Sect. XIII.
Culture of the Pine Apple, as practised by Mr. Gunter, at Earlscourt, near Kensington; Mr. Grange, at Kingsland; and Mr. Wilmot, of Isleworth.
The family of Mr. Gunter have long possessed the very extensive gardens of Earlscourt, and grown in them kitchen vegetables, excellent hardy fruits, and melons, for the London market; but it is only within the last seven years that they have commenced the culture of the Pine Apple for the same purpose. This Mr. R. Gunter has done on the most liberal and extensive scale, and with great and merited success.
Form of House. Like Mr. Andrews, Mr. Gunter uses both pits and large houses; in the pits he both nurses the plants, and fruits them, and in the large houses he fruits the Pine Apple, and produces very early grapes at the same time.
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The large houses ([fig. 12.]) are, in what may be called the usual form; they differ from M’Phail’s, and the houses built by Speechly, and originally by Nicol, in not having a path in front; and from those of Mr. Aiton, erected in the royal gardens at Kensington, in the pit being farther from the glass. They are about fourteen feet wide inside measure; the pit is ten feet three inches wide, three feet deep, three and a half feet from the glass in front (a), and about six feet and a half behind (b). The back path (c) is a border regularly dug and manured, to encourage the roots of the vines, which pass under the bark bed to the front border. Each house is forty feet long, and has a flue proceeding from the back wall to the front, and along the front to the opposite end, returning to the back wall in the usual manner. As the houses are all heated by steam, however, these flues are erected merely by way of security, in case of any accident happening to the boiler or the pipes (d, e), and are therefore seldom used. Besides the vines trained over the back path, there are others which are led up the rafters; both root into excellent soil, and their shoots are withdrawn in autumn to give them three months’ rest in the open air. Those at the back wall are withdrawn through an opening in the angle of the upper sash; those in front through an angle of the front sash.
The pits are sunk in the ground to the sill of the sashes in front, and within eighteen inches, or two feet of the sill behind. In all of them, the tan is inclosed by brick walls; they are generally about seven feet wide within walls, but some are as wide as fourteen feet, with the front wall six inches above ground, and the back wall two feet ten inches. The sashes in these broad pits are in two lengths, as in hot-house roofs; none of them have any flues, being all heated together, with the hot-houses, and various other descriptions of pits, by an extensive steam apparatus. This apparatus was erected by Mr. Mainwaring, of Blackfriars, and is one of the most complete of its kind, excepting in the circumstance of the steam-pipes having what are technically called spigott and faucet joints, which, it is alleged, are more apt, by their contraction and expansion, to allow the escape of the steam than the flanched joints. The advantage of the former mode of jointing is, that the steam-tube contracts and expands in parts; and, of course, that this contraction and expansion must be very trifling on every part; whereas, when iron tubes are joined by flanches, they become, in effect, one tube; and the contraction, or expansion, takes place throughout their whole length.
Soil. Good garden earth, enriched with well-rotted hot-bed dung; the soil of the open garden at Earlscourt, is a rich black loam, and seems to suit the Pine Apple as well as virgin earth brought from a distance.
General management. Much the same as that of Mr. Andrews. Mr. Gunter tried to substitute the heat of steam for that of tan, as a bottom heat, but did not succeed. He formed a chamber, or vacuity of about six inches in depth, and covered it with perforated oak-plank; on this he placed the earth, in which, in some cases, he turned the plants out of the pots; and, in others, plunged the pots in the earth, or in rotten tan. The steam was admitted to fill the chamber; the quantity of heat imparted to the earth was very great, but, contrary to his expectation, no vapour ascended into the mould, which became excessively dry and husky; nor was he able, by frequent waterings, to keep it in a state fit for vegetation; the roots of the plants in it, in spite of every precaution, become shrivelled and dry.
Insects. None of any consequence have yet appeared at Earlscourt, nor is it likely they will ever become numerous there, while steam is used. Were they to become ever so abundant, keeping the air of the house filled with steam for two or three days together, would effectually destroy them.