“When we see human creatures lean in body for want of a sufficiency of wholesome food, or, for want of cleanliness, lice and fleas breed upon them; and poverty in cattle for want of food has the same effect on them. Similar causes in vegetables has a similar effect, so that when Pine Apple plants are in a state of poverty, for want of a sufficiency of good earth, or of heat, or of water, insects natural to them, if there be any of them in the hot-house, will breed rapidly on them and hurt them. Those insects which naturally breed and live on the Pine Apple plant, appear to delight in a dry dirty situation. Where Pine Apples grow naturally and produce large fruit, they are not free of insects; and though plants be free of insects, they will not grow well, nor produce fine fruit, unless they get enough of good earth, sufficient heat, and be watered plentifully.”
Fruit produced. The green, and some other sorts of Pine, Mr. M’Phail “ripened in a shorter period of time than two years after planting,” (Gard. Rem. 87.) but some large kinds he found required three seasons, as the black Antigua, Jamaica, and Ripley. His object was to have his fruit come in for use between May and October, for he very justly remarks, that “the fruit of the Pine Apple, if it happen to appear ripe in winter, will have its flavour insipid.” He therefore recommends, that such plants as show fruit in September or October, had better be cast away, unless there be plenty of room for them in the hot-house; in that case they may be retained by way of experiment, and to obtain young plants from them. (Gard. Rem. 98.)
Sect. VIII.
Culture of the Pine Apple in Fifeshire, by Mr. Walter Nicol.
Mr. Nicol was from 1790 to 1800, the best grower of the Pine Apple in Scotland; he had afterwards much experience as a constructor of hot-houses; and extensive observation of the practice of the best gardeners of the north.
Form of House. “Pineries,” he says, “are, and may be, very differently constructed; and we find plants thriving, and plants not thriving, in all kinds of stoves, pits, &c. The culture of Pine Apples is attended with a heavier expense than that of any other fruit under glass; especially if they be grown in lofty stoves, the erection of which is very expensive, and the keeping up proportionally more so, than that of humbler stoves, or flued pits.
“But, independently of all considerations of expense (which may not be valued by some, provided they can obtain good fruit), Pine Apples may certainly be produced in as great perfection, if not greater, and with infinitely less trouble and risk, in flued pits, if properly constructed, than in any other way. I would therefore have the Pinery detached from the other forcing-houses, and to consist 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 a hundred feet in length; which would give Pine Apples enough for a large family.
“The fruiting-pit to be forty feet long, and ten feet 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 to be eighteen inches above ground. The back-wall 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 back flues to be raised above its level.
“The furnaces may either be placed in front, or at the back, according to conveniency; 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; as in that latter way they would take up too much room. The under one to be considered merely as an auxiliary flue, as it would only 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.