202 
THE PINE- APPLE, ITS CULTIVATION. 
All these are growers of some fame ; and 
all of them have been writers on the subject. 
These differences can only be reconciled by 
the fact, that whatever a plant may be put 
into, it will only take that which agrees with 
it ; and therefore any kind of compost may 
be used with success if it contain enough of 
what a plant requires ; but all those composts 
which are so extremely rich do not seem to 
have brought fruit a jot better than more 
simple and natural soil. We could produce 
quite as many variations in other points of 
practice ; but as, after reading all we have 
quoted about the soils, it is almost natural to 
conclude that they will grow in anything, so 
also should we conclude, after reading all the 
variations, that it mattered little how they 
were grown. However, there are certain 
requisites which must be supplied, as the 
proper quantity of heat and nourishing 
matter, air and moisture ; beyond this a good 
deal of the management is according to the 
fancy of the cultivator. We have seen ex- 
cellent pines grown in a common dung hot- 
bed, as simply as cucumbers ; and in no one 
respect did the cultivator attend to the sup- 
posed rules of pine growing, except keeping 
up plenty of heat and the necessary moisture. 
We are anxious, therefore, to place before 
the reader the simplest mode of doing things, 
and reducing the directions for pine growing 
to those operations that must be performed, 
and thereby showing that, except in the time 
required to produce the fruit, it is not a bit 
more difficult than growing a cucumber or a 
melon. We require attention to the following 
rules : — 
1. Temferature of the atmosphere. — No- 
vember, December, and January, 60° to 65° ; 
Febuary, 65° to 70° ; March and April, 70" to 
80° ; hot months, 75° to not exceeding 90° in 
sunshine ; Autumn, 65° to 70". 
2 . Meat of tan or bottom. — Winter months, 
75° to 80°; Summer, 80" to 90"; Spring and 
Autumn, 70" to 75". 
3. Soil. — Turves cut thin and rotted, three 
parts ; dung from an old melon bed, one 
part. 
4. Routine culture. — Hamilton's system of 
fruiting the suckers on the plant by earthing 
up. 
TEMPEEATURE AND BOTTOM HEAT. 
First then, as to the temperature, much de- 
pends on the structure of the medium in 
which they grow, as to how the temperature 
shall be kept up ; but whether it be by dung 
or hot water, by pipes or tanks, will not affect 
the plant. Therefore, whether they ^j-e placed 
in a common hot-bed, formed with wooden 
back, front, and sides, and in all respects like 
a cucumber bed or a melon bed, except being 
deeper, or grown in a regular stove, so that 
the requisite degree of heat is kept up, it is of 
no consequence. Perhaps the simplest and 
best construction is tliat which has become 
very general in places of business, where 
economy is everything, and carried out almost 
parsimoniously. A plain brick pit three feet 
deep all over, but sloping at the top and 
bottom exactly to the slope of the house, and 
of dimensions to suit the house, is the best 
medium for holding the tan ; and tan is by 
far the best thing to use for bottom heat. 
The heating of the atmosphere may be by 
means of dung or hot water. If the former, 
the pit must be constructed on purpose ; but 
the cheapest would be hot-water pipes, heated 
with a conical boiler. Still it is not our pur- 
pose to dictate how the heat shall be kept up. 
According to the construction of the places in 
command, so may the gardener regulate his 
measures. We have grown excellent fruit, as 
good as our neighbours, in an old-fashioned 
hot-house or stove, with a path all round the 
tan pit, and the flue in the wall of the tan pit ; 
or rather, forming the wall of it in a great 
measure. What we say is, that it is the 
business of the gardener to make the best of 
tlie means at hand. We simply want the 
heat of the atmosphere, in the pit, or house, or 
hot-bed, to be according to the rule laid down, 
and we care not how it is managed ; and with 
regard to the bottom heat, we are indifferent 
as to whether this is produced by a tank of 
hot water or tan, by leaves, or by any other 
medium, so that it be produced. We have 
laid down such rules for the heat at bottom as 
may be carried out in the best way it can be, 
under the circumstances. We are not pre- 
suming that the pine would not grow and 
fruit in a higher or lower temperature, be- 
cause we have seen different persons growing 
the fruit under different temperatures ; but 
we will go so far as to say, that the degrees 
of heat we have mentioned are well calculated 
to answer the best pui-poses, and keep the 
fruit healthy and strong. It is of the utmost 
importance that there be no sudden alterna- 
tions of heat and cold, and the two degrees 
mentioned in each case are intended for the 
difference between night and day, because all 
plants should be in a lower temperature at 
night in the dark, than in the day when they 
have light. In summer time this regulates 
itself very well, because the sun makes the 
increase of temperature for daylight ; but in 
winter there is frequently no sensible differ- 
ence in the atmospheric heat in the division 
of night and day, and all practice favours the 
reverse of what should be observed ; for the 
shutting up of houses and making up fires for 
the night in general increases the temperature 
when it should be diminished. The nearer, 
however, that our rules can be maintained, the 
