720 Hetrospective Criticism. 



yourself Conductor, or my character, will suffer, is a question deserving 

 your most serious consideration. The supposed motives of some persons, 

 who are supj)osed to have an interest in your publication, are suspected, 

 by some persons, not to be the purest possible. I shall have occasion to 

 address myself again to the Horticultural Society, upon the subject both of 

 potatoes and pine-apples ; and if you choose to persist in your present 

 course, I shall show you that I have the power to bear you down by un- 

 answerable facts. 



You have called upon me to name some of the gardeners who have be- 

 come convents to my opinions and practice respecting the culture of pine- 

 apples ; and therefore, though I would not, as I conclude you well knew, 

 descend to name them in your Magazine, I now do so in a private letter, 

 confining myself wholly to strangers, whom I had never before seen, and 

 over whom I cannot have any hifiucnce, and I give the names of all such 

 persons who have visited my garden, during the last summer and autumn. 

 Mr. Boughton, an eminent nurseryman of Worcester. Mr. Stroud, who 

 has long been in the service, and now travels for, Mr. Miller of Bristol. 

 Both Mr. Boughton and Mr. Miller cultivate pine-apples for sale. The 

 gardeners of — Childe, Esq., of Kinlett, Salop, and of — Hopton,Esq., of 

 Cannonfrome, Herefordshire ; both these gentlemen are entire strangers to 

 me. — Mr. Bennett, gardener to Sir Harford Jones Bridges of Boltibrook, 

 near Presteigne, Radnorshire ; and as you have called upon Mr. Mearns, I 

 would mention him ; but I have been informed that he has written to you, 

 certainly not owing to any desire or instigation upon my part. Any one or 

 all of these would, I believe, say, if required to speak, that they never 

 saw pine-apple plants finer, or so fine, of the same age, and confined to 

 the same narrow limits; nor fruit, under the above-mentioned circum- 

 stances, more perfect. I have already told you that Mr. Knight of the 

 Botanic Garden, King's Road, had seen my houses. I remain. Sir, your 

 obedient servant, — T. A. Knight. 



With respect to the pine-apple we are now, what we never were before, 

 perfectly convinced that Mr. Knight's pine-apples look exceedingly well ; 

 we have no doubt in our own minds, from the various evidence contained 

 in our present Number, that they look as well as those grown by any of 

 the ordinary modes. We do not conceive that we owe any apology to Mr. 

 Knight, or to our readers, for not having been convinced sooner ; no man is to 

 be convinced without evidence ; the truth is, we never before met with a 

 single individual who had seen them, who did not report very difTerently. 

 The nurserymen we alluded to are perfectly well known : if, from the 

 insinuation of Mr. Knight (p, 719.), any reader should doubt our word in 

 this matter, on proper application we shall give him the names of the indi- 

 viduals. We repeat that we are perfectly satisfied that Mr. Knight's 

 pines look as well as can possibly' be desired, which is one point gained ; 

 the next will be to determine the eligibility of his mode of culture, which 

 we shall leave to be done entirely by others, only taking care to mark the 

 results, and lay them before our readers as they occur. 



In regard to the potato experiment, we refer to our correspondent, an 

 East Lothian Farmer, one of the most enlightened and intelligent in Scot- 

 land (p. 608.), and merely state that we think Mr. Knight ought to have 

 stated, in his communication to the Society, what he has now stated, as to 

 the quantity of ground estimated from. Unless this be done, we appeal to 

 every practical man whether a satisfactory conclusion can be drawn from 

 the experiment. But, as unfortunately an appearance of bad feeling has 

 some way or other got into this correspondence, though we can say with 

 truth that nothing of the kind exists in our heart, we now put a stop to 

 this appearance by printing Mr. Knight's communication at length, in 

 parallel columns, with our own abridgement of it. — Cvnd. 



