Fruit produced. The object of every commercial gardener is to have some fruit ripening in every month of the year, but especially in winter, when the price is high. In summer great numbers are imported, or sent in from the hired-out gardens of country gentlemen, which greatly reduces the market value below the real value, or actual cost of production.
The Pine Apple is extensively cultivated by Mr. Grange, of Kingsland, and Mr. Wilmot, of Isleworth, in nearly the same manner as by Mr. Andrews and Mr. Gunter. Those of Mr. Wilmot’s are, at present, in the most luxuriant and prosperous state; Mr. Grange’s are also in a very respectable condition. In both, the plants are grown and fruited in pits, and larger houses, which resemble those of Earlscourt ([fig. 12.]) as nearly as possible; in both, also, the heat is communicated by steam.
Sect. XIV.
Culture of the Pine Apple, by Mr. Isaac Oldacre, gardener to Lady Banks, at Spring-grove, Middlesex.
Mr. Oldacre is an excellent kitchen-gardener, and an ingenious and curious man. He was several years head-gardener at one of the Emperor of Russia’s residences near Petersburg, and has the merit of having introduced from that country, the German mode of rearing mushrooms. Having returned to this country about the year 1813, for his health, he some years afterwards became gardener to Sir Joseph Banks, in whose gardens he has cultivated the Pine Apple with moderately good success, and we have introduced this Section on purpose to notice some peculiarities of treatment which he adopts, and some strange opinions which he holds, or lately held.
Form of House. The plants are brought forward in dung, or tan-frames, or hot-beds, and also in flued-pits; but generally fruited in houses combining the culture of the Vine and the Pine. Mr. Oldacre has two of these houses, one is built of timber, in the usual way, ([fig. 13.]) and the other is of the same form, but roofed with copper sashes. A full command over the air of these houses is obtained by the returns made by the flue in the back path (a); the curb of the pit is about three feet from the glass in front (b); and about five feet from it behind (c); vines are trained up the rafters, but none are grown in the back path (e), which is paved.
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In addition to the flues, steam is also employed as a medium of communicating heat. But the apparatus was erected chiefly as matter of patriotism, when steam first came in vogue, and is on a very imperfect plan, and of little real use. The boilers are placed over the furnaces, and the same fire which heats the water of the boiler, passes along the flue; the steam tube of the boiler is laid on the top of the flue, and extends no farther than it extends. It is evident, therefore, that scarcely any advantage can result from the use of the boiler, unless it be that the heat is thus sent more effectually to the opposite end of the house to that at which the fire enters, or that the vapour is very readily admitted from the steam-pipe to fill the air of the house. None of these advantages, however, will compensate the expense of the apparatus; the first is hardly wanted where houses are placed in a connected range, as the two outside ends of the houses are kept warm by the flues entering there; and in the other houses a warm end is placed against a cold one.
Soil. At first, Mr. Oldacre used good sound loam and dung, with a little sand, when he found it necessary; but he has for the last four years grown his fruiting plants chiefly in powdered bones, in which he thinks they thrive better, and produce more highly-flavoured fruit. We have not, however, been able to discover any thing in the appearance of either fruit or plants, to lead us to suppose that powdered bones are more congenial to the Pine plant than good loam and dung; his plants are certainly not equal to Mr. Baldwin’s, nor superior to those grown by Mr. Andrews, or Mr. Aiton. We, therefore, consider their thriving in this compost a proof more of the hardy nature of the Pine, than of any thing else; we have no doubt it would grow in powdered granite, or coal, or almost any powder, not even excepting gunpowder, if a due proportion of well-rotted manure were added, and water, heat, light, and air, duly supplied.
General management. In this, Mr. Oldacre has nothing particular; he is careful not to let the temperature of either frames or pits, containing Pine plants fall under 60° in winter, but is not afraid of a heat of 90° or 100° in summer. After shifting, and occasionally during very hot weather, he shades the plants in the frames and succession-pits, well knowing that the want of abundant and extended roots must lessen that supply of moisture essential to the vigour of plants, during high sunshine, when evaporation is so powerful. His fruiting-plants he keeps in large pots, rather broad than deep, and so liberally supplies them with water, that evaporation and transpiration go on even in the hottest sun-shine, without injuring the plants. He waters often with liquid manure, generally the drainings of dunghills; frequently steams the house by watering the paths and flues when the steam apparatus is not at work; sometimes he waters the plants over the top; and at all times he keeps up a good bottom heat.