(coccus hesperidum), without the smallest hesitation; made no effort
whatever to get rid of them; and by next shifting time, in two or three
months, have seen no more of them. This I have not done once, but often;
and I have known my brother do the same thing. In short, I never but
once in my life have tried any remedy for the _bug_; and as I was
completely successful, I shall here give the recipe, which may safely be
applied to Pine plants in any state; but certainly best to crowns and
suckers at striking them, or to others in the March shifting, when they
are shaked out of their pots at any rate.
“Take soft soap, one pound; flowers of sulphur, one pound; tobacco, half
a pound; nux vomica, an ounce; which boil all together in four English
gallons of soft water to three, and set it aside to cool. In this liquor
immerse the whole plant, after the roots and leaves are trimmed for
potting; and this is the whole matter. Plants in any other state, and
which are placed in the bark-bed, may safely be watered over head with
this liquor; and as the _bug_ harbours most in the angles of the
leaves, it stands the better chance of being effectual, on account that
it will also there remain longest, and there its sediment will settle.
In using it in this latter way, however, if repeated waterings be
necessary, the liquor should be reduced in strength by the addition of a
third or a fourth part water.
“The brown scaly insect, also a coccus, is often found on the Pine, and
other stove plants; but I never could perceive that it does any other
injury than dirty them, and so is of less importance than the other
species, which eats or corrodes the leaves, in so far as it leaves them
full of brown specks or blotches. The above liquor, however, is a remedy
for either, and indeed for most insects, on account of its strength, and
glutinous nature.
“Ants are also to be found in the Pinery; but I never could observe that
they do the plants any harm, though they are generally to be found in
the pots, and among the bark. They are most frequently to be met with
there, if the coccus be present; and seem to feed on its larvæ, or
perhaps on its fæces.”
_Fruit produced._ He does not state any determinate object as to this
subject; if the object be to have large fruit, he says, all suckers of
the root and stem must be twisted off; and to retard the progress of
fruit that is shown too early, he recommends re-potting the plants in
February. He says, “If Pine Apples be not cut soon after they begin to
colour, that is, just when the fruit is of a greenish yellow, or straw
colour, they fall greatly off in flavour and richness; and that sharp
luscious taste so much admired, becomes insipid.”
SECT. IX.
_Culture of the Pine Apple, by Mr. William Griffin, Gardener to J.
C. Girardot, Esq. at Kelham, in Nottinghamshire, and now to Samuel
Smith, Esq. of Woodhall, in Hertfordshire._
Mr. Griffin has been a most successful cultivator of the Pine Apple;
perhaps more so for the limited means which he possessed at Kelham, than
either M’Phail or Baldwin.
_Form of House._ This is so nearly that of Speechly, that we do not
consider it necessary to give the details.
_Soil._ Mr. Griffin laughs at those who prescribe “many different
strange ingredients for composts;” adding, that, “after numerous
experiments made with mixtures of deers’, sheeps’, pigeons’, hens’, and
rotten stable-dung, with soot, and other manures, in various proportions
and combinations with fresh soil of different qualities from pastures
and waste lands, I can venture with confidence to recommend the
following: Procure from a pasture, or waste land, a quantity of brown,
rich, loamy earth, if of a reddish colour the better, but of a fattish
mouldy temperature; that by squeezing a handful of it together, and
opening your hand, it will readily fall apart again: be cautious not to
go deeper than you find it of that pliable texture; likewise procure,
if possible, a quantity of deers’-dung: if none can be conveniently got,
sheeps’-dung will do, and a quantity of swines’-dung. Let the above
three sorts be brought to some convenient place, and laid up in three
different heaps ridge-ways, for at least six months; and then mix them
in the following manner, covering the dung with a little soil before it
is mixed: four wheelbarrows of the above earth; one barrow of
sheep’s-dung, and two barrows of swine’s-dung. This composition,” he
adds, “if carefully and properly prepared, will answer every purpose for
the growth of Pine-plants of every age and kind. It is necessary that it
should remain a year before applied to use, that it may receive the
advantage of the summer’s sun and winter’s frost; and it need not be
screened or sifted before using, but only well broken with the hands and
spade, as when finely sifted it becomes too compact for the roots of the
plants.”
