28d PINE CULTURE IN SOUTH WALES. 



and long-leaved varieties of Queens are useless, and should be 

 thrown away directly the fruit is cut, and another rule should be 

 observed in private establishments, and that is never to grow 

 more suckers than you require fruiting-plants, for if the suckers 

 receive no check from the time they are taken from the mother 

 plant until they are fully established and ready to fruit, it is cer- 

 tainly much better than that they should have formed part of a 

 plant half-starved in their infancy, and many of which have 

 already been thrown aside as useless. A good foundation pro- 

 perly carried out is the rule to observe in Pine-growing as in all 

 other plant-growing ; there must be no makeshift, but the atten- 

 tion must be continuous and at the proper time. At Aberdare 

 Mr. Floud had had the curiosity to weigh some of the plants from 

 which he had cut fruit, and the proximity in weight of fruit and 

 plant was very remarkable. Plants of Queens producing fruit 

 Si lbs. to 4i lbs., generally weighing about the same, the differ- 

 ence rarely exceeding half-a-pound, sometimes in favour of and 

 sometimes against the fruit. 



These results were fi'om pot-grown plants planted out to fruit, 

 but I suspect plants fruited in pots would generally exceed the 

 fruit in weight, partly from the fact of planted out plants pro- 

 ducing the largest fruit, but more from the increased quantity of 

 water necessary to swell fruit in pots, rendering the plants 

 heavier. It would be singular if the simple fact narrated above 

 should ultimately establish a rule by which, under good manage- 

 ment, the size of plants should be a certain index of the weight 

 of the fruit. I say under good management, by which I do not 

 mean the largest plants, but plants in which at the time of fruit- 

 ing, size, vigour, and maturity are relative terms. Such a result 

 may be ranked among probabilities, and good Pine-growers would 

 render a service in noting under their own management the 

 experiment which Mr. Floud has commenced. 



It will thus be perceived, that in Wales Pines are grown in 

 first-rate style in various localities, in different soils and composts, 

 but always with the same or a similar result, and I see no reason 

 ■why other parts of the country should not produce equally good 

 fruit if the same pains were taken. To sum up in a few words, 

 the Welsh system may be said to consist of the following points : — 



First. A thoroughly established sucker carried forward to its 

 fullest development without the slightest check. 



Secondly. Complete maturation of the plants by an abundant 

 admission of air both day and night in favourable weather, which 



