Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/287

275 FRUITS.] HORTICULTURE 275 It must be regulated in its application by the amount of light and of warmth in the air. During the season when the plants are at rest it should be comparatively low ; during their season of active growth it should be considerable; and during their ripening season it should bo highest of all. The top spit of an old loamy pasture, including the turf, and mixed with about one-third the bulk of good well-rotted dung, forms a suitable compost for the pine-apple. The soil used at Meudon, where these fruits have been very successfully grown, is a sandy peat or leaf-mould obtained from a high-lying spot, where hard- wooded trees, chiefly beech, have long been growing. The late Mr Fleming, when at Trentham, used a mixture of three parts turfy maiden loam to one part of peat, these ingredients being mixed to- grther and laid under a wooden platform on which sheep were fed (which was so constructed that the dung and urine of the sheep fell through), and left there long enough to become well enriched. Other noted cultivators have recommended turfy loam and sheep or deer dung in the proportion of six of loam to three of the manure, one of leaf-mould being added. The compost should be prepared a considerable time beforehand, and frequently turned over and aerated ; when used, it should be roughly broken with the spade, but not screened. Some cultivators, who do not otherwise enrich the soil, use half-inch bones and soot at the time of potting in the proportion of an 8-inch potful of each to a barrowful of fibrous surface soil. The plants when growing freely are benefited by the use of liquid manure of an ammoniacal character. The pine-apple is sometimes propagated by planting the crowns which grow on the fruit, but more commonly from the suckers which appear at the base of the stem, these being a less time in arriving at a fruiting state. When removed from the fruit or stem, the crowns or suckers are trimmed and laid aside till the scar has dried, after which they are potted. This usually takes place during August or September, as the offsets should be allowed to obtain considerable size before they are removed, for the reason that large suckers grow with more vigour and come sooner into fruit than those of smaller size. They should be placed in 6-inch or 8-inch pots, the soil being somewhat lighter then than that used afterwards. They may be slightly shaded for a short period, and in about eight or twelve days may receive a little water. The old routine of pine-apple culture embraced a period of three years, but this has been reduced by modern growers to about eighteen months. The more rapid method was first brought into notice by Abercrombie. Its chief features are the employment of more mature suckers at the outset, and the acceleration of the growth of the plants after wards by the application of a hotter and moister atmosphere than formerly, so as to obtain the growth of two summers in one. The roots should be preserved in a fresh healthy state during winter, so as not to require being cut away, as was formerly done ; and this may be secured by giving very moderate and judicious waterings, and by keeping the bottom heat well under control. About the beginning of March, or earlier, the forwardest young plants from suckers are selected from the stock of succession plants, and the earth and roots examined ; they are then put into larger pots in good soil, and plunged in a bed having a genial bottom heat of about 85. They require to be shaded for a few days, and after they begin to root should receive moderate waterings. As soon as the roots thicken in the balls of soil, which will be about the beginning of August, they are to be transferred into 10-inch or 12 -inch pots, in which they will mature their fruit. At each successive shift the ball of earth and roots is to be preserved entire. From March onwards the temperature is gradually increased as follows: In March, 60 to 70 by night, 70 to 80 by day ; April 70 to 75 by night, 80 to 85 by day; May 75 to 80 by night, 90 to 95 by day; June 80 to 85* by night, 95 to 100 by day. After the beginning of August the heat is allowed to decline gradually until it arrives at the winter temperature of 60. While fire heat is used, the nocturnal temperature should not exceed 80, and sufficient moisture must be supplied. To prevent the plants from being drawn, they should be allowed ample space 2 feet from plant to plant is not too much and be placed as near the glass as possible. In August and September abundance of air and more copious sup plies of water are given. To prevent the roots from damping off in winter, water must be cautiously applied, and the pits should be heated by means of fire heat rather than by fermenting materials. Some gardeners apply this biennial mode of cultivation only to the varieties of the Queen type, but our best cultivators for the most part adopt it in its main features for all varieties, and the fruit produced is finer than that grown upon the triennial course. Those, how ever, who wish to cultivate such large and coarse sorts as the Providence may possibly find it necessary to take a longer period for fruiting them. The period at which pine-apple plants first show their fruit stems is the most critical in their whole culture. The plant must be of a certain age, or at least of a certain magnitude, before it will start freely or to good purpose. In the second year a Queen pine is capable of producing a perfect fruit ; and