_General management._ In rearing the young plants, he generally plants
the crowns in the bark till they have struck root; but the suckers he
pots at once, unless they are small and green at bottom, when he treats
them like the crowns. The pots he uses for both crowns and suckers are
five inches diameter, and four inches deep, unless the suckers are very
strong, when he puts them in pots seven inches and a quarter wide, by
six and a half inches deep. The plants are shifted in the March
following into pots nine inches in diameter, by eight inches deep,
“turning each singly out of its present pot, with a ball of earth entire
around its roots, unless any appear unhealthy or any ways defective,
when it is eligible to shake the earth from the roots, and trim off all
the parts that appear not alive. He plunges them in the bark (refreshed
as at each shifting) eighteen inches from plant to plant in the row, and
twenty inches distance row from row.”
Mr. Griffin shifts for the last time in the October of the year
preceding them in which the fruit is expected; the pots he uses are
twelve inches in diameter, and ten inches deep. He plunges them in the
bark-bed, about twenty inches plant from plant, and two feet distance
from row to row. He says, “place the first row eighteen inches from the
kirb, angling them in the rows as you go on.”
It is of some consequence to remark, that Griffin’s practice in not
divesting the plants at any one shifting of their balls of earth,
differs from that of Speechly, Nicol, and most other practitioners,
excepting Baldwin. It appears highly probable, that by not disturbing
the balls of healthy plants, they will produce their fruit both earlier
and of a larger size; for the cutting off the roots must produce a check
in the growth of the plant, and their renewal must occupy its chief
energies for some time, and thus lessen the vigour of the leaves; since
the leaves and roots of all plants assist each other alternately as
occasion requires.
Those who advocate the practice of shaking off the balls of earth, and
cutting off the roots of Pines in the second year’s spring shifting,
say, that though, at first sight, it has an unnatural appearance, yet,
on more minute enquiry, it will be found congenial to nature. In the
first place, they say that they only cut away the lower decaying roots,
and preserve all the others, unless they are bruised by the shaking off
the ball; or injured by disease, or otherwise. In the next place, they
state, that on attentively examining the Pine-plant, it will be found,
that, in its mode of rooting, it may be classed with the strawberry,
vine, and crowfoot, which throw out fresh roots every year, in part
among, but chiefly above, the old ones. This done, the old ones become
torpid and decay, and to cut them clear away, if it could be done in all
plants of this habit, would, it is said, be assisting nature, and
contribute to the growth of the new roots. At the same time, it is to be
observed, that encouraging, in any extraordinary degree, the production
of roots, though it will ultimately increase the vigour of the herb and
fruit, will retard their progress to maturity.
Speechly has the following judicious observations in allusion to those
who recommend always shifting with the balls entire.
“First, It is observable, that the Pine-plant begins to make its roots
at the very bottom of the stem, and as the plant increases in size,
fresh roots are produced from the stem, still higher and higher; and the
bottom roots die in proportion: so that, if a plant in the greatest
vigour be turned out of its pot as soon as the fruit is cut, there will
be found at the bottom a part of the stem, several inches in length,
naked, destitute of roots, and smooth: now, according to the above
method, the whole of the roots which the plant produces being permitted
to remain on the stem to the last, the old roots decay and turn mouldy,
to the great detriment of those afterwards produced.
“Secondly, The first ball which remains with the plant full two years,
by length of time will become hard, cloddy, and exhausted of its
nourishment, and must, therefore, prevent the roots afterwards produced
from growing with that freedom and vigour, which they would do in
fresher and better mould.
“Thirdly, The old ball continually remaining after the frequent
shiftings, it will be too large when put into the fruiting-pot, to admit
of a sufficient quantity of fresh mould to support the plant till its
fruit becomes ripe, which is generally a whole year from the last time
of shifting.”
