of the bark-beds may be a yard below the level of the front flues; as to that level the bark will generally settle, although made as high as their surfaces, when new stirred up. If leaves, or a mixture of leaves with dung, are to be used instead of bark, the pits will require to be a foot, or half a yard deeper.

“It may be thought too much to insinuate, that those who have large Pineries should turn them to other purposes, and erect such as are described above. There cannot be a doubt, however, respecting the satisfaction that would follow, if to have good fruit at an easy rate were the object. I have given designs for no other kinds of new Pineries these six years past, but such as these; with some variations respecting extent, however, in order to suit different purses.”

Soil. Vegetable mould, strong brown loam, pigeons’ dung, and shell-marl, are Mr. Nicol’s ingredients. “The vegetable mould used is that from decayed tree-leaves, and those of the oak are to be preferred; but when a sufficient quantity of them cannot be had, a mixture with those of the ash, elm, birch, sycamore, &c. or indeed any that are not resinous, will answer very well. In autumn, immediately as the leaves fall, let them be gathered, and be thrown together into an heap; and let just as much light earth be thrown over them as will prevent them from being blown abroad by the wind. In this state let them lie till May, and then turn them over and mix them well. They will be rendered into mould fit for use by the next spring; but from bits of sticks, &c. being among them, they will require to be sifted before using. Strong brown loam is the next article. This should consist of the sward of a pasture, if possible; which should, previous to using, be well reduced, by exposing it a whole year to the action of the weather. Pigeon-dung, also, that has lain at least two whole years in an heap, has been frequently turned, and well exposed to the weather, is to be used. Likewise shell-marl. And, lastly, sea or river gravel, which should be sifted, and kept in a dry place; such part of it as is about the size of marrowfat peas is to be used. This is the proportion: for crowns and suckers, entire vegetable mould, with a little gravel at bottom, to strike in; afterwards, three-fourths vegetable mould, and one-fourth loam, mixed with about a twentieth part gravel, and two inches entire gravel at bottom, till about a year old. For year-olds, and till shifted into fruiting-pots, one-half vegetable mould, one-half loam; to which add a twentieth part gravel, and as much shell-marl, with three inches clean gravel at bottom. For fruiting-plants, one-half loam, a fourth part vegetable mould, and a fourth part pigeon-dung; to which add marl and gravel as above, and lay three or four inches of clean gravel at bottom. The above compositions are what I formerly used for Pine-plants with much success; and are what may be reckoned good medium soils for the production of Pine Apples.”

General Management. Mr. Nicol plants his suckers in summer and autumn as the fruit is gathered, sticking them into the front part of the bark-bed, “where they will strike root as freely as any where. If a large proportion of the crop come off early, the crowns and suckers may be potted at once, and plunged into the nursing-pit; or they may be twisted from off the stocks, and may be laid by, in a dry shed or loft for a few days, till the other operations in the Pinery be performed, and the nursing-pit be ready to receive them and the crowns, (collected as the fruit have been gathered;) which, if rooted, may be potted, and may be placed for the above time, either in a frame, or in a forcing-house of any kind, as they will sustain no injury, though out of the bark-bed for so short a time. Such crowns as have not struck root, may be laid aside with the suckers.