The culture of the grape is, to a certain extent, combined with that of the Pine Apple; the former is trained on the rafters, and the latter grown in a pit, surrounded by flues and a path. In addition to the flues, many of the fruiting-houses have stoves built in them, on the German construction, which are used in the most severe weather. Sometimes there is a double roof of glass; but more generally the roof, ends, and fronts, are covered with boards; which not only prevents the weight of sudden falls of snow from breaking the glass, but by admitting of a coating of snow over them, prevents, in a considerable degree, the internal heat from escaping. This covering, or a covering of mats or canvass, as practised near Moscow, and from which the snow is raked off as fast as it falls, is sometimes kept on night and day for three months together. The plants being all the while in a dormant state, it is remarkable how little they suffer.
The best ranges of hot-houses in the neighbourhood of Petersburg, have been imported there from Leith, or London. At Moscow, where the same facility of importation is not afforded, they are constructed on the spot, in a very rude manner; in the best of them, the interstices between the sashes and rafters are so large, that they have to be stuffed with moss. Still it is astonishing how well the Pine Apple is preserved in them through a long winter, and what excellent peaches and grapes they produce during summer. The cause seems to be owing to the great care and skill of the gardeners, in keeping the plants in a dormant state, when there is but little light; and in applying powerfully all the agents of growth and culture, during the short, but warm Russian summer.
There are some German gardeners in Russia, who cultivate the Pine Apple in pits as in Holland; and crowns and suckers are forwarded in this way by them, and also by the British gardeners settled in that country.
Sect. IV.
Culture of the Pine Apple in France.
The culture of the Pine Apple does not appear to have been commenced in France till after the middle of the eighteenth century, and then only in the royal gardens at Versailles, in those of the Duke of Orleans at Mousseaux, and one or two others. It has never been cultivated by above a dozen persons in that country; nor is it grown by so great a number at the present time. The best are in the garden of M. Boursault, within the boundary of Paris; and the next those of the king at Trianon and Versailles, and of the banker Lafitte, at his country-seat, a few leagues from the capital.
M. Boursault grows them in low houses, which may be termed pits, being without glass in the front or ends; the plants are plunged in tan, and kept as near the glass as possible; and the soil used is good garden earth, or free soil (terre-franche), with about half its bulk of poudrette, or desiccated nightsoil. M. Boursault tried them formerly in the poudrette alone, but found they did not succeed so well as when a smaller quantity was used. He produces fruit from half a pound to two pounds in weight, and it is said of a good flavour.
Rosier states, that M. Mallet, a curious horticulturist, grew ananas in a peculiarly constructed frame of his own invention ([fig. 3.]); but we could see none of these frames in use in any way, and were informed by different persons, that they were too expensive in their first cost to succeed.
3
The Pine plants in the royal gardens, did not appear to us so well cultivated as those of M. Boursault; they were very much drawn, and seemed too sparingly watered. All the Pine plants which we have seen in France, and also in Italy, had this yellow sickly appearance; and the fruit produced was universally of small size; one of three pips is thought worth presenting to table. It is certainly a very singular fact, and not hitherto explained, that the Pine plant in a climate where it gets more light than in Germany, Britain, or Russia, should yet be less green than in those countries. Had the reverse been the case, the circumstance would not have been surprising; but that more green should be produced in the northern hemisphere, and under the torrid zone, than under what might be considered as a happy medium between two extremes, is astonishing, and leads to a suspicion of deficiency of management. The cause seems referable to deficiency of water, and too great heat during night; for during day they have the precaution to shade them from the sun’s direct influence.