286 
ON THE CULTURE OF THE PINE-APPLE. 
them is their tardiness in fruiting; but this will be no obstacle to the 
plan now to be described. 
The fruit being cut in autumn, one sucker, and in some instances 
two , were left on each stool; all the old leaves were removed at the 
same time : but this ought to be done with prudence, for the suckers 
are sometimes weak ; and in that case, the sudden removal of the 
parent leaves will entirely check growth. This appears odd, and by 
many will perhaps be doubted; but it is the fact, that if the sucker 
be weak, the entire removal of the old leaves throws, I may say, such 
an abundance of sap into it, as to gorge and fairly torpify it: it would, 
therefore, be prudent to leave on three or four leaves to most of 
the plants; they can do no harm, and in some cases may do much 
good. The old stools may be earthed-up or not, as agreeable: those 
plants to which I allude were not, but remained untouched in the pit 
till the middle of February, when they were taken out, the suckers 
broken from the stools, planted in pots according to their sizes, and 
replunged in a good bottom-heat—about ninety degrees—with a fire- 
heat of seventy degrees. In this situation they soon began to grow, 
and in the end of May required shifting into pots large enough for 
them to fruit in. 
Soon after this shift, the best-grown plants showed fruit, and the 
others threw up in succession. Ripe fruit was cut the following Octo¬ 
ber ; the largest weighed three pounds nine ounces avoirdupois; it was 
finely swollen, as indeed were all—none, if I rightly remember, being 
under two pounds in weight. 
I have thus described as plainly and correctly as possible the method 
I saw practised. The plan has at least simplicity to recommend it, to 
say nothing of the quick return to the grower, who has to wait but 
twelve months for ripe fruit, and even less; whereas, in the common 
method, it takes from twenty months to three years before the plants 
ripen their produce. 
It has now become the general opinion, that the quicker the plants 
are grown, the better the fruit will be, particularly in size. I have, 
therefore, presented a plan to the notice of your readers, which, for 
expedition, has not been surpassed by any. I should observe, that 
bone-dust added to the soil, if of a sandy nature, appears exceedingly 
congenial to the pine-apple plant. 
July 9th, A. L. A. T. 
The paper on the “ Shrivelling of Grapes ” shall be sent for next 
month’s number. 
