THE PINE-APPLE. 4I 



tried. I have also removed them to a cool dry room 

 when about half coloured, and kept them there a month 

 or six weeks, and found them in excellent condition. This 

 treatment, of course, applies to summer fruit. Later in 

 the season I have kept Smooth-leaved Cayennes in a 

 room for six weeks after they were quite ripe. In this 

 way a succession of fruit can be very much extended 

 as compared to keeping them in a warm pinery. 



When the fruit is all cut from a pit or houseful of 

 plants, the suckers should be carefully attended to. 

 The comparatively dry condition of the air and soil 

 which is necessary to good flavour is not favourable to 

 the suckers at this hot season of the year ; consequently^ 

 when the suckers are strong, I frequently detach them 

 from the plant as soon as the fruit begins to colour. If 

 the suckers are small when the fruit is cut, they should 

 be left on the parent plant ; then the soil should have a 

 good watering to encourage them to make further growth. 

 It rarely occurs that they are not quite large enough to 

 be potted about the time the fruit begins to ripen. I 

 may here remark, that the practice of allowing the 

 suckers to lie in a cool dry place, with the object of 

 what is called drying them, is one for which I never 

 could see any reason, or any good end that could be 

 gained by it. On the contrary, in my opinion, the prac- 

 ,tice is injurious to the progress of the young plants. 

 To say the least of it, it is attended with a loss of time. 



"When it is desirable to have the fruiting plants of 

 which I am now treating to ripen earlier than the be- 

 ginning of June, they must, of course, have heat applied 

 to them in December instead of January; and with pro- 

 perly constructed and heated pineries there is nothing 

 to prevent this. But where the houses are not light. 