In giving air and water, Mr. Griffin differs nothing from Nicol; he
waters moderately in winter, and more liberally in the growing season,
from March till October; want of water to keep the plants moist, he
considers one of the reasons of their showing fruit prematurely. He
never waters over the leaves in any stage, nor gives much at the roots
in damp weather.
With respect to temperature, this author differs from most others who
have written on the Pine, but not from many very successful
practitioners. He recommends 60° as the heat proper for the Pine in
every stage, not exceeding five or six degrees over or under. The bottom
heat, which he considers proper, is from 90° to 100°. _Treatise on the
Pine Apple_, p. 60. and 66.
_Insects._ After many trials and experiments, he found the following the
most effectual wash for destroying insects on Pines:--
“To one gallon of soft rain-water, add eight ounces of soft green soap,
one ounce of tobacco, and three table spoonfuls of turpentine; stir and
mix them well together in a watering-pot, and let them stand for a day
or two. When you are going to use this mixture, stir and mix it well
again, then strain it through a thin cloth. If the fruit only is
infested, dash the mixture over the crown and fruit, with a squirt,
until all is fairly wet; and what runs down the stem of the fruit will
kill all the insects that are amongst the bottom of the leaves. When
young plants are infested, take them out of their pots, and shaking all
the earth from the roots, (tying the leaves of the largest plants
together,) and plunge them into the above mixture, keeping every part
covered for the space of five minutes; then take them out, and set them
on a clean place, with their tops declining downwards, for the mixture
to drain out of their centre. When the plants are dry, put them into
smaller pots than before, and plunge them into the bark-bed.”
_Fruit produced._ Mr. Griffin’s object seems to have been to produce
large fruit in the proper season. In the year 1802, when gardener to J.
C. Girardot, Esq. at Kelham, near Nottingham, he cut twenty Queen Pines,
which weighed together eighty-seven pounds seven ounces. In 1803, one
weighing five pounds three ounces. In July, 1804, one of the New
Providence kind, weighing seven pounds two ounces. In August, 1804, one
of the same kind, weighing nine pounds three ounces. And in 1805, he cut
twenty-two Queen Pines, which weighed together one hundred and eighteen
pounds three ounces.
SECT. X.
_Culture of the Pine Apple, by Mr. Thomas Baldwin, Gardener to the
Marquis of Hertford, at Ragley, in Warwickshire, from 1805 to the
present time._
Mr. Baldwin is reputed the first Pine cultivator in England; he has
given some account of his practice in a tract of a few pages, which,
being sold much above the usual price of printed books, never obtained
so much circulation as manuscript copies of it, which were handed about
among the principal Pine-growers near London.
[Illustration: 11]
_Form of House._ The succession, or nursing pits, according to Mr.
Baldwin’s plan (fig. 11.), in which the young plants are to remain both
winter and summer, should be constructed of timber, seven feet wide, and
seven feet three inches high at the back, the front being in the same
proportion. The method of preparing the bed is as follows:--“Sink your
pit (2.) three feet three inches deep, as long as you require, and
sufficiently broad to admit of linings on each side (1, 1.); make a good
drain at the bottom of the pit to keep it dry; then set posts, about the
dimensions of six inches square, in the pit, at convenient distances,
(say about the width of the top lights,) and case it round with one inch
and a half deal wrought boards, above the surface, and below with any
inferior boards or planks. The dimensions of my succession-bed or frame,
are thirty-nine feet long, and seven feet wide; containing two hundred
and seventy-three square feet, which will hold three hundred and fifty
suckers, from the end of September till the seventh of April.”
_Soil._ “From old pasture or meadow ground strip off the turf, and dig
to the depth of six or eight inches, according to the goodness of the
soil; draw the whole together to some convenient place, and mix it with
one-half of good rotten dung; frequently turn it over for twelve months,
and it will be fit for use. This is the only compost dung for young and
old plants.”
