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Pineries

tion; and cuttings of plants sent to any distance which can be accomplished in eight months, or even longer with some kinds. Scions of the apple, pear, etc., if enveloped in clay, and wrapt up in moss or straw, and then placed in a portable icehouse, so as to prevent a greater heat than 32° | back flues to be raised above its level. to be eighteen inches above ground. The backwall of the centre one to be five feet, and of the others to be four and a half feet higher than the front. The front and end flues to be separated from the bark bed by a three inch cavity, and the from penetrating to them, would keep for a year, and might thus be sent from England to China.

The buds of fruit trees may be preserved in a vegetating state, and sent to a considerable distance by reducing the half-stalks to a short length, and enclosing the shoot in a double fold of cabbage-leaf, bound close together at each end, and then enclosing the package in a letter. It is of advantage to place the under surface of the cabbage-leaf inwards, by which the enclosed branch is supplied with humidity, that being the porous surface of the leaf, the other surface being nearly or wholly impervious to moisture.

Screen for protecting Wall Trees.

It consists of two deal poles, on which is nailed thin canvas, previously dipped in a tanner's bark pit, to prevent its being mildewed when rolled up wet. At the top the ends of the poles fit into double iron loops, projecting a few inches from the wall, immediately under the coping; and at the bottom they are fixed by a hole at the end of each pole, upon a forked iron coupling which projects about fourteen inches from the wall, thereby giving the screen a sufficient inclination to clear the branches. When it is wished to uncover the trees, one of the poles is disengaged, and rolled back to the side of the other, where it is fastened as before. The most violent winds have no injurious effect upon shades of this kind; a wall is very expeditiously covered and uncovered, and there is not any danger of damaging the blossoms in using them; they occupy very little space when rolled up, are not liable to be out of order; and, although rather expensive at first, seem to be very durable.

From the facility with which the screen is put up, it may be beneficially used in the seasons when fruit ripens to secure a succession, by retarding the crop of any particular tree.

The lower ends of the poles are advantageously retained in their place by means of a small iron spring key, attached to the coupling by a short chain.

To protect Fruits from Insects.

Some species, as wasps, flies, etc., are prevented from attacking ripe fruits by gauze or nets, or by inclosing the fruit, as grapes, in bags.

The blossoms of the hoya carnosa drives wasps from grapes in hot-houses; and the fruit of the common yew-tree the same in open air.

To manage Pineries.

The culture of Pine-apples (says Nicol), is attended with a heavier expense than that of any other fruit under glass, especially if they be grown in lofty stoves; but, independent of this, pine-apples may certainly be produced in as great perfection, if not greater, and with infinitely less trouble and risk, in fluid pits, if properly constructed, than in any other way. The pinery should, therefore, be detached from the other forcing-houses, and consists of three pits in a range; one for crowns and suckers, one for succession, and one for fruiting plants. The fruiting pit to be placed in the centre, and the other two right and left, forming a range of one hundred feet in length, which would give pine-apples enough for a large family.

The fruiting pit to be forty feet long, and ten wide, over walls; and each of the others to be thirty feet long, and nine feet wide also over walls. The breast-wall of the whole to be on a line, and The furnaces may either be placed in front or at the back, according to convenience; but the strength of the heat should be first exhausted in front, and should return in the back flues. The fruiting pit would require two small furnaces in order to diffuse the heat regularly, and keep up a proper temperature in winter; one to be placed at each end; and either to play first in front and return in the back; but the flues to be above, and not alongside of one another. The under one to be considered merely as an auxiliary flue, as it would be wanted occasionally. None of these flues need be more than five or six inches wide, and nine or ten deep. Nor need the furnaces be so large, by a third or a fourth part, as those for large forcing houses; because there should be proper oil-cloth covers for the whole, as guards against severe weather, which would be a great saving of fuel. The depth of the pits should be regulated so that the average depth of the bark-beds may be a yard below the level of the front flues, as to that level the bark will generally settle, although made as high as their surfaces when new stirred up. If leaves, or a mixture of leaves with dung, quire to be a foot or half a yard deeper. are to be used instead of bark, the pits will re-

General Mode of Cultivating the Pine.

The culture of this plant generally commences in a common hot-bed frame, heated by dung; at the end of six or nine months it is removed to a larger framed hot-bed or pit, generally called a succession-bed; and after remaining here from three to twelve months, it is removed to its final destination, the fruiting-bed. Here it shows its fruit, continues in a growing state during a period of from six to twelve months, according to the variety grown, mode of culture, etc., and finally ripens its fruit and dies, leaving the crown or terminal shoot of the fruit, and one or more suckers or side-shoots as successors. The production of a single pine-apple, therefore, requires a course of exotic culture, varying from eighteen months to three years.

Soil.

The pine-apple plant will grow in any sort of rich earth taken from a quarter of the kitchen garden, or in fresh sandy loam taken from a common pastured with sheep, etc. If the earth be not of a rich, sandy quality, of darkish color, it should be mixed well with some perfectly rotten dung and sand, and if a little vegetable mould is put with it, it will do it good, and also a little soot. Though pine-plants will grow in earth of the strongest texture, yet they grow most freely in good sandy loam not of a binding quality.

Heat.

Pines do not require so strong a bottom-heat as many keep them in; yet there is something in a mild tan-heat so congenial to their natures, that they thrive much better in pots plunged in a barkbed, if properly managed, than when planted out on a bed of earth that is heated, and often scorched by under-flues. The tan or bark-pits are, therefore, essential to the pinery. Bark-pits are filled with tan which has previously under+ gone a course of draining and sweating. The heat thus produced will last from three to six months, when it is sifted and again put in a state of fermentation, by replacing the deficiency occasioned by decay, and a separation of the dust by | fruit, by having a few of the lower leaves of the sifting with new tan. In this way the bark-bed is obliged to be stirred, turned, refreshed, or even renewed, several times a year, so as to produce and retain at all times a bottom-heat of from 75° to 85° in each of the three departments of pine culture.

