THE PINE-APPLE. 



649 



rain does not fall for months at a time, the dews 

 during night fall copiously. Syringing, there- 

 fore, in the after part of the day, is preferable 

 to the morning. Young suckers without roots, 

 and such plants as may from one cause or other 

 have had their roots cut off, should be very 

 sparingly watered at the root, but maintained 

 in health chiefly by syringing overhead. In re- 

 gard to this mode of applying water, we may 

 observe that it is not the quantity thrown over 

 the plants or over the house, but its equal diffu- 

 sion, that is most advantageous, and therefore a 

 very fine cap should be put on the syringe, so as 

 to deliver the water almost in form of a copious 

 dew. Plants newly shifted, and such as are in 

 large pots, do not require so much water as 

 those whose pots are full of roots; the former 

 are easily injured by an excess, the latter sel- 

 dom. Plants swelling their fruit and nourishing 

 suckers require most of all, and such as are 

 ripening their fruit should be deprived of it 

 nearly altogether. 



The application of water in an enriched form 

 is beneficial to the pine in all its stages of 

 growth, more particularly so when it is about to 

 start into fruit. Nevertheless, strong liquid- 

 manures should be used with caution. Injuri- 

 ous effects may be produced by an injudicious 

 application of liquid manure, especially such as 

 contain salts and alkalies in solution, as they 

 have a tendency to cause excitement, and if 

 applied freely may cause the plants to start pre- 

 maturely into fruit. Many modes of preparing a 

 simple and yet beneficial liquid manure for the 

 pine have been proposed. The following may be 

 considered as the most simple and useful : Where 

 the stock of pines is large, two tanks (vide art. 

 Tanks, vol. i.) will be required, each of a capa- 

 city to hold from one to three hogsheads. Into 

 one of these throw about a hogshead in quantity 

 of sheep or deer droppings, to which add about 

 one peck of unslaked lime, and the same quan- 

 tity of soot; fill up the tank with rain water, 

 and stir it up occasionally for three or four 

 weeks, at the end of which it will be fit for use ; 

 then fill another in like manner, to undergo a 

 similar process of fermentation. When the li- 

 quid from the first tank is wanted, stir it well 

 up and draw off the water into a tub, causing 

 it to pass through a fine meshed sieve. This 

 even then will be rather strong, and should be 

 attenuated by the addition of rain water to the 

 extent of one-third of the whole. In this state it 

 is fit for being applied to the roots of the plants ; 

 but that none of it may fall on the foliage, 

 it should be applied by a long tube with a fun- 

 nel end, into which the liquid is to be poured; 

 and if the smaller end be laid close to the pot, 

 it will be conveyed to the roots without any of 

 it falling on the leaves of the plants, which 

 should be carefully avoided. Many, how- 

 ever, question the utility of liquid manure 

 altogether. 



Discrimination is required in watering pines ; 

 some sorts, as the Queens, Providence, and 

 Envilles, will require three times as much water 

 as the Black Jamaica, Montserrat, Sugar-loaves, 

 and indeed all the Black pines. During De- 

 cember and January very little water will be 



required by such plants as are growing in pits 

 heated by fermentation, but in houses heated by 

 fire-heat the atmosphere must be kept moist, 

 not by repeated syringing over the plants so 

 much as syringing upon the walls and floors of 

 the house, that the dry air caused by the fire- 

 heat may be counteracted by moisure rising in 

 shape of vapour. Condensed moisture should 

 be prevented from lying above twenty - four 

 hours at a time in the axils of the leaves. A 

 little additional temperature, with due ventila- 

 tion at the same time, will correct this. The 

 whole section of Black pines require very little 

 water at their roots during winter; indeed, it is 

 better they be kept rather dry at the root than 

 otherwise. 



Ventilation. — Too much air can scarcely be 

 admitted to the pine, from the time the suckers 

 are fully rooted until the ripening of the fruit; 

 indeed, at that period they require it to a much 

 larger amount than is in general accorded them, 

 so long as the temperature is kept up. The 

 want of sufficient air causes the plants to elon- 

 gate in their foliage, produce narrow leaves, and 

 throw up weakly fruit. This is one of the ob- 

 jections to growing them in pits, compared with 

 larger and better ventilated and more transpa- 

 rent houses. It is possible, nevertheless, in 

 close pits, to swell the fruit to a larger size, but 

 they are always of very inferior quality com- 

 pared with those grown in houses where more 

 light and air are admitted to them. The only 

 time when ventilation should be limited is while 

 the suckers are rooting, and immediately after 

 potting or shifting. 



Shading is deemed necessary by many good 

 growers, not only after re- potting, but also during 

 the hot months of summer; for it is remarked 

 that pines do not make the same progress then 

 which they do in the early months of spring and 

 the later months of summer and beginning of 

 autumn, particularly the latter. This has led 

 many to shade with thin canvass screens, during 

 an hour or two in the middle of the day, during 

 the hottest days of summer, and others to train 

 vines over the plants grown in pine-stoves. In 

 both these plans we accord, and would not 

 think of growing pines in a large pine-stove 

 without vines being trained up the rafters. No 

 doubt pines, like all other fruits, require the 

 full influence of the sun and air to perfect their 

 flavour and colour ; and to effect this, the 

 plants (if not planted out) may be removed 

 to one end of the house, and that separated 

 from the other part by a glass partition, the 

 plants in their pots set on a bed of sand 

 and fully exposed to the sun's influence, with- 

 out water, in a high temperature, and abun- 

 dance of air. Excess of shading causes the 

 plants to produce long attenuated leaves and 

 long slender fruit-stalks, two conditions in which 

 the pine can never develop its fruit in perfection. 



Atmospheric temperature. — All living things 

 in nature have a season of growth and another 

 of repose; and in the case of the pine, although 

 it sheds not its leaves annually as the vine, still 

 it must have its season of rest. That season is 

 during the dark months of winter; and not only 

 that, but during the night throughout the year, 