_General management._ The general practice of Mr. Baldwin is to take the
suckers from the fruiting plants about the end of September, and lay
them in a warm place for about three days; he then pulls off a few of
their bottom leaves, which makes them ready for planting. “In making
your bed,” he says, “lay three-fourths of new tan at the bottom of the
pit, and lay old tan upon that, to reach within three inches of the top;
on the surface of this sift old tan to the thickness of three inches,
beating it down well with the spade, then plant the suckers in the tan
about four or five inches apart, according to the size of the plants,
placing the tallest in the backside of the frame, and the shortest in
the front. In this situation let them remain till the month of April
following; then take up the plants out of the tan-bed, and divest them
of all their root; and remember that at any future transplanting the
roots must not be taken off. Plant them in pots of five, six, and seven
inches diameter, according to the size of the plants, but before
planting let the pots be filled with the prepared compost already
mentioned. About the middle of June following, when the pots are
beginning to be filled with roots, take out the plants with their balls
whole, and plant them in pots about nine inches in diameter, being
filled with the same rich compost, replanting them into the bed, and let
them remain there till the end of September. Be careful at each
transplanting, while the plants are out of the beds, to have the beds
put into a proper state by the addition of fresh tan, &c.
“When the plants are out of the stoves in the month of September,
prepare the pits in the same manner as directed for the succession-beds,
with three-fourths of new tan at the bottom, &c.; then shift the plants
into pots about fourteen inches diameter at the top, and plant them at
suitable distances for fruiting; plunge the pots at first halfway into
the tan, till the heat diminishes to a safe temperature, then fill up
the interstices between the pots with tan, and as the plants are now
stationed, let them so remain till they are fruited off for the table.
The plants, young and old, had best be near the glass, and small stoves
are to be preferred, because they require less fire. The glass should be
closely puttied, to keep out the cold air, and to retain the warm.
“The fruiting-house during the winter should be kept at about seventy of
Fahrenheit’s scale. It may be left in the evening about seventy-five,
and it will be found in the morning about sixty-five, so that no
attendance during the night will be necessary.
“There should be no water given to the young suckers from September till
April, while they remain in the tan without pots. After they are potted
they require to be watered two or three times a week during the summer,
according as the temperature may be. When they are removed into the
fruiting-house in September, they should be watered cautiously till
towards February, and as the spring advances they will require a large
supply. Never water the plants in the common broad-cast method, over
their heads and leaves.
“Give air in the stoves and frames, both in summer and winter, when the
weather will permit, from the back and ends, but not from the roof.
“_Expeditious cultivation._ The New Providence, Black Antigua, Jamaica,
and Enville, and the other large sorts of Ananas, will require the
cultivation of three years to bring them to perfection, but the Old
Queen and the Ripley’s New Queen may be brought to perfection in fifteen
months. To effect this, it must be observed, that some of the plants
will fruit in February, or the beginning of March, and consequently that
the suckers may be taken off in June, or the beginning of July; make
then a good bed of tan with linings of litter round the outside to keep
in the tan; make the bed to fit a large melon frame; put the suckers
into pots of about nine inches diameter, filled with the compost; plunge
them into the bed prepared in regular order, and throw a mat over them
in hot weather for shade till they have taken root; let them remain till
the end of September, and then shift them into pots of about twelve
inches diameter, and plunge them in the fruiting-house.” He has had fine
crops of Pines raised from these suckers, many of them four pounds each,
from plants only fifteen months old. “This method, in point both of
time and expence, has greatly the advantage of the common plan of
raising Pines in three years by fires, when the fruit at last is
frequently small and ill-flavoured.”
“It is a peculiar recommendation of this plan, that the plants reared in
frames without fire, the first year seldom or never run to fruit;
whereas, on the contrary, when stoves are used first for a nursery for
young plants, and next for succession plants, and lastly, for plants for
the fruiting-house, it is seldom that one-third of the plants come to
the forcing-house, because so many of them have run to fruit; and even
those that stand are necessarily dried and stunted, being subjected to
the attacks of various insects; not to mention the enormous care and
expence attendant upon a three years’ cultivation. The above appears to
me to be the most easy and economical plan to raise Pines; one-third of
the coals are sufficient, and less than one-half of the labour and
buildings required for that purpose.” _Culture of the Ananas_, p. 28.