in the third year the large Varieties arrive at puberty. The solid part of the stem is then observed to have increased in bulk, and to have ascended consider ably above the soil. The start is generally required to be made at a particular period, but the fruit stalks do not appear until the pot is filled with roots. It is therefore necessary that the roots shall have nearly occupied all the new soil by the time the development of the fruit is required, and care should be taken that in winter the tender fibres should suffer neither from drought nor from exces sive moisture or heat. After the plants show fruit they are never shifted ; but the surface soil may be replaced by some fresh and rich compost. Water is supplied from time to time, but should never be colder than the average temperature of the house. Whilst the fruit is swelling, care must be taken to carry on the growth of the plant with equability and moderation. As the fruit approaches maturity, water is gradually withheld, lest the flavour should beim paired. Pine-apples should be cut a short time before they obtain complete maturity ; they do not keep sound long after being cut, and consequently, if they have to be kept over for a short period the plant, pot and all, should be moved to a dryish moderately cool room. The Hamiltonian system of pine growing was at one time more frequently adopted than now. Instead of the suckers bein&quot; de tached from their parent steins before fruiting, the base of the old stem was bared of leaves and earthed up with rich compost, in to which it rooted freely, each sucker thus producing a ripe fruit in from eight to twelve months from the time it was started. When this fruit was cut, the process was repeated till a third succession of fruit and a fourth were obtained, after which the sucker which bore the last fruit was cut off with 6 or 8 inches of the main stem, and potted so as to furnish another similar progeny of suckers. The Queen, as a quick-fruiting sort, and the larger Smooth-leaved Cayenne, are the chief favourites among cultivators. It may, how ever, be useful to give the names of a few of the best varieties : Spineless-leaved Pine-apple. Smooth-leaved Cayenne, fruit large, cylindrical : good in win Spiny-leaved Pine-apples. Black Jamaica : fruit oval, 4 to 5 ll&amp;gt; ; one of the best for winter use. Charlotte Rothschild : fruit cylindrical, 7 to 11 tt&amp;gt; ; good in winter. Enville : fruit pyramidal, G to 7 11&amp;gt;. Lady Beatrice Lambton: fruit pyramidal, 11 H&amp;gt;; good in winter; very juicy. Lord C arington : fruit cylindrical, 5 to 7 11&amp;gt; ; gopd in winter. Prince Albert : fruit pyramidal, C to 8 !1&amp;gt; ; best in summer and autumn. Queen : fruit cylindrical, 4 to 8 lt&amp;gt; ; the best sort for general purposes. Thoresby Queen : fruit roundish-ovate, C to 8 Ib. 132. The Plum, Primus domestica, is considered a native of I lum, England, but many of the best cultivated varieties have been intro duced from France. The fruit is not only prized for dessert, but also for culinary purposes. Plums are propagated chiefly by budding on stocks of the Mussel, Brussels, St Julien, arid Pear plums. The damson, wine sour, and other varieties, planted as standards, are generally increased by suckers. For planting against walls, trees which have been trained for two years in the nursery are preferred by some, but maiden trees can be very successfully introduced, and by a course of liberal treat ment, with less hard pruning, may be more speedily got to a f raiting state. Any good well-drained loamy soil is suitable for plums, that of medium quality as to lightness being decidedly preferable. Walls with an east or west aspect are generally allowed to them, the dis tance between the trees being from 20 to 30 feet. The horizontal mode of training is adopted by many, but the fan or half-fan forma are also very commonly followed, and where there is sufficient height probably the fan system is the best. The shoots ought to be laid in nearly or quite at full length. The fruit is produced on small spurs on branches at least two years old, and the same spurs continue fruitful for several years. Standard plum trees should be planted 25 feet apart each way, and dwarfs 15 or 20 feet. Such trees require only to have a portion of their wood thinned out occasionally when they are young. The hardy kinds grown in this way are very productive. In favourable seasons the crops require thinning, to relieve the branches from the excessive weight. The unripe fruit, if fully grown and beginning to change colour, is quite fit for cooking. For dessert purposes the fruit should be allowed to remain 011 the tree as long as it will hang, and should be gathered by the stalk without dis turbing the bloom. Such kinds as Coe s Golden Drop and Irk worth Imperatrice, if gathered dry, wrapped in tissue paper, and laid in a dry cool fruit-room, may be kept for months fit for use. The following is a selection of good reliable varieties of plums, with their times of ripening : Dessert Plums. Early Green Gage c. July. Royal Ilativo | f; ^|; Rivers s Early Apricot b. Aug. Denniston s Superb in. Aug. Oullins Golden m. Aug. Green Gage rn.e. Aug. M L.iughlin s e. Aug. Washington Sept. Angelina Burdett K Sept. Purple Gage b. Sept. Transparent Gage b. Sept. Woolston Black b. Sept. Jefferson b.m. Sept. Kirke s b.m. Sept. llulings s Superb m. Sept. Reiue Claude du Comte ) m ,. Hathem [m. Sept Coe s Golden Drop e. Sept. Reiue Claude de Bavay. . | S ) ^ t Ickworth Impdratrice. . . . b. Oct. Late Rivers