“If no vegetable mould has been provided, light rich earth, from a fallowed part of the kitchen garden, may be substituted: there is no difference of any account between one and the other, further than this: The vegetable mould is sure to be virgin earth, from which no aliment has been extracted; the mould from the kitchen garden, however you may trench, and rest, and enrich it, cannot but contain many particles which have given out their fertilizing qualities to previous crops. Dung perfectly decomposed comes to the same thing as vegetable mould; therefore that one of them which is most attainable, or best prepared, may fitly serve instead of the other.
“Of the first three take equal quantities; making three-fourths of the intended compost. Constitute the remaining fourth thus: Let river-gravel, sea-sand, and shell-marl, furnish each a twelfth part. The small gravel is to afford something for the roots to lay hold of; the sea-sand, to promote lightness and dryness; the shell-marl, the better to support the growth of fibres and integuments and parts not pulpy. Mix with the whole a fortieth part soot, to offend and repel worms. Incorporate the ingredients fully; and turn the heap two or three times before using it.”
General management. “As soon as either crowns or suckers are detached from the parent plant, directions are given to twist off some of the leaves about the base; the vacancy, thus made, at the bottom of the stem, is to favour the emission of roots. Pare the stump smooth; then lay the intended plants on a shelf in a shaded part of the stove, or of the green-house, or of 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. As to the prolonged period for which they may remain out of culture: Pine-plants have been kept six months without mould, in a moderately warm dry state, and the only injury has been loss of time. Crowns or suckers coming off before Michaelmas should be planted without any unnecessary delay, to get established before, the winter. When late-fruiting plants do not afford off-sets till after Michaelmas, it is best to keep them in a dormant state during the months least favourable to artificial culture: therefore, as you obtain these late off-sets, hang them up in the house, not too near the flues, to rest till March.”
Insects. Mr. Nicol’s method, and also that by M’Phail, are both quoted with approbation. The following wash is directed to be applied exclusively to the building, and by no means to the plants. “At the annual cleansing of the house, if insects are supposed to breed in the building, introduce the wash with a brush into the cracks and joints of the wood-work, and the crevices of the wall.
Recipe for the Wash. “Of sulphur vivum take 2 oz. soft soap, 4 oz. Make these into a lather, mixed with a gallon of water that has been poured in a boiling state upon a pound of mercury. The mercury will last, to medicate fresh quantities of water, almost perpetually.”
Fruit produced. To ripen eminently large fruit, he directs the removal or destruction of suckers; to retard the progress of fruit that have appeared too early, he shifts in Nicol’s manner; and when fruit is ripening too fast, or too many advancing to a ripe state together, he retards a part of the plants by setting them into a dry airy place, affording both shade and shelter. “Give no water as long as you wish to suspend their progress. For the same purpose, others may be set out green; but whilst the excitement of these is lowered, they must be kept in a growing state.” Practical Gardener, 643.
Sect. XII.
Culture of the Pine Apple by Mr. James Andrews, commercial gardener, Vauxhall.
Mr. Andrews has been considered the best grower of Pines in the neighbourhood of London for many years; his principal object is to grow fruit for the market; but the demand for the plants by private gardeners, and others, has generally been so great, that he can seldom keep the plants till the last stage of their growth.