446 



CULTURE OF THE PINE-APPLE. 



938. Worms. — We destroy worms in tlie pots by watering with lime- 

 water, in the proportions of one bucketful of lime to twenty of water ; and in 

 the tan around the edges of the bed, by stirring powdered lime into the 

 infested tan. Insects have been eradicated from young pine plants here by 

 immersing them thirty-six hours in water medicated with soft soap, in the 

 proportion of four ounces to a gallon. — See 295. in p. 96. 



989. Heat, air, and moisture. — We are extremely careful at all times to 

 supply any want of heat, air, or moisture, and control their extremes ; as 

 also to remove all obstacles that might hinder the full action of light, espe- 

 cially in winter : to effect which we are obliged, sometimes more than once 

 during winter, to take off the lights, and clear awa}'- a green glutinous sub- 

 stance that collects inside about the laps of the glass ; using a scrubbing- 

 brush and a piece of coarse flannel, with plenty of water, for the purpose. 



940. We never tie up the leaves of pines in moving the plants, being per- 

 suaded that the leaves of any well-grown pine plant cannot be tied up with- 

 out injuring them : neither can the height of a plant be so well determined, 

 nor the side that has been inclining towards the sun so well reversed in 

 plunging, when the leaves are tied up, as when they stand in their natural 

 position. 



941. Jamaica Pines are esteemed here as being the best for maturing 

 perfect fruits in the winter months. The plants of this species are of lazy 

 growth, impatient of disrooting and shifting, and not easily started into fruit 

 before they attain a good size. Their fruits, also, are heavy in proportion to 

 their bulk ; and unlike many others, they will swell their pips flat at all 

 seasons. During the time that our pine plants are without roots, whether 

 crowns, suckers, gills, or stools fresh potted, or plants disrooted, we prefei* 

 keeping them in a close, moist, atmosphere, at a temperature not under 65° 

 by night, nor over 90° by day, shading them from the scorching rays of the 

 sun, with a bottom-heat (at least till the roots have reached the sides of the 

 pots) of 100°. Late suckers have been successfully wintered here, struck 

 in a layer of half-spent bark, on a bed of good tan, in a pit near the glass. 

 The greatest defect in this system is, that the plants are apt to get down too 

 far from the glass, unless the frame or pit be moveable, and made to sink 

 and follow them. Good Jamaica suckers generally mature their fruit here 

 in two years, Providences about two months less, and Queens in from sixteen 

 to eighteen calendar months. 



942. In starting pine plants into fruit Yue simply increase the temperature, 

 keeping up a moderate supply of moisture ; the starving, parching, and 

 scorching system of starting pines, formerly practised, being now, by all 

 good cultivators, generally discarded ; for examples are not wanting of large 

 pine plants which had been thus starved, &c., whilst the fruits were ready to 

 emerge from their sockets, showing crowns, on straw-like foot-stalks, without 

 a pip at all. 



943. Air. — In winter we often admit fresh air into our pine-stoves for 

 other purposes than counteracting heat : as to prevent drawing and blanch- 

 ing, by allowing the condensed steam to escape, and to dry the plants. 



944. Propagation. — The fruits having been cut (say off Providence 

 plants), and no suckers appearing, we shake them out of the pots, pick off 

 a few of their lower leaves, and shorten the rest ; then cut off two inches 

 or three inches of the stump to vv^hich the old roots are attached, and pot 

 the stools in 32- sized pots, and treat them as suckers, when they will pro- 



