iji the Hoyal Kitchen-Garden at N2^mphe7ibui-g. 429 



is loosened (an operation which is rather difficult), and fresh 

 cow or sheep dung put round the plants. During the summer 

 months they are watered and treated as before. If I find in 

 autumn that the plants, after having done bearing, do not look 

 so promising as might be wished, I transfer them carefully, 

 with the ball, to a new bed, made like the former, except that 

 it is advisable to put some sand round the necks of the plants ; 

 and here I treat them as before. During the winter a heat is 

 kept up of from 8° to 10° Reaum., 46° to 50° Fahr. There 

 is no fear of their suffering, even though the coverings cannot 

 be opened for several days, for the plants do not begin to grow 

 till the month of February. The fruit-bearing plants may 

 remain for three years in the same place; and I have seen 

 them, in several instances, producing from three to six fruit 

 during every year of that period, of from 1 to 2 lb. weight 

 each. I call this the wild mode of pine culture, because one 

 sees on the same plant fruits large and small, ripe, half ripe, 

 green, and in blossom. 



The other pine plants which I keep through the winter in 

 the stove are grown during the summer in pits, and those of 

 the queen kind generally bear fruit in fourteen months. They 

 are repeatedly transplanted, and always kept through the sum- 

 mer with bottom heat, shaded, watered, and sprinkled. In 

 the month of March, those plants which show no fruit are 

 transplanted, with balls, into larger pots. The bottom of the 

 pot is always covered with cow- dung thoroughly rotten, and 

 the neck of the root surrounded with sand and sheep's dungj 

 the plants propped up with sticks, and plunged in the tan ; 

 the hot dung being, by this mode of culture, covered with tan 

 instead of mould. If the bed is too hot, I have the pots but 

 half plunged, often only one third, in order not to burn the 

 mould ; and they are not completely plunged till the temper- 

 ature is what it should be. In October I have the potted 

 plants which, from the month of May, have been kept plunged 

 in beds, removed to the stove. In winter, when the days are 

 fine, I repeatedly water the larger plants, but those which 

 have or promise fruit more frequently, with the view of not 

 checking their growth, as the constant heat of the stove dries 

 them considerably. In the house where the larger plants 

 stand, which bring fruit in spring, a heat of 16° Reaum., 68° 

 Fahr., is kept up, in pursuance of the above-described method. 

 In the succession house, where the younger plants are kept, 

 the heat is 10° Reaum., 54° Fahr. The plant taken from 

 the mother stem brings me fruit in the second year, frequently 

 in the first ; and it is necessary here to keep always a great 

 many of such plants, in order to obviate a deficiency of fruit. 



