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LXXXV. On the Cultivation of the Pine Apple. % Thomas 

 Andrew Knight, Esq. F. R. S. $c. President. 



Read November 6, 1821. 



Writ ers, who have recommended new modes of prac- 

 tice upon the authority of their own observation, and expe- 

 rience, have generally been accused, and often with sufficient 

 reason, of condemning every thing, which had previously 

 been done, as wrong, and absurd ; and of asserting their own 

 practice alone, to be reasonable and right. I fear that in 

 the opinions, which I have given, and which I proceed to 

 give, relative to the Culture of the Pine Apple, I shall incur 

 the risk of subjecting myself to similar charges. But I beg 

 it to be understood, that I condemn the machinery only, which 

 our gardeners employ ; and that I admit most fully their skill 

 in the application of that machinery to be very superior to 

 that which I myself possess. Nor do I mean, in the slightest 

 degree to censure them for not having invented better machi- 

 nery ; for it is their duty to put in practice that which they 

 have learned ; and, having to expend the capital of others, 

 they ought to be cautious in trying expensive experiments, 

 of which the result must necessarily be uncertain ; and I 

 believe a very able, and experienced gardener, after having 

 been the inventor of the most perfect machinery, might, in 

 very many instances, have lost both his character and his 

 place, before he had made himself sufficiently acquainted 



