THE PINE-APPLE. 23 



of pits to remain undisturbed for six or seven years 

 at a time. I have always found, where tan is easily 

 got, that the safest and best way is to sift the tan 

 once a-year, and mix in with the old a few inches of 

 fresh tan, which raises a steady and sufficient amount 

 of bottom-heat. A bed so managed is far more under 

 control than when the leaves and tan are annually or 

 even biennially renewed entirely. All this labour in 

 preparing beds is dispensed with where the bottom-heat 

 is supplied by a well-regulated system of hot water 

 and the labour connected with the shifting and arrang- 

 ing of pines in spring or any other season is much 

 lessened and simplified. 



Supposing that I am now treating of Queens that 

 are required to fruit early in the following year, to 

 supply ripe fruit in May and June little more than 

 eighteen months from the time they were taken as 

 suckers from their parent plants I prefer shifting 

 them into their fruiting-pots at once, instead of giving 

 them two small shifts. Indeed, the size of pots into 

 which they have been potted as suckers, and those into 

 which I shift them for fruiting, admit only of one shift 

 without reducing the balls. The strongest plants in 

 8 -inch are shifted into pots 12 inches wide and as 

 many deep, and those in 6 -inch into 11 -inch pots. 

 These sizes are sufficient for the production of the very 

 finest pines. Fine fruit is not dependent on size of pot 

 so much as on other points of culture/ I have had 

 fine crops in 9 -inch pots, but they require more atten- 

 tion in watering. And what is of no small conse- 

 quence, especially to those who have a regular supply 

 of fruit to keep up from limited accommodation, it is 

 found that pine plants grown in comparatively small 

 pots are much more manageable in the way of getting 



