OF THE PINE-APPLE. 



331 



Lastly, The Pine-plants, after their dressing, fill 

 the hot-house with a strong-scented effluvium, 



sanguine expectations. The operation is far from being either 

 troublesome or expensive ; and the method is practicable at 

 any season, but more especially between the fall of the leaf 

 and the time the blossom-buds are nearly ready to open. Pro- 

 ceed thus : 



Take any quantity of soap-suds, after a common washing ; 

 but when they are thick and strong they should be lowered 

 with water. A person on a ladder should pour them from a 

 watering-pot, over both trees and wall, beginning at the top 

 of the wall, and bringing it on in courses from top to bottom. 

 The suds, when used, should be many degrees warmer than 

 new milk, especially in the winter; and when plentifully and 

 properly applied, every part of the wall will appear of a pale 

 red colour, not in the least disagreeable. 



, Most large families, in the course of a few months, make a 

 quantity of the above liquid sufficient to wash a great extent of 

 wall. The soap-suds made here this last winter have been suf- 

 ficient to wash all the principal walls in Welbeck garden. Be- 

 sides the advantage of destroying insects, the suds appear to 

 be productive of other good effects. When applied just after 

 the fall of the leaf, they contribute much to preserve the wood 

 of the delicate and tender kinds of peaches. I account for it 

 thus : — It is allowed that our summers are in general too short 

 to perfect the wood of the tender kinds of peach and nectarine 

 trees, without artificial means ; and when the wood of these 

 trees is imperfectly ripened, it is very subject to the canker, 

 especially if in the succeeding winter there happen a succession 

 of rain and frost. This the nursery-man, as well as gardener, 

 often woefully experiences. 



I constantly have observed that the canker originates at, or 

 close adjoining to, the buds of the last year's wood. The cause 

 seems to be this. Wood imperfectly ripened is always soft and 

 spongy, and therefore admits of imbibing a large portion of 



