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THE CULTIVATION OP THE PINEAPPLE. 

 In Two Chapters. — No. I. 



BY JAMES BARNES, 

 Head Gardener to Lady Kolle, Bicton. 



OME young gardeners have an idea that we old pine- 

 growers are stored with strange secrets, and when they 

 see our well-finished pines on the exhibition table, a 

 pang of envy sometimes possesses them, instead of a 

 passion of emulation. I must be now one of the oldest 

 pine-growers in the country, and if I testify that in the course of 

 my time pine-growing has undergone great changes, it will be some- 

 thing towards dispelling the almost unpardonable notion, that there 

 are secrets to be learnt, or that we who have led the way in improve- 

 ment have any desire to carry with us our knowledge to the grave. 

 No, no ; I can call to mind the time when annual disrooting was 

 practised, and shading was considered essential, and powerful stimu- 

 lants were employed, in the hope thereby of counteracting the 

 destructive practices that were prompted by ignorance, but which 

 only added to the evil it was intended to remedy. Truly, the times 

 change, and we change with them. But, my young friends, remember, 

 plants do not change ; the constitution of the pine is the same now 

 as when it first came to these shores, and if we are to grow it, we 

 must know something about that constitution and its requirements. 

 When I have taken the principal prizes for finished pines, at such 

 meetings as those at Regent's Park, my friends have pressed me to 

 tell them something of my practice, and I have said just what I say 

 now to you. Success in pine-growing can only be accomplished by 

 adapting the cultivation to the natural requirements of the plant. 

 "Well, you ask, what are those natural requirements ? Well, read 

 some good books of travel, or some trustworthy account of the pro- 

 ducts of the West Indies, and you will learn that the pine grows on 

 sandy slopes, in the most intense sunshine that, perhaps, anywhere 

 falls upon this bonny world. There, my young friend, is the key to 

 your success, if you can see it. 



The pine is not at all particular as to soil. The stuff found best 

 in practice is a good surface loam, without any manure. Pines from 

 these gardens that have taken prizes over the heads of some of the 

 best growers in the country, were grown in nothing stronger than 

 turfy loam, with a little charcoal and soot. People who employ 

 stimulants do sometimes succeed in obtaining large fruits, and with 

 even well-coloured pips ; but, alas ! if the fruit is as black as ink in 

 the centre, of what value is it ? I always select my soil from some 

 spot on the common where the loam is pretty stiff, and during the 

 long days of summer, mowing off with an old scythe, the furze, 

 heath, and other coarse vegetation, if it be too long. I then chop it 

 np into sods, about two inches thick, with a long mattock, let it lie 

 to dry for a few days, when it is carted home and placed in the soil 



