CULTURE OF THE PINE-APPLE. 



449 



Fig. 342 is a No. 12, 11^ inches wide at top, 61 inches wide at bottom, 



—J and 10-1 inches deep. 



I r Though it seldom hap- 



! // pens that a Queen pine ^ ! 



/f plant can go through all \\ j 

 I // these sizes if well grown, 



I // yet it is considered ne- 



— I ■// cessary to give the di- 



Fig. 340. A No. 24 poL mensions of the complete 

 set of pots used at Oak Hill, as they are often 

 referred to both in this and in the precedins: 



^ ° Fig. 341. A No. 16 pot. 



949. Culture of queen pines for early fruit. — The suckers being from 

 twelve inches to twenty inches in length, and proportionately strong, were 



taken off the stools in the beginning of 

 August ; and having lain exposed, in the pine- 

 stove, in that state about a week, were 

 dressed and potted in No. 32-sized pots, in 

 poor light soil, and plunged two-thirds the 

 depth of their pots in a bark bed, in which a 

 thermometer inserted that depth stood at 80". 

 Till the roots had reached the sides of the 

 pots we did not water the soil, but syringed 

 the plants overhead at shutting up in the 

 Fig. 342. ^ iVo. i2po«. evenings of warm days, about twice a 



week. As the plants increased, they were watered at their roots, as 

 they appeared to be in want of that element. The temperature of the 

 house by day was not allowed to exceed 80°, and till about the middle 

 of September would generally be found about 65° a little before sun- 

 rise ; using no artificial heat (besides the bark-bed) as long as the natural 

 temperature of the atmosphere exceeded 55°, at which temperature (viz. 55°) 

 we kept the house by night during the winter months, till the third week 

 in March, when we shook the plants out, and shortened their roots about 

 one-half, and repotted them in the same-sized pots prepared as follows : — The 

 pots, if not new ( new ones being preferable), being well cleaned, an oyster- 

 shell about the size of a penny is placed over the hole, around which broken 

 bones (such materials being best), or potsherds broken to about the size of 

 kidney-beans, and sifted to exclude the dusty particles, are laid about half 

 an inch deep ; over which is placed a layer, about a quarter of an inch deep, 

 of the thready part of half-decayed loamy turf ; and the remaining space is 

 filled up with the following compost : turfy loam chopped to the size of 

 walnuts, bruising it as little as possible, six: parts ; night soU, one part ; leaf 

 mould, one part ; and silver sand, one part. The plants being potted in this com- 

 post, were plunged in a bark bed, in a dung-heated pit, two-thirds of the depth 

 of their pots (at which depth a thermometer inserted stood at 90°), shading 

 them from the more powerful rays of the sun, and keepmg them as close as 

 possible, yet not allowing the temperature to exceed 90°, the minimum by 

 night being generally from 65° to 70°. In the course of about fourteen 

 days, we exposed the plants to the full sun ; from which time they required 

 to be plentifully supplied with water, and the greatest attention to be paid 

 to the watch-sticks (sticks stuck in the bark, to be occasionally taken out 



