The houses are placed in pairs, the furnaces for general use at the extreme ends of the range, and the auxiliary ones in the middle, where the steam-boiler is also placed, but worked by a fire apart.
On the whole, no plan of Pine-stove that has yet appeared, is more simple, neat, economical, and complete than this; the only fault we have to them, is, that owing to the great thickness of wood employed on the bars of the sashes, they are rather dark and gloomy within; but this might easily be remedied by the substitution of light iron rafters, with wooden framed sashes sliding in them, but the bars of the sashes formed of iron. It is true, gloomy as these houses are, the Pines thrive in them as well as can be wished, but probably by having more light, they might thrive, so as to surpass all expectation.
Soil. Good yellow loam, with a third of rotten dung, and some road grit to serve as sand. This is well mixed together, and passed through a wide screen, and the pots are well drained with three or four pieces of potsherd.
General management. This differs in little or nothing from that of Mr. Andrews; and only from that of Mr. Baldwin in the crowns and suckers being struck in pots, instead of the bark, as is Mr. Baldwin’s practice. Supposing the crowns and suckers potted in September, they are not disturbed till the following March; such as are very forward, are shifted at once into large pots, and will show fruit in the course of that autumn, or within the year, and ripen their fruit in November or December, very desirable periods for the royal table, equally expeditious, as in Mr. Baldwin’s mode, and more so than in Cuba or Jamaica. The plants which are in a less forward state are disrooted entirely, put into pots according to their sizes, nursed all the summer in the pits, and moved to the larger houses in autumn, where they show fruit at various periods, during the winter, and in the following season; thus ripening their fruit at different periods, from eighteen months to two and a half years, from the time they were taken from the parent plants. The pots in which these plants are fruited, seldom exceed twelve inches in diameter.
Insects. Various modes of getting rid of these was attempted both at Kew and Kensington; that which was finally successful was steeping for two or three hours in strong tobacco-water, as recommended by Miller; then washing in pure water two or three times—drying, planting, shading, and applying a brisk bottom heat, a moist atmosphere, and giving a little air. This recovered the plants, and future regimen continued them in the vigorous state of health in which they now are.
Fruit produced. The object, and it is most successfully attained, is to have handsome Pines on the royal table every day in the year; they cannot, of course, be very high-flavoured in the winter and spring months; but appearance, in some cases, is every thing—they look well, the golden hue of the Apple, mimic grandeur of the crown, and the presence of such a rare fruit at an uncommon season, accords well with the pomp and splendour of a royal table. As to flavor, indeed, by the time the desert appears on great occasions, the palate is generally seasoned with wine, and a few drops of alcohol are already transferred to the ventricles of the brain; when that is the case, every fruit has just what flavor it ought to have; for the fine phrensy of a warmed imagination knows no degree of merit but the superlative.
CHAP. V.
IMPROVEMENTS RECENTLY ATTEMPTED IN THE CULTURE OF THE PINE APPLE.
The Pine Apple has never been so generally cultivated in this country as it might have been, from an idea that its culture is attended with more difficulty and expense than that of all other fruits; and, also, from the circumstance of the greater number of gardeners being ignorant of its cultivation. With respect to the difficulty of cultivating this fruit, every gardener, who knows any thing about it, knows it is much easier grown and fruited than the cucumber early in spring, or the melon at any period of the year. In short, with the single difference of requiring an artificial temperature, it is as easy, or easier to grow than a common cabbage:—it is not nearly so liable to insects as that plant is in dry seasons; and of two plantations, the one of crowns or suckers of Pines, and the other of seedling cabbages, we may venture to assert, that more of the former will perfect their fruit than those of the latter will perfect their loaf or head.