36 BRITISH MODES OF CULTIVATING 



Soil. " As to the earth in which Pines should be 

 planted, if you have a rich good kitchen-garden mould, 

 not too heavy, so as to detain the moisture too long, 

 nor over light and sandy, it will be very proper for 

 them without any mixture : but where this is want- 

 ing, you should procure some fresh earth from a 

 good pasture, which should be mixed with about 

 a third part of rotten neats' dung, or the dung of an 

 old melon or cucumber bed, which is well con- 

 sumed. These should be mixed six or eight months 

 at least before they are used, but if it be a year, it 

 will be the better ; and should be often turned, that 

 their parts may be the better united, as also the 

 clods well broken. This earth should not be 

 screened very fine, but only cleared of the great 

 stones. You should always avoid mixing any sand 

 with the earth, unless it be extremely stiff, and then 

 it will be necessary to have it mixed at least six 

 months or a year before it is used : and it must be 

 frequently turned, that the sand may be incorpor- 

 ated in the earth, so as to divide its parts ; but you 

 should not put more than a sixth part of sand, for 

 too much is very injurious to these plants. 



General Management. " There are some persons 

 who frequently shift these plants from pot to pot; 

 but this is by no means to be practised by those who 

 propose to have large well-flavoured fruit : for un- 

 less the pots be rilled with the roots by the time 

 the plants begin to show their fruit, they commonly 

 produce small fruit, which have generally large 

 crowns on them j therefore the plants will not re- 



