PINEAPPLES. 325 



early season, when fruits are rare, the gratification 

 would be the greater. 



THE PINERY. 



A complete pinery should consist of three dis- 

 tinct pits, or compartments (see page 277,) one for 

 crowns and suckers, one for succession, and a third 

 for fruiting plants ; because, at certain seasons, the 

 plants require a different treatment, and the com- 

 partments require to be kept at different tempera- 

 tures. I shall therefore suppose that there are three 

 compartments, and that the plants are grown in pots; 

 which, in my opinion, is a better method than that 

 of planting them out on a bed of earth. 



Pines do certainly not require so strong a bottom 

 heat as many keep them in ; yet there is something 

 in a mild tan heat, so congenial to their natures, 

 that 'they thrive much better in pots plunged in a 

 bark-bed, if properly managed, than when planted 

 out on a bed of earth that is heated, and often 

 scorched, by under flues. 



When tanner's bark is difficult to be procured, 

 and where oak and other tree leaves are to be had 

 in plenty, the bed may be composed chiefly of leaves, 

 or of a mixture of leaves with stable-litter ; using 

 only a little bark (fifteen or eighteen inches), in 

 which to plunge the pots. But in using leaves, or 

 leaves mixed with litter, they must always be well 

 fermented, and the rank heat extracted out of them 

 before they are made up into a bed for the plants. 



Even in using bark alone > it should be well sweat- 

 ed, and often be turned over, previous to putting it in- 



