CULTURE OF THE PINE-APPLE. 



ID 



In arranging the plants in old-fashioned Pine pits towards 

 the end of July or early in August, fresh fermenting leaves (of 

 the previous autumn's gathering), to the depth of 5 or 6 feet, 

 are placed in the pit and trodden firmly together. The plants 

 freshly potted in the pots in which they are to fruit are then 

 plunged up to the rim, with their leaves within an inch or so of 

 the glass. But long before the following A^ril, when the plants 

 generally have to be rearranged for the summer, owing to the 

 decomposition and consequent subsiding of the leaves, the 

 plants will have sunk perhaps as much as 3 feet from the 

 glass. They must therefore be taken out, 3 feet deep of fresh 

 leaves added to the bed, and the pots replunged in order to bring 

 them up to the glass again ; thereby subjecting the plants to a 

 more or less unavoidable check whilst the work is in progress, 

 not to mention the disadvantage resulting from their having 

 been so far from the glass, and from the beneficial influence of 

 ample light during the winter and early spring. In the case of 

 modern pineries, all this is reversed, for when once the plants are 

 placed into their fruiting pots and plunged into the bed of tan, 

 there they remain until the fruit is cut, and instead of sinking 

 away from the glass they get closer to it, if anything, making 

 sturdy and robust growth in consequence. 



A very important point in the successful culture of the Pine- 

 apple (or, indeed, of anything else) is the obtaining of clean 

 stocky young plants to begin with. Great care should therefore 

 be exercised in procuring suckers only from perfectly clean, 

 healthy, sturdily grown plants. These should have the jagged 

 ends cut off, and a few of the short leaves which surround the 

 hase removed with the hand, so as to liberate the young 

 hrownish roots concealed beneath. In doing this, it is as well 

 to place the suckers in separate lots, according to their respective 

 sizes, in readiness for potting up forthwith. 



A compost, consisting of sound fibrous sandy loam, which 

 has been cut and stacked for twelve months, mixed with fresh 

 soot, ^-inch bones, and fine charcoal, in the proportion of an 

 8-inch potful of each to an ordinary-sized wheelbarrowful 

 of the loam, the whole being well mixed before being used, will 

 prove congenial to the requirements of the plants in all stages 

 of growth. The loam should be simply chopped down with a 

 spade, and for use at this time of year (April) several barrows of 



