62 BRITISH MODES OF CULTIVATING 



care should be taken to leave bandage-room suf- 

 ficient, making allowance for the swelling of the 

 fruit. 



When the suckers are grown to about one foot 

 in length, they should be taken off in the same 

 manner that has been described; and from that 

 time the fruit will swell very fast. As soon as the 

 fruit appears full swelled, the watering such plants 

 as produce them should cease : but it is too gene- 

 ral a practice (in order to have the fruit as large as 

 can be got) to continue the watering too long ; 

 which causes the fruit to be filled with an insipid, 

 watery, and ill-flavoured juice. 



It is easy to know when the Pine becomes ripe 

 by its yellow colour ; yet they do not all change in 

 the same manner, but most generally begin at the 

 lower part of the fruit. Such fruit should not be 

 cut till the upper part also begins to change, which 

 sometimes will be many days after, especially in 

 the Sugar-loaf kinds. Sometimes the fruit will first 

 begin to change in the middle, which is a certain 

 indication of its being ripe : such fruit should be 

 cut immediately. 



Having thus laid down the culture of the Pine- 

 apple plant, whether raised from seed, by crowns, 

 or suckers, to its final perfection in the fruit, I 

 shall now subjoin some hints and observations; most 

 of which, I hope, will be of use. 



In treating of the culture of the Pine-apple 

 plant, some persons have recommended the shift- 

 ing of the plants, from first to last, with their balls 



12 



