118 BRITISH MODES OF CULTIVATING 



of October, and laid upon the surface of the bed 

 one foot thick of good earth, and turned out of 

 their pots fine Pine Apple plants, intended to fruit 

 the succeeding year, and I set the plants into the 

 earth on the surface of the bed with the balls of 

 earth about their roots undisturbed. In this situa- 

 tion they grew exceedingly well, and shewed fruit 

 very strong, but the heat in the bed under them 

 became too faint in the month of April : and with 

 all the atmospherical heat that I could give them, 

 the fruit did not ripen well for want of heat to the 

 roots of the plants ; and I was not able to contrive 

 any method to recruit it, which required to be done 

 in the month of March or April. 



" According to the foregoing account, this cele- 

 brated and experienced gardener plants the suckers 

 of the Pine Apple in the latter end of September, 

 and he divests them of all their roots in the month 

 of April. In this method of process I must differ 

 from him, because the young plants have only six 

 months (being the slowest growing months of the 

 year) to make roots, and then these roots are en- 

 tirely cut off, which considerably retards the plants 

 in their growth. And, according to his method, 

 and mine also, the queen and some other sorts of 

 the Pine, ripen their fruit in a shorter period of 

 time than two years after planting. He says, he 

 never waters his Pine plants in the broad-cast way 

 over their heads and leaves. In this I also differ 

 with him, for I think, giving the plants water all 

 over their leaves occasionally, especially in hot 



