sional watering, but with the bottom heat that I have named the waterings required will be very few indeed. With young stock there is little danger of their fruiting prematurely from being kept dry, if all else be right; and in all other respects it is much the best practice.

When the thermometer rises above 60° a little air should be put on, always at the highest point of the pit or house. But, unless during a continuance of dull damp weather, the temperature should not be purposely raised in order to admit of giving air. In most pineries there is a sufficient amount of circulation going on in the atmosphere through the laps of the glass and other chinks to render systematic airgiving, with the low temperature and dry atmosphere that I have recommended, unnecessary. It is therefore only during sunny days, when the heat is raised, that air-giving must be carefully attended to during the season of rest.

Under ordinary circumstances this is the winter treatment to be recommended as that which will give succession plants in the most robust and healthy condition in spring, and that can be grown into the very best fruiting stock by the following autumn. Scarcity of intermediate plants may, however, in certain cases, render it desirable to considerably increase the size of the plants in order to gain time. When such is the case they should be kept gently on the move all winter by keeping the temperature at from 60° to 65°, with a little more moisture at the root than has been recommended. The highest temperature named should

B

be given during the brightest and calmest weather, when it can be secured without anything like violent firing, and during weather the reverse of this the lowest is much the safest. This winter growth can only be pursued with success when the pineries are light and fully exposed to every ray of sunshine that can possibly be had. Otherwise the plants will become drawn and weakly, a condition which will more surely than any other defeat the object in view. It is only when there is a scarcity of good succession plants that I would advise these autumn suckers to be pushed on with the view of resting them in April and May, in order to start them for supplying fruit in autumn.

SUCCESSION PLANTS-SPRING TREATMENT.

This is the distinguishing term which is applied in spring to the suckers of the previous autumn, and it is as succession plants that I will now treat of their spring and summer culture.

Except in the case of plants which may have been kept in a growing condition all winter, it rarely occurs that September-potted suckers require a shift into larger pots before the middle of February; more especially if at first they are potted into six and eight inch pots as recommended, which I am aware are larger pots than rootless suckers are generally potted into. In my own practice I am, however, never regulated by dates, but by the condition of the plants. Succession pine plants in a proper condition for shift

ing I would describe as those which have moderately filled their pots with roots in a white and healthy state of preservation. They should not be shifted till roots have formed themselves round the ball of soil sufficient to keep it together. On the other hand they should not be allowed to stand unshifted till they become anything like pot-bound. If the former condition is not arrived at before the middle or end of February, the operation of shifting should be deferred, and the plants gently excited into action by increasing the night temperature to 60°, with 10° more with sun-heat by day, with a corresponding increase of bottom-heat and moisture both in the soil and air, till their roots are in the condition I have named. Should they have become pot-bound, which sometimes occurs in the case of strong suckers, especially when in the smaller-sized pots, the balls should be partially broken up with the hand, and the roots disentangled as much as possible. Plants with hard matted balls seldom start freely into growth, and are liable to start prematurely into fruit. The best way is to keep a watchful eye on young stock and shift them the first opportunity after they are sufficiently rooted.

About a week before the shifting is performed the plants should be carefully examined, and all those that are dry should be watered, so that at shifting time the soil may be moderately moist. If shifted with their balls dry it is difficult to properly moisten them afterwards, particularly as it is not desirable to water them immediately after being shifted. The

other preliminaries of getting the necessary amount of soil prepared and placed in some place to warm it, the pots cleansed and crocked and arranged in convenient readiness, should be all seen to before the day on which the pines are to be repotted. Hurry and confusion will thus be prevented in taking advantage of the first mild day for shifting and rearranging the succession stock. In draining the pots it must be borne in mind that the plants are to remain in them till they have perfected their fruit and a crop of suckers for another season's stock, and the drainage should be efficiently performed, as directed when treating of suckers, only the depth of crocks should be a little greater in the case of the pots to be recommended for fruiting in.

The house or pit intended for the reception of the plants after they are shifted should be thoroughly cleansed. The glass and woodwork should be all washed, and the walls whitewashed with hot lime, so that there may be admitted and diffused as much light as possible, which for a stocky and fruitful growth early in the season is one of the most important conditions in the cultivation of the pine-apple. In the case of those who are dependent on fermenting material for bottom heat, all that may be necessary in relation to that will be to mix into the surface of the bed about six or eight inches of fresh tan, well mixing it with a foot of the surface of the old bed. But should the leaves have been several years in the pit, and the heat much declined, it will then be necessary either to take out the tan and mix in some

fresh leaves with the old, or to add a greater proportion of fresh tan without interfering with the leaves at all. In the latter case the old tan should be sifted, preserving the roughest part of it. There is not an operation connected with the growth of the pineapple that I dread more than entirely renewing the leaves and tan in pine pits; and rather than run the risk of sudden and violent fits of bottom heat, I have allowed the leaves in the bottom of pits to remain undisturbed for six or seven years at a time. I have always found, where tan is easily got, that the safest and best way is to sift the tan once a-year and mix in with the old a few inches of fresh tan, which raises a steady and sufficient amount of bottom heat; and a bed so managed is far more under control than when the leaves and tan are annually or even biennially renewed entirely. All this labour in preparing beds is dispensed with where the bottom heat is supplied by a well-regulated system of hot water. And in this respect the labour connected with the shifting and arranging of pines in spring or any other season is much lessened and simplified.

Supposing that I am now treating of Queens that are required to fruit early in the following year, to supply ripe fruit in May and June-little more than eighteen months from the time they were taken as suckers from their parent plants—I prefer shifting them into their fruiting-pots at once instead of giving them two small shifts. Indeed, the size of pots into which they have been potted as suckers, and those into which I