Foreign J^otices. 431 



serve the pines untouched, in order to obtain from them, by sawins, no- 

 ble planks for general purposes. When operated on as related above, 

 they are only fit for vine-])rops, though these are certainly of first-rate 

 quality. Resin is produced from the maritime pine, but from the j)ine 

 syivestris nothing has been obtained, even when they were four feet in 

 circumference: [)erhaps they were still too young. The most curious 

 part of this matter is, that the Minister who commenced this experiment 

 with so nnich eagerness, finished by paying no more attention to it, and 

 by refusing M. Larminat the means of manipulating the raw produce 

 which had l)een obtained. After many applications without an answer, 

 M. Larmiiiut received at last an order to forward all the resinous matter 

 to the general gas depot at Paris; and six months after he had dispatch- 

 ed his last ton, he received another order enjoining him to take particn- 

 bir C'lre of the resin, and to be sure and not allow the great heat (in 1825) 

 to produce evaporation of thj essential j)arts! We may conclude from 

 this fact, and a hundred others, that when experiments are made, with- 

 out having personal interest for a motive, they rarely succeed. (^Hort, 

 Jour.) 



Cullttre of Pine-apples loilhout Fire. — A treatise on this subject has 

 lately been pul)lished by M. Guidon, giving an account of his mode of 

 proceeding for some years past. His plan, he decfares, is recommenda- 

 ble for its economy, as the chief expense is for a frame of wood, which 

 any gardener can construct for himself The first attempts of the au- 

 thor were directed towards rearing })ine-apples in the open air. He does 

 not detail the diflferent experiments which he has tried; he merely de- 

 clares that he has tried every possible method without, as we must pre- 

 sume, tneetino with much success. It does not ajjpear that he has made 

 trial of the only method, the success of which was altogether satisfacto- 

 ry. It consists of a plank raised three or four feet above the ground, 

 and on them a covering of good earth of about ten or twelve inches deep. 

 In this are planted the ananas with the roots naked, or covered with a 

 lump of earth. Below this platform good dung is placed and rammed 

 close. This produces heat as from a hot-bed, and must be renewed, or 

 stirred up, as often as it is found necessary to reanimate the heat. Last 

 of all, care must be taken to keep up the heat at a temperature suitable 

 to each season by means of flues and stoves, as is customary. This is 

 the plan |)ractised in the royal garden at Versailles, and enormous pine- 

 aj)ples are thus produced. 



The frame which M. Guidon makes use of, is about five feet and a 

 half wide, four feet antl a half high behind, and four feet high in front. 

 The planks forming the sides are pierced with four rows of holes, about 

 a f)ot distant from each other. He fills the frame with a bed of new 

 dung, without any mixture of leaves, covers this bed with about six inch- 

 es of light composition of leaves, or light manure, and when the tem- 

 perature of the bed is of a proper heat, he places his pine-apples in pots 

 and plunges them into the frame. All around the frame, at about two 

 feet distance, there is placed a wall somewhat lower; and this interval of 

 two feet is filled with new dung, the same as that inside the frame, which 

 in fact forms a sort of heated fliie all round, and the heat of which, escap- 

 ing by the holes mentioned above, spreads itself inside the frame, to the 

 benefit of the plants. This interval is covered with a plank to prevent 

 the evaporation of the heat, and it inclines outwardly toIetoflTrain from 

 the frame. M. Guidon speaks strongly aarainst forcing pine-apples to 

 fruit during winter. As he makes no use of fire, it is understood that he 

 renews his beds, and his manure outside, oftener than is customary in 

 establlshnients where a heating apparatus is used. The author remarks 

 that the pine-apples are nmch finer from the moist heat of a bed and a 

 quantity of manure outside, than from the dry warmth of a stove. He 

 also declares that the moist and vaporous heat of the hot-bed destroys 



