108 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Novembkk 28, 1839. 
plant Potatoes, and at exactly tlie same distances—that 
is to say, so many inches from set to set along the row, 
and so many inches between one row and another. 
There is but a wonderful little difference between cut¬ 
ting Potatoes for sets and Tritomas for suckers ; and late 
in the autumn is certainly the best time to do it, as I 
shall show presently. I have said that I divided two 
small plants this time last year into fifteen plants, and 
that four of them bloomed ; since then, however, every 
one of them bloomed, and some of them had as many as 
five spikes—some of the spikes were fully six feet high, 
with the leaves longer than the bloom-spikes, and all 
from mere sets, small, in proportion, as ever Potatoes 
were cut in times of dearth. Gardeners who know about 
growing Pine Apples know very well that good bottomed 
suckers are half the battle. They also know that to allow 
one, two, or three suckers only to remain on a plant after 
fruiting would be the best way to make sure of that one- 
half of the battle ; and about as wise as counting the stars 
to do so if the aim were to make the greatest number of 
Pine Apple plants from every one that had fruited. All that 
belongs to the old school, however. The new idea would 
rattle you out as many variegated-leaved Pine Apple 
plants as one could count in a summer’s day, without 
allowing them to fruit at all, and make suckers in the old- 
fashioned way, to be rooted in tan in front of their betters, 
and so forth. 
The new way to get variegated Aloes, variegated Pine 
Apple Plants, variegated Yuccas, and all variegated¬ 
leaved plants which grow, as Pines, Aloes, and Yuccas, 
is to get the plant first well rooted in strong, rich, stiff 
soil, and then wait till the approach of the next growth, 
which is easily perceived in such plants by the land¬ 
mark of the resting time at the bottom of the leaves. As 
soon as growth sets in, a grand plunge is made into the 
very heart of the plant with a long pointed piece of iron 
rod, with two or three short barbs made next the point. 
The point is thrust down in the centi’e between the leaves ; 
and when it is at the bottom it is twisted round and 
round, so that the barbs may lacerate and destroy the 
lengthening point, or bud, from which new leaves or a 
flower and fruit-stem would issue. In fact, it is just the 
same as cutting off the top of a Brussels Sprout to hasten 
the sprouts, or stopping the leader of a tree or branch 
in order to get more side-branches. 
At this point doctors differ. Some of them hold 
that all the leaves on a stopped Pine plant, or on the 
stump of one just fruited, should be left whole to do the 
work; and others maintain, and I am of their number, 
that that is riding science without a saddle. One can get 
to the end of a journey without a saddle, it is true; but 
then it shakes one so much, that, rather than repeat the 
task, one would walk the whole distance. For the 
result which the young ideas are driving at, all the old 
leaves on the Pine Apple plant, and on the Yuccas 
and Aloes, and all their allies, must be cut down as low 
as possible, and a smart bottom heat is to be then 
applied to circulate the sap more freely than common; 
and as there is no top bud to push on, or an old leaf to be 
filled as fast as it has parted with its last load, something 
else must give way to let out the heated juices—and that 
something is another something worth looking at. Every 
part of the root-stock that ever supported a leaf has a 
hidden bud at that part, as sure as the centre bud which 
was barbed out; and the force of the sap in this pent-up 
condition will put life and motion into ever so many of 
these mole-eyed buds, and cause them to break out into 
side-suckers or branches. Then, instead of standing up 
at the old notch of so many half guineas for fine varie¬ 
gated-leaved this, that, and the other essential, they will 
soon come rattling down to a roaring trade price, which 
will soon pay for past cheese-parings and stagnation of 
the circulating medium. 
It was not for the sake of getting cheap plants with 
fine foliage, however, but to show the two ways by which 
Tritoma uvaria might be propagated to get that acre 
of land planted, that I thought of the fast fashion of 
increasing Aloe-like plants. Tritoma itself being an Aloe¬ 
like plant, or a Pine Apple-like plant, and all such plants 
never flower but once from the same part; and after 
that part has flowered, the leaves on it may be cut right 
down, if the aim is an increase of offsets, but no cutting- 
down except for that one object. How, if I were to grow 
Tritoma uvaria to the highest pitch of perfection, I would 
not allow a morsel of the leaves to be cut off; or if I only 
wanted two or three more plants, I would never cut it after 
the manner of cutting Potatoes, nor late in the autumn. I 
would wait till March, and then take “ the half-of-the- 
battle ” system with so many of the strongest suckers—• 
that is, I would look out a plant or plants which had 
the fewest and strongest suckers on, then cut off the old 
top or leaves, and merely divide the old root-stock into 
three or four parts, with as many roots to each as possible, 
and plant them at once where they are to bloom. But 
when the object is to divide the old plant into the greatest- 
number of sets, I would do it late in the autumn, before 
the three or four strongest offsets could have time to 
draw to themselves the -whole force of the old root-stock, 
so that all the sets would have a share in the sap. These 
larger number of sets might be planted at once where 
they are to remain ; but as they will only advance in the 
roots all the winter, I prefer putting them in lighter soil 
till April, for the express purpose of enabling 5 them to 
multiply the roots in the meantime, and to give them 
the advantage of the next start in richer and stronger soil. 
What I have done with my fifteen plants from the 
small sets of last year is this. I planted three pairs of 
the strongest of them, in three front gardens, to show 
his lordship of St. Leonard’s the lawful way of bringing 
these most beautiful flowers before him and the public, 
as they pass up or down the Victoria Hoad, Surbiton! 
Four more of them are off to better quarters than mine • 
one is left to see how soon it will rise to seventy spikes 
of bloom in the original bed; and four I have divided 
into twenty-eight young plants, one of which made nine 
sets, and all of them could have been made into ten or 
twelve sets, if the old plant had been cut so close as 
those were last year. If the fifteen had been cut to ten 
pieces each—and that they could have been comfort¬ 
ably—there would be 150 at the end of the first twelve 
months from two ordinary small ones; and the 150 could 
be in the market, and in first-rate market-order, by the 
end of the next season’s growth. At that rate, a moderate 
rate, this plant yields ten-fold in one season. One acre 
this year to give ten acres next year is no bad increase • 
but a stagnation at the roots never fails to induce a cor¬ 
responding stagnation in the market. The more costly 
a plant is, the less likely it is to pay. This Tritoma 
stood at 30s. per dozen for more than twenty years 
running, and one could hardly make bread and cheese 
of it. Now that it is down to 12s. a dozen, dealers can 
have beefsteaks and good puddings out of it and plenty 
to spare. 
There are fifteen thousand witnesses, passengers on the 
South Western Bailway, who can testify to the success 
of Tritoma as a half-water plant in my garden ; but next 
year, if I live, I mean to turn over a new leaf, and in 
April make a trench across the garden parallel with the 
Southwestern for the twenty-eight sets just mentioned. 
The trench will be about the same as for Celery in every 
particular; the planting out will be about fifteen inches 
apart, and I shall earth them up on the old-fashioned way 
of earthing-up Celery as fast as they grow, till the 
trench is filled to within three inches of the level of the 
garden, and that will leave me a shallow trough to pour 
as much water into as I possibly can, and some strong 
water very often. But for ordinary work I would only 
advise planting very young sets, after the manner of 
Celeriac, or as deep as early Potatoes, and a large basin 
left to each plant; and this, with Samuel Gilbert’s plan 
