beginning of June, they must, of course, have heat applied to them in December instead of January, and with properly constructed and heated pineries there is nothing to hinder this. But where the houses are

not light, tight, and well small difficulty, and it is much safer to wait for the "turn of the day." The other half of the set of fruiting plants of which I have here been treating should be kept quiet till the end of February. Introduced into heat, and managed in the same way as the early half, they will come in as a succession lot. And, as is always likely, a good many of them which the experienced eye rejected while picking the earliest out make a growth before starting, and in that way still further lengthen out the succession of ripe fruit from this portion of the stock. For this purpose Queens are most useful in all respects, and can be had in good order from May till November.

heated, it is a matter of no

I have considered it the best way to follow out the treatment of this one set of plants, without mixing up with their management that of different sets of plants necessary to supply ripe fruit in winter and spring. Of these latter I will now speak.

HOW TO KEEP UP A CONSTANT SUCCESSION OF RIPE FRUIT ALL THE YEAR.

Where a regular supply of fruit has to be kept up with the least possible intermission all the year round, it is more certainly accomplished by potting a quantity of suckers at frequent intervals. Supposing that

a number of Queens ripen in May, June, and July of 1866, these stools will give the suckers that supply the earliest fruiters for 1868. And those that ripen in August, September, and October, give the suckers that will succeed the earliest lot, so that these two sets of early fruiting sorts cover six months of the twelve. The other six months of winter and spring -particularly spring-are those in which pines are most valued, as other fruits are then scarce. March and April are the most difficult months of the whole year in which to have ripe pines.

In June and July I always endeavour to start a quantity of the true Smooth-leaved Cayenne. This is a noble pine when well grown, being unsurpassed for appearance and long keeping after it is ripe, and swells better after October than any other pine I know. The Black Jamaica is also a most useful pine for winter swelling, and probably is unsurpassed for flavour at the dullest season of the year. The Queen is comparatively worthless as a winter pine compared to these two; it does not swell kindly, and is always dry and juiceless compared to them.

There should be two sets of Cayennes and Jamaicas, as recommended in the case of Queens and other early sorts, for summer and autumn fruit. The Smooth-leaved Cayenne is so very shy in making suckers that I always endeavour to save as many crowns as I can, and take all the suckers that can be got in October from the fruiting plants, whether the fruit be ripe or not. These suckers and crowns are potted generally into 6-inch pots, and shifted in

44 HOW TO KEEP UP A SUCCESSION OF RIPE FRUIT.

spring as soon as sufficiently rooted, as described in the former part of this treatise. These are shifted into 11 and 12 inch pots, and grown on in the usual way, only that they are not kept so dry in autumn and winter as is desirable for early starting plants. The temperature, too, is kept five degrees higher than for Queens at rest; the object being not to ripen, as it were, the growth of these so as to predispose them to start in spring. The heat is quickened, both top and bottom, in February, and they make a spring growth; are rested in May and June by being kept drier and cooler; and then, with increased heat and moisture, I rarely ever fail in starting them all in June and July. Care must be taken that they never get too dry at the root, particularly in spring, as that would be likely to start them before this is required. This applies with the same force to Jamaicas. These will keep up the supply of fruit till the end of the year.

It is necessary to have a later lot of these two varieties to come in for spring, and this I find rather difficult in the case of the Smooth Cayenne. It makes suckers still more tardily from late plants. The method I generally adopt is to save the old stems of those that ripen their fruit through the winter, and place them in strong bottom heat to spring the latent buds. These grow into nice plants, ready to shift into 8-inch pots in September, and I shift these into their fruiting-pots in March, and by pushing them on they start in September and October, and succeed those started in June and July. For this purpose I most

decidedly give the preference to the Cayenne; and from plants of it so managed, I have had very fine fruit in the spring months. They are kept on at a temperature of from 60° to 65° all winter, with a steady bottom heat of 80°.

There is nothing peculiar in the management of these winter fruiting sorts, except it be that I never keep them so dry and so completely at rest in winter as those intended to start early. This is with the view of their not resting and maturing themselves so thoroughly in autumn and winter as would cause them to start when excited in spring. The Smooth Cayenne requires more moisture at the root when growing than is good for most other sorts. It is also more impatient of bright sun early in the season than any I know, more especially if kept gently on the move all winter. And rather than allow the foliage to become bronzed, shade should be applied for a time, as already directed. When swelling off in winter, water at the root will of course not require to be so frequently given as in summer, and there should be no syringing. The evaporating trays will keep the air sufficiently moist. Air must be put on for a short time in the middle of every fine day.

PLANTS THAT MISS FRUITING.

It not unfrequently occurs that a few plants miss starting into fruit along with the others, but continue to grow, in spite of every effort to make them fruit. The common practice is to throw these away. When I have room to conveniently operate on these I cut the

plants over at the surface of the soil, and strip a few of the leaves off them, and pot them deeply and very firmly in fruiting-pots. They are slightly shaded for ten days, by which time, with a brisk bottom heat, they begin to send out wonderfully strong roots, and then the shading is discontinued, and they are watered. In this way they are transformed into dwarf strong plants, and I always find they start into fruit very soon after, and swell off fine fruit. Were I to enter on a place where the pines have been drawn and not likely to be got to fruit satisfactorily, I would treat them in this way instead of throwing them away, as is often done in such circumstances.

THE PLANTING-OUT SYSTEM.

Although I have given a good deal of attention to the planting-out system of pine-culture, and made myself acquainted with the most successful instances of its adoption, I have never resorted to it. Not that I suppose fine fruit are not produced by it: facts prove the contrary. But with the But with the space at my command I have decided that, to keep up the supply which I usually produce nearly every week in the year, I can more certainly do so on the pot system than by having the plants planted out in beds. Plants in pots are entirely under control at all times, for being moved or removed to force forward or retard the ripening of fruit as circumstances demand. This is of vast importance where the space in pine beds is small in proportion to the demand for fruit, and in this