the copper-roofed house is never so high-flavoured as that grown in the
other with a timber roof, though the treatment be in all other respects
the same. This certainly appears a very singular circumstance, and not
to be accounted for in the present state of human knowledge. The bars of
iron, or copper sashes, might possibly (but not probably) make some
difference in the electrical state of the air of the house, but this is
the utmost degree of variation we can conceive a metallic roof capable
of making. If it admits more light, or abstracts more heat, these are
effects easily counteracted, if desired, and must have been so, if they
existed in any degree, as Mr. Oldacre asserts the culture in both houses
was exactly alike.
On the whole, we must suspend our opinion on this subject; or rather
conclude that it is more probable, Mr. Oldacre is mistaken in thinking
the culture he gives to the plants in both houses the same, than that
the single circumstance of a metallic roof on one of them, should make
such difference in its produce. This report, which had been made current
at the Horticultural Society, excited the attention of Sir Thomas
Baring, who, having an extensive range of metallic hot-houses, at East
Stratton Park, his seat in Hampshire, soon afterwards sent a very fine
Pine Apple to the Society, to be tasted at one of their meetings. At
this meeting we were present, but though we tasted of this Pine Apple,
yet not having sufficient opportunity of comparing it with any other, we
could not discern any difference. When a great many fruits are tasted in
rapid succession, and of each such small portions as hardly to afford
its real taste, the impression on the palate is evanescent; or at any
rate, it is not, perhaps, too much to say, that under such
circumstances, it is difficult to form a solid judgment.
SECT. XV.
_Culture of the Pine Apple, by William Townsend Aiton, Esq.,
gardener to the King, at Kew and Kensington._
It is only within the last four years, that the Pine culture, in the
royal gardens, has been above mediocrity; before 1817, and as far back
as we have had an opportunity of observing, they were in a very poor
state, those at Kew more particularly. At present, the Pines in both the
gardens mentioned, are equal to any within ten miles of London; and,
with the exception of the New Providence, Black Antigua, and some other
sorts, are not surpassed, even by those of Mr. Baldwin. The culture
pursued in the royal gardens, is as simple as it is successful; and as
economical as if the fruit were grown for the market by a commercial
gardener. The whole does the highest credit to Mr. Aiton, and those whom
he employs.
[Illustration: 14]
_Form of House._ The plants are struck, and brought forward in pits, or
frames, (fig. 14.) constructed exactly in Mr. Baldwin’s manner, with
this difference, that the sub-soil at Kensington being moist, they are
raised on a small platform (_a_..._b_) above the surface, instead of
being sunk under it, as Baldwin’s are. They have, also, the addition of
a gutter in front (_c_), which, though at first sight it may appear
trifling, yet, in practice, is of very material consequence, by keeping
the lining dry, and not chilling and interrupting the heat in the very
part where it should penetrate to the interior of the pit.
[Illustration: 15]
Occasionally some plants are fruited in these pits, especially at Kew,
but, in general, they are removed to a low house (fig. 15.) of a most
economical and judicious construction, and calculated both for the
growth of Pines and Vines. This house is fifteen feet wide within walls;
the pit (_a_), is nine feet wide; the back path (_b_), forms a border
for the roots of the Vines; the pit is surrounded by a flue (_c_, _d_);
the curb, or plate is two feet three inches from the glass in front
(_e_), and four feet eight inches from it behind (_f_); the Vines are
planted in the back border (_b_), and trained under the roof directly
over it and over the back flue; and others are planted in the front
border (_g_); and trained up the rafters.
The length of the houses in the royal gardens at Kensington, varies from
thirty-three to fifty feet (fig. 16.): each house has two furnaces, one
for constant use, and another for giving an extra supply of heat in
very severe weather. The first (_a_), proceeds directly to the front
corner (_b_), thence along the front to the opposite end (_c_), then
along the back of the pit (_d_, _e_), passing under the back path, or
border, and terminating in a chimney (_f_) beside the furnace.
