May.] 



THE FORCING GARDEN. 



721 



plants iVoni the succession-house. When they are all plunged, 

 the bed and house cleaned and regulated, give them a watering 

 at their roots, and a profuse washing over-head with the syringe, 

 to refresh them and clean them of the dust or filth contracted 

 while undergoing the necessary removal. The plants showing 

 fruit, in blossom, and swelling their fi-uit, should be liberally 

 supplied with water every third or fourth day ; but those which 

 have nearly attained their full growth, and particularly such 

 as are coloring to ripen, should have less and less water given 

 them as they approach maturity, reducing it by degrees, until 

 it be entirely withheld some time before ripening. If this be 

 not attended to, the flavor of the fruit will be very much de- 

 teriorated, and lose much of that richness, which the pine is 

 well known to possess when properly cultivated, and which 

 has gained it the appellation of the king of fruits. 



We may also remark, that if pines be not cut soon after 

 they begin to color, " that is, just when the fruit is of a green- 

 ish yellow, or straw color, they fall off greatly in flavor and 

 richness, and that sharp, luscious taste, so much admired, 

 becomes insipid." It is often necessary to retard pines, when 

 ripe, for some days, often a week or more after they are ripe, 

 to answer some particular demand ; and when this is the case, 

 they should not be cut from the plant, but removed carefully 

 in the pots to the fruit-room, or some other airy cool place, 

 where they will remain, without much injury, for a week or more, 

 and will not shrivel nor lose their flavor so much as when they 

 are separated from the plant. In cutting the pine for use, if 

 not immediately to be sent to table on the same day, a con- 

 siderable piece of the fruit-stem should be left attached to it, 

 and never, until within a few hours of the time that it is to be 

 eaten, should those scale-like appendages upon the pips be 

 cut ofl*, for, in doing this, the skin might be wounded, and if 

 kept for any time after their removal, decay would commence. 

 Some prefer to have the pine sent to table with a portion of 

 the fruit-stalk attached to it, and those scale-like appendages 

 left upon it; while others have the stem cut close off", level with 

 the base of the fruit, so that it may stand upon its own base, 

 in an upright position. In no case, however, is the crown 

 removed until the fruit be cut to be eaten. 



4 z 



