THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 103 



As regards vermin, they rarely occur where good culture is the 

 rule, and plenty of humidity in the pine pits, particularly in those 

 for the young stuff. Syringing and plenty of ammonia in the atmo- 

 sphere from dung-linings, etc., will soon get rid of scale; but if a 

 collection is badly infested with it, the best way is to put all the plants 

 in a strong fire, and consume them — emptying, thoroughly white- 

 washing, and painting the pit, and beginning again with young 

 plants, or old ones from some place where a clean stock is preserved. 



I must say a word on shading, as really the way in which some 

 people run about with mats and shading material, when the sun does 

 come out in our phlegmatic clime, is quite ridiculous. Can anything 

 be more lamentable than to see the pine ground, or the melon 

 ground, or any other space devoted to hothouses, pits, or frames, 

 covered with decaying bass mats and ragged canvas, which the first 

 stiff breeze sends fluffing about in all directions ? Tet, how common 

 it is to see all this ! I hardly ever shade my pines, except, perhaps, 

 for a few days alter summer potting. Is it likely that a plant coming 

 from the scorching regions in which the pine luxuriates in a wild 

 state would hurt from the little sun our glass houses and clouds 

 afford it, if right at the root and in all other respects ? No ; the 

 shading is part of the miserable practice that prevailed thirty years 

 ago, when it was orthodox to keep the pine three years before per- 

 mitting it to fruit — when it was disrooted annually in some places — 

 and, in short, treated in the worst possible way to secure a perfect 

 and an early fruiting plant. About that time I found that, if well 

 fed and encouraged, the pineapple grew away winter and summer, 

 and came to a splendid fruiting state in about half the time required, 

 by our " great pine-growers " of the period. I tried to find some- 

 thing hard, or something nasty, or something poisonous, in the 

 interior of my fine-looking fruit, grown as it was in an unorthodox 

 and impertinent way ; but I really could not discover how my fruit 

 was inferior to the best ever grown by the tedious three-year-old 

 process ; and then I ventured to write to " Loudon's Magazine," 

 where my views were welcomed by its able editor, and since about 

 that time pine culture has become very much simplified, and very 

 much more satisfactory. 



As regards the potting, I always do the summer work near the 

 soil-stacks on fine warm days. Clean pots are, of course, used ; hollow 

 crocks being placed methodically over the bottom, and a few rough 

 lumps of charcoal, then a few fibrous lumps of soil, with a sprinkling 

 of chimney soot, after which the soil is added to the requisite height 

 to receive the plant. I also put a few lumps of charcoal through 

 my loam, and nothing else do I make use of at any time of the year. 

 I pot and repot at all seasons, without which a regular supply of 

 fruit cannot be had. The greatest portion of my plants get but 

 one shift. After a strong sucker is well rooted i3 the time we 

 generally choose to pop it into its fruiting pot, but there are seasons 

 and circumstances when this rule must be modified. 