[Illustration: 16]
The other furnace is placed at the opposite end of the house (_g_); has
a short flue under the back path, which conducts it to the back course
of the principal flue (at _d_), which it joins, and the smoke of the two
fires moves in the same tunnel, (from _d_ to _e_) and passes out by the
same chimney. When this second furnace is not in use, its connection
with the flue of the first is cut off by a damper at the point of
junction (_d_). A very small fire made in this furnace in severe
weather, not only adds to the heat of the house by its own power, but by
increasing the draught, or rate of burning, of the fire in the other
furnace.
[Illustration: 17]
In addition to the fire heat, a steam apparatus has been lately erected,
and the tubes conducted round the houses on the tops of the flues (fig.
15. _d_, _e_); this is found to give a great command of heat, and also
to admit of filling the house with vapour at pleasure. The height of the
house from the ground to the top of the back wall, is only nine feet
(fig. 17.); the rafters of the roof are placed about four feet apart,
centre from centre; or about twenty-four sashes are given to every
hundred feet; the front sashes (_a_), are only eighteen inches high, and
slide past each other; the middle end sash (_b_), also slides; the sill
of the door (_c_), and the back path, or border, are on a level with the
outer surface of the ground, to admit the easy wheeling in of tan, &c.;
the front border (_d_), is raised considerably above it, on account of
the wet bottom; the back sheds are low and neat, and the furnaces sunk
three feet below the surface (fig. 16, _h_ _h_) to give them a better
draught; and this also serves to drain the back border.
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.
With respect to the expense of cultivating the Pine Apple, it must be
acknowledged that it is greater than that required to cultivate any
other fruit; from the length of time requisite to bring it to
perfection; the keeping up a high temperature during the winter months,
and the unremitting attention required throughout the year. Another
source of expense, and in some cases of difficulty, has been the
procuring of tan, or other materials, to supply a bottom heat; and the
last one that may be mentioned is, that gardeners who undertake to
cultivate the Pine Apple, generally are paid a higher remuneration than
those who confine themselves to the other fruits.
These circumstances have lately induced some amateurs, and also some
practical gardeners, to devise means of simplifying the culture of the
Pine Apple, and lessening the expenses attending it. The principal
amateurs are T. A. Knight, Esq. the President of the Horticultural
Society, and Peter Marsland, Esq. of Woodbank, near Stockport; the
principal practical gardeners are Mr. Gunter, of Earlscourt, Mr. Hay, a
Horticultural architect in Edinburgh, and some others, who have made
less extensive trials.
SECT. I.
_Of the improvements in the culture of the Pine Apple, proposed by
T. A. Knight, Esq. F.R.S. P.H.S., of Downton-Castle, Herefordshire._
Mr. Knight’s improvements consist chiefly in the disuse of bottom heat,
and in the application of a much higher temperature during sunshine at
all seasons, but especially in the summer season, and a much lower
temperature during winter, and during the night, at all times, than is
generally adopted by gardeners.
Mr. Knight had no experience in the culture of the Pine Apple till the
year 1819. In that year, he informs us (in a paper published in the
third volume of the Horticultural Transactions) that he tried the effect
of a very high temperature during the day, in bright weather, and of
comparatively low temperature during the night, and in cloudy weather. A
fire of sufficient power only to preserve the house in a temperature of
about 70° during summer, was employed; but no air was given, nor its
escape facilitated, till the thermometer, perfectly shaded, indicated a
temperature of 95°, and then only two of the upper lights, one at each
end, were let down about four inches. The heat of the house was,
consequently, sometimes raised to 110°, during the middle of bright
days, and it generally varied in such days from 90° to 105°, declining
during the evening to about 80°, and to 70° in the night. Late in the
evening of every bright and hot day, the plants were copiously sprinkled
with water, nearly of the temperature of the external air. The melon,
water-melon, Guernsey lily, fig-tree, nectarine, orange and lemon,
mango, Avocado-pear, Mammee-tree, and several other plants, part of them
natives of temperate climates, grew in this hot-house so managed
“through the whole summer, without any one of them being etiolated, or
any way injured, by the very high temperature to which they were
occasionally subjected; and from these and other facts,” Mr. Knight
continues, “which have come within my observation, I think myself
justified in inferring, that in almost all cases in which the object of
the cultivator is to promote the rapid and vigorous growth of his
plants, very high temperature, provided it be accompanied by bright
sunshine, may be employed with great advantage; but it is necessary that
the glass of his house should be of good quality, and that his plants be
placed near it, and be abundantly supplied with sand and water.” In the
above case liquid-manure was employed.
