THE PINE-APPLE. 



645 



heat all our growing-pits also in this way, were it 

 not that, in consequence of the floors having to 

 be at a permanent distance from the glass, the 

 smaller plants would be placed too far from the 

 light when quite young; and as they extend in 

 size, their leaves would be broken by com- 

 ing in contact with it, both of which we can 

 readily avoid by lowering or filling up the beds 

 to the required height. Indeed, were it not 

 that pineries form a feature in an extensive 

 establishment, we would prefer fruiting them 

 all in low, well-lighted, and ventilated pits. In 

 the winter arrangement of the plants, care should 

 be taken that they be not set too crowded 

 together, and also that they be kept as near to 

 the glass as the safety of their foliage will admit 

 of. In plunging in the fermenting material, care 

 also should be taken that the pots be not set too 

 deep, or that fermentation be not allowed to 

 become too great ; for during autumn, under a 

 strong sun-heat, the plants in general make great 

 progress, and their roots being in full action, 

 notwithstanding the bed they are in is only 

 of a moderate temperature, they will be plenti- 

 fully furnished with those indispensable food- 

 suckers, the spongioles; it becomes, therefore, 

 a measure of great consequence that they are 

 not injured during the process of re-potting, and 

 still more so that they are not injured by excess 

 of bottom heat. The latter would act in two 

 ways extremely injurious to the plants, either 

 by checking their growth till the formation of 

 fresh spongioles, or starting them into fruit 

 at a very unfavourable season. Not but that, 

 where pines are required throughout the year, 

 as is the case here, a considerable number 

 should start at this time for early spring use; 

 but if many do so, it will occasion dissatisfaction 

 in the supply late in spring, when they are 

 equally wanted. During winter, excess of damp 

 must be guarded against in low pits, more 

 especially those heated by dung linings; and 

 should a deficiency of heat occur during cold 

 weather, it will be much safer to exclude the 

 cold by adequate roof-coverings, than to attempt 

 to keep it out by the application of strong 

 linings. 



A high and arid temperature, often greater 

 during the night than the day, was one of the 

 greatest errors of former cultivators; and stimu- 

 lating the plants into a forced perpetual growth, 

 at all seasons of the year alike, one of their next; 

 and another was, roasting the roots when the tan- 

 beds were first made up, and allowing them to 

 perish from cold and damp in water-logged pots, 

 caused by excessive watering, and allowing the 

 tan-bed to become completely exhausted. These 

 and many minor errors have been sufficiently 

 pointed out, and now all good cultivators avoid 

 them. The pine during winter requires much 

 greater care than during summer, for during 

 winter the vital energies of plants are weakened, 

 and, therefore, more easily injured by excess of 

 heat, moisture, &c, than in summer, when they 

 are in a different condition, and able to digest 

 their food better; for every element by which 

 they are surrounded is more or less to be con- 

 sidered as their natural aliment. During the 

 months of October and November, a general 

 VOL. II. 



regulation of the stock should take place; and 

 nothing should hinder this being set about at 

 that time, unless it be a deficiency of tree-leaves 

 (where they are used) for making up the beds 

 with, or in localities where the autumn is in 

 general fine, and the spring cold and late. In 

 such cases it may be expedient to defer the 

 general arrangement a little later, that the beds 

 may hold out longer in spring. Where pine-beds 

 are heated by hot water as a bottom heat, this 

 becomes less a matter of consideration. No- 

 thing, therefore, should prevent this being set 

 about, except it be that the pits or houses may 

 not be as yet cleared of the plants which are 

 ripening or swelling fruit, to disturb which we 

 hold to be exceedingly injurious to them. In- 

 deed, it is only necessity that can induce us to 

 move a pine after it has started. 



Soil— That there are proper and improper soils 

 for most plants is a matter granted. The pine, 

 however, in this respect, appears to be far less 

 fastidious than many other of our fruit-bearing 

 plants; we have grown it in many and very 

 opposite ones, and with apparently very similar 

 results. In its earliest stages, a rich light soil ] 

 abounding in vegetable matter, with a small 

 proportion of sharp sand, is favourable for the 

 production of roots; in its secondary stage, a rich 

 friable loamy soil appears favourable for insuring 

 robustness of growth; while in its last or fruit- 

 ing stage a rich aluminous clay is productive of 

 large fruit; and this appears to be the soil in 

 which it naturally grows. These are, however, 

 not without exceptions. For several years we 

 grew the plants, in all their stages, in a light, 

 somewhat sandy marly loam, dug from a com- 

 mon in Surrey, at a depth of from 10 to 15 feet 

 under the surface, without even a trace of vege- 

 table matter in its composition. At present we 

 are growing them in semi-decayed vegetable 

 matter alone, consisting of sphagnum and other 

 mosses, with abundance of phanerogamous vege- 

 table remains dug from a bog in Crichton Moss, 

 used when only a few months carted home, and 

 during the time fully exposed to the sun and 

 air. In both these cases, a little sheep or deer 

 dung was the only addition. 



The French, to the best of our knowledge, 

 have never grown their pines in other than 

 sandy peat, such as plant cultivators in this 

 country use for heaths, New Holland plants, 

 &c. ; and yet in such a soil, containing a large 

 portion of silvery sand, the extraordinary pines 

 at Meudon, near Paris, have been grown. Many 

 pine-growers in this country have successfully 

 adopted the same sort of soil — merely dug fr6m 

 a hillside and used immediately, after being cut ) 

 into large pieces, a foot square and 2 or 3 inches 

 in thickness when the plants are planted out, and I 

 from 3 to 4 inches square when used for potting, ! 

 and without any enrichment whatever. 



In Trinidad, where some of the largest pines 

 naturally growing are found, in the Bahamas, 

 and almost all over the West Indies, the pine is 

 in general found luxuriating most in a light 

 brown-coloured alumina approaching to a perfect 

 clay. And strange enough to say, according to 

 the analysis of Professor Jolly, iron in excess is 

 the characteristic of the pine-apple land of New 



4 N 