Propagation of the Pine.

The pine is generally propagated by crowns and suckers, though, in common with every other plant, it may be propagated by seed.

To separate Crowns and Suckers.

When the fruit is served at table, the crown is to be detached by a gentle twist, and returned to the gardener, if it be wanted for a new plant.

Fruit stalk suckers are taken off at the same period. Suckers at the base of the herb are commonly fit for separation when the fruit is mature; though, if the stool be vigorous, they may be left on for a month after the fruit is cut, the stool receiving plentiful waterings on their account. The fitness of a sucker to be removed is indicated, at the lower part of the leaves, by a brownish tint; on the appearance of which, if the lower leaf be broken off, the sucker is easily displanted by the thumb.

If the old fruiting-plant offers only small bottom suckers, or fails to furnish any, good suckers may be thus brought out: having waited till the fruit is cut, take the old plant in its pot out of the bark-bed; strip off the under-leaves near the root, and with the knife cut away the leaves to six inches from the bottom. Take out some of the stale mould from the pot, fill up with fresh, and give a little water. Plunge the old plant into a bed with a good growing heat. Let the routine culture not be neglected, and the old plants will soon send out good suckers; allow these to grow till they are four inches long or more, and on the signs of fitness detach them.

As soon as either crowns or suckers are detached, twist off some of the leaves about the base; the vacancy thus made at the bottom of the stem is to favor the emission of roots. Pare the stump smooth; then lay the intended plants on a shelf in a shaded part of the stove or any dry apartment. Let crowns and fruit off-sets lie till the part that adhered to the fruit is perfectly healed; and root suckers in the same manner till the part which was united to the old stock is become dry and firm. They will be fit to plant in five or six days.

Treatment of the Plants.

Keep the plants growing gently, and have the pots, in general, completely filled with the roots by the time at which it is intended to excite them into blossom. From the middle of February to the 1st of March is a good time to have the main crop in flowers; as the prospective season is the finest. About a month before it is expected to see fruit dress the plants by taking away two inches in depth from the top of the mould. Twist off some of the lower leaves. Fill up with fresh compost, round the stem, to the remaining leaves.

The bark-bed should be revived at the same time, so as to make it lively; but no new tan should be added till the time for the fullest heat arrives.

If it is desired to ripen eminently large fruit, destroy the suckers as they spring, by twisting out their hearts with an iron sharp-pointed instrument formed for the purpose. Apply this to the heart of the sucker; and, turning it round, bring the heart away; on the other hand, when the multiplication of the stock is a principal object, the suckers must not be extirpated. A yet further advantage may be given to the swelling of the plant taken off, and by putting a rim of tin, or anything else in the form of a hoop, round the top of the pot, sufficient to raise the mould three or four inches. The mould should be of the best quality, and constantly kept in a moderately moist state; this may be done by having the surface kept covered with moistened moss. The roots of the pine-plant, especially those produced from the part of the stem just under the leaves, will then make a surprising progress, and the fruit will be greatly benefited by this expedient.

To cut Ripe Pines.

The indications of maturity are a diffusive fragrance, accompanied by change in the color of the fruit; most sorts becoming yellow or straw color; others dark green, or yellowish tinged with green. Cut pine-apples before they are dead ripe, or the spirit of the flavor will be dissipated. Bring away with the fruit above five inches of stalk, and leave the crown adhering to the top.

If pine-apples be not cut soon after they begin to color, they fall greatly off in flavor and richness, and that sharp luscious taste, so much admired, becomes insipid.

To destroy Insects in Pines.

If the plants by proper culture be kept healthy and vigorous, insects will not annoy, but leave them. The coccus hesperides seems to delight in disease and decay, as flies do in carrion. The following recipe may safely be applied to pine-apples in any state, but certainly best to crowns and suckers, at striking them in August; to others it may, at any rate, be used in the March shifting, when they are shaken out of their pots:

Take of soft soap, 1 pound; flowers of sulphur, 1 pound; tobacco, half a pound; nux vomica, 1 ounce; soft water, 4 gallons. Boil all these together till the liquor is reduced to three gallons, and set it aside to cool. In this liquor immerse the whole plant, after the roots and leaves are trimmed for potting. Plants in any other state, placed in the bark-bed, may safely be watered over head with the liquor reduced in strength by the addition of a third part of water. As the bug harbors most in the angles of the leaves, there is the better chance that the medicated water will be effectual, because it will there remain the longest, and there its sediment will settle. The above is a remedy for every species of the coccus; and for most insects, on account of its strength and glutinous nature. Its application will make the plants look dirty; therefore, as soon as the intended effects may be supposed to have followed, whatever remains of the liquor on the leaves should be washed off with clean water. It would be improper to pour a decoction charged with such offensive materials, over fruiting plants. Other Methods.

Turn the plants out of the pots, and clean the roots; then keep them immersed for twenty-four hours in water in which tobacco stalks have been infused. The bugs are then to be rubbed off with a sponge, and plants, after being washed in clean water and dipped, are to be repotted.

In the "Caledonian Horticultural Transactions," a similar mode is described, only in the place of tobacco-juice flowers of sulphur are directed to be mixed with the water. With a bit of bass-mat, fixed on a small stick and dipped in water, displace as many of the insects as can be seen. Then immerse the plants in a tub of water, containing about one pound of flowers of sulphur to each garden potful. Let them remain covered in the water twenty-four hours, then lay them with