JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTUEB AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



r iitj », laea. 



plants, I do become tired when, one after another, novelties 

 are produced, and their boautieB are to be recognised ; and as 

 1 began this tour throiigli Mr. Bull's houses at six o'clocjc in 

 the morning, I can safely Fay I was ready for my breakfast 

 when the time came. Many cif the things whidi I have noted 

 will be brought before the jiublic ere long, and I thall not be 

 surprised to lind them much appreciated. All jjraiso is due to 

 those who, like .Mr. Bull, Messrs. Veitch, and others, spare no 

 expense in introducing new plants — doubtless with an eye to 

 their own advantage, but I believe in many cases out of a 

 sincere love for the objects of their care. — O., Vi<d. 



THE nxE ArrLE, 



AND MR. THOMSON'S TREATISE O.N" ITS Cri.TIVATIOX. 



If we look into the history of most of our fruits in the culti- 

 vation of which success depends more upon management than 

 on natural advantages, we shall Hud that from time to time 

 revolutionary changes have taken place in their treatment. 

 The wisdom of some of these wide cleviatious from the beaten 

 track was usually more or less questioned ut the time, but 

 when confirmed by suocess they soon became the general prac- 

 tice. The advert of Keens' Seedling amongst Strawberries 

 was a great stride in the right direction, and that variety has 

 retained its position up to the present day — not but that there 

 are some even older varieties, as the Old Pine, Hautbois, 

 and others still deserving a place ; still none of the period to 

 which I refer has enjoyed so long and well-sustained a reputa- 

 tion. Gooseberries, too, had their period of change, ai\d the 

 first quarter of the present century saw the weifibt of their 

 berries advance from half an ounce or so to nearly four times 

 that weight. This result, however, was effected more gradually 

 than in the case of Keens' Seedling Strawberry, which might 

 be regarded more as a lucky hit ; for careful cultivation and 

 selection from innumerable seedlings were the mtans by which 

 the size of the Gooseberry was so much increased. Other fruits 

 have likewise had their period of improvement — the gulden 

 age in their history. Kow and then, it is true, there are mis- 

 givings about the wisdom of discarding some old favourites, 

 still it is questionable whether the favourite Apples of 18()(i, 

 even if produced in the condition they were in at that time, 

 would not have to succumb to some of the later introductions. 



Taking for granted the improvement effected in the Goose- 

 berry and Strawberry during the last fifty years, the question 

 is, Have other fruits advanced in an equal degree? With most 

 of them some progress has doubtless been made, and especially 

 in the management of the I'iue Ai)ple ; but there is at least 

 one other fruit which can hardly be said to have undeigone 

 any improvement during that period ; on the contrary, we may 

 ask ourselves the serious question if it has not retrograded, and 

 the Peach certainly was giown to os great perfection thirty or 

 forty years ago as now, and with much less trouble, whilst the 

 crop was abundant. Why this should be so is a very grave 

 question deserving of special inquiry ; but as it is my object at 

 present to direct attention to another fruit, I will proceed at 

 once to that subject. 



It is nearly two centuries since the Pine Apple was first 

 introduced into our gardens. Doubtless its extension at that 

 period would be very slow, for apart from the non-existence of 

 those facilities of transit which now bring almost all parts of 

 the United ICingdom within thirty hours' travel of each other, 

 there was in early times a feeling of selfish pride in one person 

 possessing what his neighbour did not. It is not necessary, 

 however, to trace the eaily history of the Pine Apple ; suffice it 

 to fay that the number of places where it was grown nt the 

 beginning of the present century was not great ; but since then, 

 the increa«e of wealth, and a more widely-diffused taste for hor- 

 ticulture, have tended to encourage the cultivation of plants and 

 fruits out of the common way, and the Pine Apple amongst 

 others received its share of attention. Each county could 

 boast of a place where the Piue Apple was said to be well 

 managed, and the young man who had the good fortune to 

 serve his time at that place was considered to possess advan- 

 tages over his fellows. By degrees, however, the culture of 

 this fruit became extended, and the more general diffusion of 

 garden literature enabled most people to comprehend that, after 

 all, no secret was involved in tlie matter, and that no extra- 

 ordinary management was necessary to attain a moderate de- 

 gree of success ; but that the whole affair was one of the pocket, 

 coupled, of course, with some cultural details not difiicult to 

 anderstand. The expensive items being fuel and glass, re- 



coarse was had to fermenting material as a substitnte for the 

 former, the space to bo heated being at the same time limited 

 as much as possible, and it was found that the plant rather 

 liked this than Otherwise. These modes of growing the iroit 

 dale much further back than uiy experience extends, but forty 

 years ago some very good I'ines were grown in Ihigland, and in 

 a manner that is still pursued at many places at the piesent 

 day. 