It is added, “My house contains a few Pine Apple plants, in the
treatment of which I have deviated somewhat widely from the common
practice; and I think with the best effects, for their growth has been
exceedingly rapid, and a great many gardeners, who have come to see
them, have unanimously pronounced them more perfect than any which they
had previously seen. But many of the gardeners think that my mode of
management will not succeed in winter, and that my plants will become
unhealthy, if they do not perish in that season; and as some of them
have had much experience, and I very little, I wish, at present, to
decline saying more relative to the culture of that plant.” _Hort.
Trans._ iii. 465.
The above information, the result of Mr. Knight’s experiments in 1819,
was communicated to the Horticultural Society in the autumn of that
year. On the 7th of March following, a paper was read to the Society on
the same plants, of which the following is a transcript:
Of those gardeners who doubted whether the plants would stand the
winter, it is stated, “The same gardeners have since frequently visited
my hot-house, and they have unanimously pronounced my plants more
healthy and vigorous than any they had previously seen: and they are
all, I have good reason to believe, zealous converts to my mode of
culture.
“I had long been much dissatisfied with the manner in which the Pine
Apple plant is usually treated, and very much disposed to believe the
bark-bed, as Mr. Kent has stated, (_Hort. Trans._ iii. 288.) ‘worse than
useless,’ subsequent to the emission of roots by the crowns or suckers.
I therefore resolved to make a few experiments upon the culture of that
plant; but as I had not at that period, (the beginning of October,) any
hot-house, I deferred obtaining plants till the following spring. My
hot-house was not completed till the second week in June (1819,) at
which period I began my experiment upon _nine_ plants, which had been
but very ill preserved through the preceding winter by the gardener of
one of my friends, with very inadequate means, and in a very
inhospitable climate. These, at this period, were not larger plants than
some which I have subsequently raised from small crowns, (three having
been afforded by one fruit,) planted in the middle of August, were in
the end of December last; but they are now beginning to blossom, and in
the opinion of every gardener who has seen them, promise fruit of great
size and perfection. They are all of the variety known by the name of
Ripley’s Queen Pine.
“Upon the introduction of my plants into the hot-house, the mode of
management, which it is the object of the present communication to
describe, commenced. They were put into pots of somewhat more than a
foot in diameter, in a compost made of thin, green turf, recently taken
from a river-side, chopped very small, and pressed closely, whilst wet,
into the pots; a circular piece of the same material, of about an inch
in thickness, having been inverted, unbroken, to occupy the bottom of
each pot. This substance, so applied, I have always found to afford the
most efficient means for draining off superfluous water, and
subsequently of facilitating the removal of a plant from one pot to
another, without loss of roots. The surface of the reduced turf was
covered with a layer of vegetable mould obtained from decayed leaves,
and of sandy-loam, to prevent the growth of the grass-roots. The pots
were then placed to stand upon brick-piers, near the glass; and the
piers being formed of loose bricks (without mortar), were capable of
being reduced as the height of the plants increased. The temperature of
the house was generally raised in hot and bright days, chiefly by
confined solar heat, from 95° to 105°, and sometimes to 110°, no air
being ever given till the temperature of the house exceeded 95°; and the
escape of heated air was then, only in a slight degree permitted. In the
night, the temperature of the house generally sunk to 70°, or somewhat
lower. At this period, and through the months of July and August, a
sufficient quantity of pigeons’ dung was steeped in the water, which was
given to the Pine plants, to raise its colour nearly to that of porter,
and with this they were usually supplied twice a day in very hot
weather; the mould in the pots being kept constantly very damp, or what
gardeners would generally call wet. In the evenings, after very hot
days, the plants were often sprinkled with clear water, of the
temperature of the external air; but this was never repeated till all
the remains of the last sprinkling had disappeared from the axillæ of
the leaves.
