Book I. COMPENDIUM OF A COURSE OF CULTURE. 537 



with a squirt, until all is fairly wet ; and what runs down the stem of the fruit will kill all the insects that 

 are amongst the bottom of the leaves. When young plants are infested, take them out of their pots, and 

 shaking all the earth from the roots (tying the leaves of the largest plants together), plunge them into 

 the above mixture, keeping every part covered for the space of five minutes ; then take them out, and set 

 them on a clean place, with their tops declining downwards, for the mixture to drain out of their centre. 

 When the plants are dry, put them into smaller pots than before, and plunge them into the bark-bed. 

 {Tr. on the Pine, p. 84.) 



2913. Baldwin's recipe. Take horse-dung from the stable, the fresher the better, sufficient to make up 

 a hot-bed three feet high to receive a melon-frame three feet deep at the back ; put on the frame and 

 lights immediately, and cover the whole with mats, to bring up the heat. When the bed is at the strong- 

 est heat, take some faggots, open them, and spread the sticks over the surface of the bed on the dung, so 

 as to keep the plants from being scorched; set the plants or suckers, bottom uppermost, on the sticks; 

 shut down your lights quite close, and cover them over well with double mats, to keep in the steam ; 

 let the plants remain in this state one hour, then take out the plants, and wash them in a tub of cold 

 water, previously brought to the side of your bed ; then set them in a dry place, with their tops down- 

 wards, to drain, and afterwards plant them. This treatment is sure to kill every insect. You will observe 

 likewise, that the crowns and suckers in the beds heated by linings of dung without fire-heat, will have 

 all their insects killed, or be kept free of them, if they were clean when planted, by the effluvia of the dung. 

 {Cult. ofAnan,33.) 



2914. Miller's recipe. Miller recommends turning the plants out of the pots, and cleaning the roots ; 

 then keeping them immersed for four-and-twenty hours in water in which tobacco-stalks have been in- 

 fused : the bugs are then to be rubbed off with a sponge, and the plants, after being washed in clean water 

 and dripped, are to be repotted. Muirhead, a gardener in the north of Scotland, has described a similar 

 mode (Caled. Horf. Soc. Men?, i. p. 209.), only in the place of tobacco-juice, he directs flowers of sulphur to 

 be mixed with the water. With a bit of bass mat fixed on a small stick, and dipt in water, he displaces as 

 many of the insects as he can see. He then immerses the plants in a tub of water, containing about 1 lb. 

 of flowers of sulphur to each garden-potful. They remain covered with the water for twenty-four hours, 

 as described by Miller. They are then laid with their tops downward to dry, and are repotted in the usual 

 manner. What share of the cure in either cf these ways may be due to the sulphur or to the tobacco- 

 liquor does not clearly appear ; the rubbing off or loosening the insects is evidently important; and it is 

 not unlikely that immersion in simple water, so long continued, may alone be sufficient to destroy them. 

 Indeed, the experience of one of the best practical gardeners in Scotland (Hay), leads him to conclude, 

 that even moderate moisture is destructive to these insects. During many years, he regularly watered 

 his pine-plants over head with the squirt, during the summer-months: this was done only in the 

 evening; it never injured the plants ; and the bug never appeared upon them. (Ed. Encyc. art. Hort.) 



2915. Knight's suggestion. " Baldwin recommends the steam of hot fermenting horse-dung : I con- 

 clude the destructive agent, in this case, is ammoniacal gas ; which Sir Humphry Davy informed me he 

 had found to be instantly fatal to every species of insect ; and if so, this might be obtained at a small ex- 

 pense, by pouring a solution of crude muriate of ammonia upon quick-lime ; the stable, or cow-house, 

 would afford an equally efficient, though less delicate, fluid. The ammoniacal gas might, I conceive, be 

 impelled, by means of a pair of bellows, amongst the leaves of the infected plants, in sufficient quantity to 

 destroy animal, without injuring vegetable life : and it is a very interesting question to the gardener, 

 whether his hardy enemy, the red spider, will bear it with impunity." 



2916. Cleansing and refitting the house. Every department of the pinery must be kept 

 at all times sweet and clean. At the period of removing sets of plants (or oftener, if 

 necessary) that have completed specific stages, purify the house thoroughly, and have 

 the flues swept, the plaster white-washed, the wood-work and glass washed at all 

 events, and the latter painted, if necessary, all broken glass mended, and every other 

 substantia], or casual reparation effected. If insects are supposed to be harbored in 

 the building, the following wash is to be introduced with a brush into the cracks and 

 joints of the wood-work, and the crevices of the wall : " Of sulphur vivum, take 2 oz. ; 

 soft soap, 4 oz. Make these into a lather, mixed with a gallon of water that has been 

 poured in a boiling state upon a pound of mercury. The mercury will last to medicate 

 fresh quantities of water almost perpetually." (Abercrombk.) 



Subsect. 9. Compendium of a Course of Culture. 



2917. The following judicious summary of practice, from the planting of the crown to 

 the cutting of the fruit, is given by Abercrombie. The dates are arbitrary; but 

 specific days or months must be assumed to mark anniversary and other periods. 



2918. Nursing-jnt. Aug. 15. 1813. Crowns and suckers planted. 



Oct. 30. 1813. If the plants, from forward growth, require more room, some are removed to another 

 pit, and the remainder set at increased distances. 



March 30. 1814. Such plants as want it are shifted. Plants of the same standing are now sometimes 

 distributed to houses where the treatment differs, as the plant is expected to fruit at the end of two or 

 three years. 1. The large black varieties require three years' culture. 2. Crowns and fruit-suckers are 

 seldom so forward as suckers from the stem. The last, indeed, commonly grow too vigorously, and do 

 best under a moderate excitement during the first two stages. 



2919. Three-year fruiting plants. Nursing-pit. May, 1814. Plants intended to complete a year in this 

 pit, are repotted ; having the ball of earth shaken away, and all the old root-fibres pruned off. 



2920. Succession-pit. Aug. 15. 1814. Plants that have been in the nursing-pit the previous year, are 

 shifted and transferred to this house. 



2921. Fruiting-house. Aug. 1815. Plants which have consumed one year in the nursing-pit, and a 

 second year in the succession-house, are removed to this department. 



Aug. 1. 1816. Fruit ripe. 



2922. Two-year fruiting plants. Succession-pit. March 30. 1814. Plants from the nursing-pit are put 

 into larger pots ; and brought for culture here, as directed under this division. 



May or June, 1814. Succession pines are sometimes intermediately shifted, without disturbing the 

 balls of earth. 



2923. Fruiting-house. Aug. 15. 1814. Plants from the succession-pit, having consumed one year in the 

 first and second stages, are shifted into the largest-sized pots, to be treated as under this head. 



Aug. 1. 1815. Having been cultivated as under fruiting-house, the ripe fruit is fit to cut. 



