46 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



a set of pines that have been drawn and are not likely 

 to be got to fruit satisfactorily, I have treated them in 

 this way instead of throwing them away, as is often done 

 in such circumstances. 



THE PLANTING-OUT SYSTEM. 



Although I have given a good deal of attention to 

 the planting-out system of pine-culture, and made my- 

 self acquainted with the most successful instances of 

 its adoption, I have very seldom adopted it. Not that 

 I suppose fine fruit are not produced by it : facts prove 

 the contrary. But with the space at my command I 

 have decided that, to keep up the supply which I have 

 produced nearly every week in the year, I could more 

 certainly do so on the pot system than by having the 

 plants planted out in beds. Plants in pots are entirely 

 under control at all times, for being moved or removed 

 to force forward or retard the ripening of fruit as cir- 

 cumstances demand. This is of vast importance where 

 the space in pine-beds is small in proportion to the de- 

 mand for fruit, and in this respect pines in pots give 

 an advantage over the open bed. Neither do I con- 

 sider it necessary to have finer fruit than can be pro- 

 duced from 9, 11, and 12 inch pots. In fact, it is not 

 the size of pot, nor the greater range that the planting- 

 out system gives to the roots, that are the principal 

 points of good pine-culture. 



The planting -out system may be practised either 

 over a bed of leaves or with hot water for bottom-heat. 

 The best example of this system that I have ever seen 

 was at the Eoyal Gardens, Frogmore ; and there, a 

 bed of leaves for bottom-heat is preferred to hot-water 

 pipes. The suckers are not potted, but planted at once 