“It is, I believe, almost a general custom with gardeners, to give their
Pine plants larger pots in autumn, and this mode of practice is
approved by Mr. Baldwin. (_Cult. of Anan._ 16.) I nevertheless cannot
avoid thinking it wrong; for the plants, at this period, and
subsequently, owing to want of light, can generate a small quantity only
of new sap; and consequently, the matter which composes the new roots
that the plant will be excited to emit into the fresh mould, must be
drawn chiefly from the same reservoir, which is to supply the blossom
and fruit: and I have found, that transplanting fruit-trees, in autumn,
into larger pots, has rendered their next year’s produce of fruit
smaller in size, and later in maturity. I therefore would not remove my
Pine plants into larger pots, although those in which they grow are
considerably too small.
“As the length of the days diminished, and the plants received less
light, their ability to digest food diminished. Less food was in
consequence dissolved in the water, which was also given with a more
sparing hand; and as winter approached, water only was given, and in
small quantities.
“During the months of November and December, the temperature of the
house was generally little above 50°, and sometimes as low as 48°, and
once so low as 40°. Most gardeners would, I believe, have been alarmed
for the safety of their plants at this temperature; but the Pine is a
much hardier plant than it is usually supposed to be; and I exposed one
young plant in December to a temperature of 32°, by which it did not
appear to sustain any injury. I have also been subsequently informed by
one of my friends, Sir Harford Jones, who has had most ample
opportunities of observing, that he has frequently seen, in the east,
the Pine Apple growing in the open air, where the surface of the ground,
early in the mornings, showed unequivocal marks of a slight degree of
frost.
“My plants remained nearly torpid, and without growth, during the latter
part of November, and in the whole of December; but they began to grow
early in January, although the temperature of the house rarely reached
60°; and about the 20th of that month, the blossom, or rather the future
fruit, of the earliest plant, became visible; and subsequently to that
period their growth has appeared very extraordinary to gardeners who had
never seen Pine plants growing, except in a bark-bed or other hot-bed. I
believe this rapidity of growth, in rather low temperature, may be
traced to the more exciteable state of their roots, owing to their
having passed the winter in a very low temperature comparatively with
that of a bark-bed. The plants are now supplied with water in moderate
quantities, and holding in solution a less quantity of food than was
given them in summer.
“In planting suckers, I have, in several instances, left the stems and
roots of the old plant remaining attached to them; and these have made a
much more rapid progress than others. One strong sucker was thus planted
in a large pot upon the 20th of July, (1819;) and that is (March 1820)
beginning to show fruit. Its stem is thick enough to produce a very
large fruit; but its leaves are short, though broad and numerous; and
the gardeners who have seen it, all appear wholly at a loss to
conjecture what will be the value of its produce. In other cases, in
which I retained the old stems and roots, I selected small and late
suckers, and these have afforded me the most perfect plants I have ever
seen; and they do not exhibit any symptoms of disposition to fruit
prematurely. I am, however, still ignorant whether any advantage will be
ultimately obtained by this mode of treating the Queen Pine; but I
believe it will be found applicable with much advantage in the culture
of those varieties of the Pine, which do not usually bear fruit till the
plants are three or four years old.