So popular a fruit as the Pine Apple would not, of course, be 

 cultivated in a few places without struuge stories going forth as 

 to the means n?ed to secure success, and suspicions were enter- 

 tained that beyond what was stated to the general public some- 

 thing of importance was withheld which the outer world were 

 not to be made acquainted with. To help this delusion, mar- 

 vellous results were now and then said to follow certain modes 

 of treatment. Plants were said to have ripened fruit tbkt 

 individually weighed more when cut in the ordinary way with 

 a inches of stalk than the whole of the rest of the plant, as 

 well as the pot and soil in which it was grown. Borne extra- 

 ordinary results have doubtless been accon^disbed. but the 

 dealers in the marvellous had their day, and horticnltural ex- 

 hibitions tended to dissipate false notions about these and 

 other matters ; for at such exhibitions it frequently happened 

 that the produce of a place noted for a Lifetime for its Pines 

 was eclipsed by fruit grown by an exhibitor never before heard 

 of. A good Pine Apple, however, continued to be regarded as 

 the monarch of fruits, and was thought a fitting present to the 

 highest in the land, and it is said that one of a family of note 

 was knighted for some splendid fruit of this kind presented to 

 the reigning prince at a particular time. The last thirty years, 

 however, have witnessed the greatest advance in the culture of 

 this fruit, and from being an object of curiosity rarely seen by 

 the multitude, fruit imported from abroad are hawked aboat 

 the streets, and sold at a halfpenny a-slice, and some of them 

 aie not to be despised for flavour and size. Beforo, however, 

 such fruit had found its way into this countr.: some changes bad 

 come over the management of the Pine A]>ple in our own stoves, 

 and resulted in its cultivation being more fully understood. 



The impetus given to the erection of glass structures by the 

 removal of the duty cannot fairly be said to have been of so 

 much advantage to Pino cultivators as to those engaged in 

 some other branches of gardening, and some of Uie great ad> 

 vances made in the cultivation of the Pine Apple took place 

 before that period. Supplying bottom heat by mea'hs of hot 

 water had been successfully carried cut, and the steady heat 

 afforded to the roots by that mode of communi.cating warmth 

 led to the use of pots being altogether abandoned, the plants 

 being merely planted in the bed which was heated from below, 

 and great and manifold were said to be the advantages of this 

 plan. By-and-by, however, it was found to have disadvantages, 

 and recourse was had to pots again ; but hot water was still used 

 as the medium for supplying bottom heat. Some other inno- 

 vations in Pine-growing were tried, and I believe a Providence 

 Pine upwards of 13 lbs. in weight was grown ■without the nse 

 of fire heat in any way. 



Soils, too, began to attract attention, and as is common in 

 such matters, people went to great extremes. At one time 

 some pinned their faith to charcoal, while another urged brick- 

 dust as being as good as half-burnt wood, and great advantages 

 were said to be derived from peat. This was strongly recom- 

 mended in consequence of such extraordinary results attending 

 its use in France, where it was stated frmt excoeiling in weight 

 any that had ever been grown in England were produced by the 

 use of this material. The reign of peat, however, was not a 

 long one, neither was it saccessful to any gieat extent, and 

 growers had again to fall back on their own resources, and 

 to adopt for themselves such substances as best suited their 

 particular cases. In the latter view of the matter they were 

 materially assisted by an excellent paper contributed by Mr. 

 Barnes to one of the last numbers of Loudon's " Gardener's 

 Magazine," which was backed by some remarkable fruit ob- 

 tained by the means he advocated. On the subject of soils, 

 Mr. Banies startled many who thought that mixtures of some 

 half a dozen materials carefully and accurately compounded were 

 abFolutely necessary to anything like success, while the sub- 

 stance which he nsed for potting his plants was obtained from 

 some moorland of very indifferent character. Mr. Barnes 

 affirmed at the time, that land that would grow good Wheat 

 would produce good Pine Apples ; and certainly some very fine 

 Queen Pines were sent by him to the metropolitan shows up- 

 wards of twenty j-ears ago. This, as well as tho other results 

 above recorded, all happened prior to the cheapening of glat* 



