THE PINE -APPLE, ITS CULTIVATION. 
203 
■better, always remembering that the lowest 
temperature is for the night, and the highest 
for the daylight. It is wise to have plenty of 
heat at command, because it is easy to lower 
the temperature by giving air ; and it may be 
taken as a general rule in all plant growing, 
that the more air a plant can get without 
being in a lower temperature than it requires, 
the better it succeeds ; at the same time, 
draughts of air are not good. Ventilation should 
be so given as not to cause a thorough sharp 
draught, for that is always mischievous With 
regard to the bottom-heat, that can only be com- 
manded by means of hot-water tanks, or pipes 
that can be regulated at pleasure ; or by such 
a body of tan as will not very readily decline. 
A pot containing three or four feet thickness 
of tan will supply any required heat, because 
you can begin with three feet and add fresh 
tan as it indicates a decline. To show how 
simply all the conditions of climate can be 
complied with, we have grown a sucker, or 
rather a crown of pine-apple in a common hot- 
bed ; and, when it was too big for the height 
of the frame, which had cucumbers and melons 
in it, we grew it on in a one-light box that was 
twofeet high behind, and one foot in front, mak- 
ing the dung supply the bottom heat as well as 
the atmospheric heat, and succeeded in fruit- 
ing a handsome queen pine which, under 
all the manifest disadvantages, nevertheless 
weighed two pounds four ounces. We had 
to keep raising the frame, and twice changed 
the hot-bed altogether ; but the fruit was of 
an exquisite flavour, and very pretty. Mr. 
Steers, of Teddington, perhaps fruits pines 
with as little fuss and labour as anybody ; 
and we remember his exhibiting very splendid 
fruit produced without fire heat. He has 
adopted hot water as a cheaper method of 
producing a certain degree of heat. 
THE SOIL. 
The pine-apple does not require great ex- 
citement. Rotted turves, cut two inclies 
thick for turf laying, make a compost of two- 
thirds loam and one-third vegetable mould, 
because the decayed grass and grass roots 
become mould, and shrink into about a third 
of the bulk ; so that when we take three parts 
of this compost, w^e take two parts of loam, 
and one of vegetable mould ; and, if we add 
one part of dung from an old hot-bed, there 
is no mistaking the mixture. Suppose, then, 
we could not get the rotted turves, and had 
to make a compost as near as we could like it, 
we should have to take two parts of pure 
loam, one part leaf mould, and one part of de- 
composed dung. Wc have already shown, by 
the numerous different composts recommended 
by the various writers on the subject, that the 
pine-apple cannot be a very dainty plant, be- 
cause nothing can diflFer much more than the 
soils recommended by tlie various cultivators; 
but, common sense tells us that the soil should 
be something like that which a plant grows 
in naturally, and there can be very little 
chance that pigs' dung and sheep's dung can 
form three-sevenths of any soil in the pine- 
apple countries. That certain salts are re- 
quired, and that these salts are to be found in 
fifty different substances, is quite likely ; but 
we have no notion of recommending those 
things which may not be easily got at : and 
we should, we are quite sure, have no diffi- 
culty in growing the pine-apple with nothing 
more than good loam, and its own weight of 
vegetable mould, without any dung at all ; 
and we know, from experience, that they will 
succeed greatly in the compost here men- 
tioned. 
ROUTINE CULTUKE. 
The time at which the crown, or sucker, of 
a plant will fruit is very uncertain, because 
they vary a good deal at all times ; but now 
they are brought to a fruiting state much 
earlier than they used to be. Fill small pots 
with the crowns ; and Mr. Hamilton now 
recommends that they be plunged over head 
in the tan, instead of plunging merely to the 
rims. Again, it should be remarked that, 
instead of adopting the old practice of leaving 
the crowns out of ground till they have 
almost shrivelled, they ought to be planted as 
soon as the fleshy part that came out of the 
fruit has dried a little. So, also, with 
suckers, which may be served in the same way. 
We give Mr. Hamilton credit for this plunging 
over head, for we have not tried it: they 
rooted fast enough with us in the ordinary 
way of plunging up to the rims ; and one 
season we had them all in a common hot-bed, 
plunged to their rims, and they struck fast 
enough. They would begin to grow in three 
or four months. But there was yet another 
way in Avhich we succeeded : — we planted 
them in the tan, instead of potting them ; 
and they all struck well, and pretty soon. Be 
they struck one way or the other, they were 
potted in eight-inch pots, and plunged to the 
rim. Here, as it was April, they had a tem- 
perature of 70", and a little farther advanced, 
80" to 90° ; syringing them over the folioge, 
just before the sun went down, and keeping 
the atmosphere moist by watering the paths in 
the house. At the end of May they were ready 
for larger pots. The tan was stirred up, and 
some fresh added ; the plants put into twelve- 
inch pots, and continued growing. When the 
sun's heat is violent, and raises the tempera- 
ture too high, let it be kept down by partial 
shading : it is better than letting in too much 
dry air. These plants Avill be various in size. 
