CULTURE OP THE PINE-APPLE. 



419 



1769 Mr. John Giles, the gardener to Lady Boyd at Lewisham, in 

 Kent, published the first formal treatise on the culture of the pine- 

 apple in England, which also contained a plan of a pinery heated with 

 tan and flues. This treatise was followed by another in 1769, by Mr. 

 Adam Taylor, of Devizes. Pine-growing was reckoned of such im- 

 portance that it was brought before the Royal Society by W. Bastard, 

 Esq., of Shotley, Devon, in 1779. Speechley's treatise followed two 

 years later. This was followed by another from Mr. W. Griffin in 

 1806, and by that of Mr. J. Baldwin in 1818. Loudon, with his usual 

 industry, collected all that had been previously written upon this 

 matter, and offered his contribution to pine culture in 1822, in the 

 form of a volume on the different modes of cultivating the pine- 

 apple. Mr. Knight about the same period treated the subject in the 

 1 Horticultural Transactions.' About twenty-five years later the 

 modern authors, Glendinning, Hamilton, Mill, Barnes, Forsyth, and 

 others appeared, ending with Mr. David Thomson, the last of the list 

 of famous authors on this subject. 



With such a formidable list of authors the modern pine-grower is in 

 some danger of foundering his cultural barque, boldly launched to 

 reach the fair haven of success, and may be grateful to us for classifying 

 and arranging the matter for him with a fulness and a distinctness that 

 has probably not yet been reached by any single writer. The subject 

 may be conveniently and perspicuously arranged and treated of in the 

 following order : 



Soils. 



Houses and pits. 

 Modes of heating. 

 Times and manner of potting. 

 Watering of root and top. 

 Manures. 

 Shading. 



Temperature (day and night, sum- 

 mer and winter). 

 Propagation. 

 Selection of varieties. 

 Age of the fruiting-plants. 

 Pot versus the open-bed system. 

 The Hamiltonian system. 



Expedients for enlarging the size 



and improving the quality of 



the fruit. 



Making the plants show fruit. 

 Retarding of the fruit. 

 Preservation of ripe pines. 

 What constitutes a good pine. 

 Weight of the finest fruit. 

 Insects to prevent and destroy. 

 Diseases and malformation, and 



their remedies. 

 Monthly doings amongst pines 



throughout the year. 

 Pine-growing in the open air. 



Selection of Soils. Though the pine-apple is found in very sandy 

 soils, it may not be always best to choose such soils for growing or 

 fruiting the plants under cultivation. The plant will grow well in 

 almost any soil, as is sufficiently proved by the fact that almost every 

 grower and writer has recommended some particular mixture for it. 

 Amid these endless nostrums, pure peat in France and pure fibrous loam 

 in England have been the most popular and most generally used. The 

 former is too light, and the latter too heavy. Between these two 

 extremes everything has been tried. Hamilton used nothing but half- 



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