368 Mode of cultivating the Pine-apple, 



Art. IX. The Mode of cultivating the Pine-apple, as practised at 

 DolKnton Castle, the Seat of T. A. Knight, Esq. F.R.S., President 

 of the Horticultural Society. Communicated by J. M. 



In my cursory relation to you, the other day, of what I saw 

 most worthy of notice during my late circuitous journey into 

 the country, I mentioned the pine-apple plants at Downton Cas- 

 tle as being the healthiest and most robust I ever saw ; and, as I 

 could not then with certamty enter mto particulars respectmg 

 the mode of pine culture practised at that place, I wrote to Mr. 

 Lauder, gardener to Thos. Andw. Knight, Esq,, who has favoured 

 me with the following account ; to which I beg to add, that in the 

 month of January last, when I called at Downton Castle, several 

 of the pine plants were showing fruit, and that Mr. Lauder told 

 me that there was not a plant in the house fifteen months old. 

 I can safely assert that I never saw finer plants, nor have I any 

 where else seen plants of even two years growth to equal them 

 in size. For these reasons I would strongly recommend those 

 gardeners who have the opportunity to try Mr. Knight's mode 

 of pine culture, particularly his method of bringing the suckers 

 forward by the aid of the parent plant. Another point, in which 

 Mr. Knight greatly deviates from the general practice, is in his 

 dispensing entirely with the ordinai'y bottom heat, in lieu of 

 which the plants are placed on a stage of masonry, elevated so 

 as to reach within a certain distance of the roof of the house ; all 

 the plants thus stand about the same distance from the glass, 

 and, as the pots are exposed to the circumambient air, it seems 

 indispensably necessary to have that element in a constant state 

 of humidity. Another thing favourable to the success of Mr. 

 Knight's practice is, that the fuel used for heating his houses is 

 composed of coal-dust and clay well incorporated, and put on 

 the fires in a completely dripping state, which produces a soft, 

 or rather smothered, heat: this, with the flues being always 

 kept damp, fills the house with a close hazy atmosphere, greatly 

 assimilating to that of the tropical climate of which pine-apples 

 are natives. I would further observe, that at Downton Castle 

 the pine-apple is fully matui'ed in about eighteen months ; and 

 as the plants are never removed from the pots into which they 

 are first put during that time, and as all the operations connected 

 with the tan-bed are dispensed with, much labour and expense 

 are saved. Now, in the general practice, very seldom a crop of 

 pines is matured in less than thirty months ; and, during that 

 time, three or four pottings, plungings, and renewings of the tan- 

 bed will be found necessary : this requires no comment, it speaks 

 for itself; and should Mr. Knight's system produce smaller fruit, 

 as some gardeners seem to infer it will, the weight grown by both 

 methods, within a proportionable extent of surface and space of 



