352 FORCING GARDEN. 



without pots, where they remain till the following spring. 

 In general the offsets should be as large as possible. 

 Speechlj did not break off his suckers before they were 

 twelve or fourteen inches long, and he reserved only the 

 largest crowns. These large suckers and crowns grow 

 with greater rapidity, and come sooner into fruit, than 

 those of smaller size ; and in this, in truth, consists the 

 principal secret of what has been called the short method 

 of culture, by which fruit is obtained in a much briefer space 

 of time than usual. The soil employed in propagation is 

 rather lighter than that afterwards applied The pots 

 may be from three to six inches in diameter, and, to pro- 

 mote draining, should contain at bottom a layer of shivers 

 or clean gravel. For some time the plants are shaded 

 from the rays of the sun, and in about eight or ten days 

 they receive a little water. It may be laid down as an im- 

 portant general rule, in the culture of the pine-apple, that 

 the progress of the plant should be carried on without in- 

 termission — without a check, without allowing it to flag 

 for an hour. As already stated, the older and more com- 

 mon routine of pine-apple culture embraced a period of 

 three years ; but recent improvements have reduced these 

 to two years, or even to eighteen months. This has given 

 rise to two modes of preparatory management, which we 

 shall notice separately, premising that the treatment in the 

 fruiting-house is the same in both. 



Triennial course. — The plants which were potted in 

 autumn are kept in the nursing pit during winter, with a 

 mild temperature, slight bottom-heat, and sparing allow- 

 ance of water. About the beginning of April they are 

 transferred into larger pots, and are commonly shifted into 

 hotbeds, or pits heated with stable-dung, in which they 

 are found to prosper exceedingly. Air is given every day, 



