352 FORCING GARDEN. 
without pots, where they remain till the following spring. 
In general the offsets should be as large as possible. 
Speechly did not break off his suckers before they were 
twelve or fourteen inches long, and he reserved only the 
largest crowns. These large suckers and crowns grow 
with greater rapidity, and come sooner into fruit, than 
those of smaller size; and in this, in truth, consists the 
principal secret of what has been called the short method 
of culture, by which fruit is obtained in a much briefer space 
of time than usual. The soil employed in propagation is 
rather lighter than that afterwards applied. The pots 
may be from three to six inches in diameter, and, to pro- 
mote draining, should contain at bottom a layer of shivers 
orclean gravel. For some time the plants are shaded 
from the rays of the sun, and in about eight or ten days 
they receive a little water. It may be laid down as an im- 
portant general rule, in the culture of the pine-apple, that 
the progress of the plant should be carried on without in- 
termission—without a check, without allowing it to flag 
for an hour.. As already stated, the older and more com- 
mon routine of pine-apple culture embraced a period of 
three years; but recent improvements have reduced these 
to two years, or even to cighteen months. This has given 
rise to two modes of preparatory management, which we 
shall notice separately, premising that the treatment in the 
fruiting-house is the same in both. 
Triennial course.—The plants which were potted in 
autumn are kept in the nursing pit during winter, with a 
mild temperature, slight bottom-heat, and sparing allow- 
ance of water. About the beginning of April they are 
transferred into larger pots, and are commonly shifted into 
hotbeds, or pits heated with stable-dung, in which they 
are found to prosper exceedingly. Air is given every day, 
