FEUIT. 191 



the sizes already mentioned, potting them firmly, and. again 

 plunging them to the rim in a bark bed. With three to four 

 months of the same treatment — a due amount of heat at top 

 and bottom, careful watering, a dry atmosphere, and giving all 

 the light and air possible — the plants will have made fine 

 sturdy growth and filled their pots with roots. They are now 

 ready to be placed in the pine-stove or fruiting-house, and 

 should be top-dressed with a rich compost of turfy loam, bone- 

 meal, soot, and dry animal droppings rubbed down and sifted 

 fine, aU well mixed together and laid about an inch thick on 

 the surface of the soil. Due attention must now be paid to 

 watering, and as the pots are full of active roots, liquid 

 manure should be given, which may be made from sheep, 

 deer, or pigeon dung, soot, and guano, placed in a tub or 

 old barrel filled up with boiling water, well stirred, and 

 then allowed to cool and settle before being used. An occa- 

 casional sprinkling of a good fertiliser on the surface of 

 the soil is also beneficial. The water should always be 

 poured on to the surface of the soil, and not into the axils 

 of the leaves, where it is not required. In about a year after 

 the suckers have been put in, the plants will have attained 

 a fine vigorous stocky size for fruiting, and by withholding 

 water from them for three or four weeks — or about double 

 that period in winter — and then giving them a thorough soak- 

 ing with tepid water and slightly increasing the bottom-heat, 

 they will immediately send up their fruit. The plants must 

 now be regularly watered, but no stimulant given till each 

 plant has done flowering, after which liquid manure or ferti- 

 lisers may be applied at every watering with good results 

 while the fruit is swelling. As the fruit nears maturity and 

 begins to show colour, watering should be discontinued, as a 

 plant in robust health will finish its fruit to perfection and of 

 a brighter colour without farther stimulating. From ten days 

 to a fortnight will ripen and colour a Pine- Apple in bright 

 weather, but it may take a month in dull wintry weather. If 

 a fruit is ripening too soon for the show, it may be cut a few 

 days before it would be quite ripe and hung up in a dry fruit- 

 room, where it will ripen and keep sound for two or three 