_Insects._ After, as usual, many fruitless attempts, he at last
discovered the following method: “Take horse-dung from the stable, the
fresher the better, sufficient to make a hot-bed three feet high, to
receive a melon frame three feet deep at the back; put on the frame and
lights immediately, and cover the whole with mats to bring up the heat.
When the bed is at the strongest heat, take some faggots, open them,
and spread the sticks over the surface of the bed on the dung, so as to
keep the plants from being scorched; set the plants or suckers bottom
uppermost on the sticks; shut down your lights quite close, and cover
them over well with double mats, to keep in the steam. Let the plants
remain in this state one hour, then take out the plants and wash them in
cold water previously brought to the side of your bed, set them in a dry
place with their tops downwards to drain, and afterwards plant them.
This treatment is sure to kill every insect. You will observe likewise,
that if your suckers are kept in the frames all the winter, stuck in the
tan without soil or fire, the effluvia from the linings are sure to kill
all the bugs.” _Culture of the Ananas_, p. 33.
_Fruit Produced._ The general crop is produced in the usual season, viz.
from June to September, or October; but some are produced every month in
the year. The large sorts, as the New Providence, &c. require three
years to bring them to perfection, but the Old Queen, and Ripley’s New
Queen, may be brought to perfection in three months; though from the
circumstances requisite to render this practicable, viz. plants fruiting
in February, or the beginning of March, it must be considered more a
matter of accident or curiosity than of any real advantage. It is
evident, at all events, that it can never become general; for certainly
no gardener would desire all his plants to come into fruit in February
or March. Mr. Baldwin grows his fruit to a very considerable size even
when produced in so short a period. “At a meeting of the Horticultural
Society of London, held in October, 1817, T. Baldwin, gardener to the
Marquis of Hertford, at Ragley, presented a Queen Pine of great beauty
and superior flavor. It measured sixteen inches in circumference, seven
inches in length, and weighed four pounds. The plant on which it was
produced was little more than fifteen months old.” _Hort. Tr._ vol. iii.
p. 118.
_Remarks._ The following judicious remarks on Mr. Baldwin’s plan are by
Mr. M’Phail. “Mr. Baldwin’s method,” he says, “appears to differ nothing
in principle from the methods I practised; but we differ a little in
practice, that is, in the manner of the application of the elements
necessary to make the plants grow fast and vigorous, and to produce fine
fruit; and likewise in the mode of disrooting and planting, which
difference I conceive to be of little consequence. He grows his plants
in good earth, enriched with plenty of well-rotted manure. He keeps the
plants in a strong heat, and gives their roots plenty of water. He sets
his fruiting plants in a bed of tan in the month of September, and there
it appears they are stationed till the fruit be ripened the following
summer. Now, I think, a bed made up in September, is not able to retain
a sufficient heat for the growth of the Pine Apple plant for so long a
period of time.
“Once, by way of experiment, in a small hot-house, I made up a bed in
the pit of it in the month of October, and laid upon the surface of the
bed one foot thick of good earth, and turned out of their pots fine Pine
Apple plants, intended to fruit the succeeding year, and I set the
plants into the earth on the surface of the bed with the balls of earth
about their roots undisturbed. In this situation they grew exceedingly
well, and shewed fruit very strong, but the heat in the bed under them
became too faint in the month of April: and with all the atmospherical
heat that I could give them, the fruit did not ripen well for want of
heat to the roots of the plants; and I was not able to contrive any
method to recruit it, which required to be done in the month of March or
April.
“According to the foregoing account, this celebrated and experienced
gardener plants the suckers of the Pine Apple in the latter end of
September, and he divests them of all their roots in the month of April.
In this method of process I must differ from him, because the young
plants have only six months (being the slowest growing months of the
year) to make roots, and then these roots are entirely cut off, which
considerably retards the plants in their growth. And, according to his
method, and mine also, the queen and some other sorts of the Pine, ripen
their fruit in a shorter period of time than two years after planting.
He says, he never waters his Pine plants in the broad-cast way over
their heads and leaves. In this I also differ with him, for I think,
giving the plants water all over their leaves occasionally, especially
in hot weather, is of service to them, and which indeed is only
imitating nature.