116 BRITISH MODES OF CULTIVATING 



faggots, open them, and spread the sticks over 

 the surface of the bed on the dung, so as to keep 

 the plants from being scorched ; set the plants or 

 suckers bottom uppermost on the sticks ; shut 

 down your lights quite close, and cover them over 

 well with double mats, to keep in the steam. Let 

 the plants remain in this state one hour, then take 

 out the plants and wash them in cold water previ- 

 ously brought to the side of your bed, set them in 

 a dry place with their tops downwards to drain, 

 and afterwards plant them. This treatment is sure 

 to kill every insect. You will observe likewise, that 

 if your suckers are kept in the frames all the win- 

 ter, stuck in the tan without soil or fire, the effluvia 

 from the linings are sure to kill all the bugs." Cul- 

 ture of the Ananas, p. 33. 



Fruit Produced. The general crop is produced 

 in the usual season, viz. from June to September, 

 or October ; but some are produced every month in 

 the year. The large sorts, as the New Providence, 

 &c. require three years to bring them to perfection, 

 but the Old Queen, and Ripley's New Queen, may 

 be brought to perfection in three months ; though 

 from the circumstances requisite to render this practi- 

 cable, viz. plants fruiting in February, or the be- 

 ginning of March, it must be considered more a 

 matter of accident or curiosity than of any real ad- 

 vantage. It is evident, at all events, that it can 

 never become general ; for certainly no gardener 

 would desire all his plants to come into fruit in 

 February or March. Mr. Baldwin grows his fruit 



