858 FORCING GARDEN. 
most absurd practices have been resorted to in order ta 
force the plants into fruit. We pretend not to give a the- 
ory; but.a few practical remarks may be of advantage. 
Tt is ‘evident, then, that the plant must be of a certain age, 
or at least of a.certain magnitude, before it will start free- 
ly or to.good purpose. , Suckers of the first year exert all 
their energies in the production of-roots and foliage; and * 
if. any of them happen to start, they exhibit little more 
than a tuft. of leaves where the fruit should be. In the 
second year: a: Queen pine is capable of producing a 
perfect fruit; and in the third year. the New Providence 
and other large. varieties arrive at puberty. The solid 
partiof the stem is then observed to have increased in 
bulk, andto have ascended considerably above the ‘soil. 
It‘is ‘of: more practical importance, however, to remark 
that the fruit-stalks do not appear until the pot is well 
filled with roots. . Apparent exceptions there may be to 
this rule ; but in every case where it does not hold good, 
the plant will be found to be diseased, or the roots to 
have ‘been violently destroyed. The grower should 
therefore take care that the roots shall have nearly: oc- 
cupied all the new soil before the end of autumn, and 
that in the course of the winter the tender fibres be not 
exsiceated ‘by drought, or rotted by excessive moisture. 
Again, it is probable that at starting, there is a peculiar 
check in the growth of the plant, which causes it to divert 
the sap fronr-the formation of leaves, and, like most other 
vegetables.in straitened circumstatices, to provide the means 
of reproduction, by throwing out flower-buds.’ .This diver- 
sion of the sap isimfluenced by the quantity of vigorous 
fibres, for it is observed that when, from some accident, 
plants not. well furnished in this respect do show fruit, 
they bestow the greater part of ‘the sap upon the leaves. 
