THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 243 



plants are procured. They should be plants that have had pot 

 culture for at least one year, and if slightly forced the previous 

 spring, so much the better ; indeed, this may almost be regarded as 

 a sine qiui non. 



Supposing, then, that such plants are procured, this is a good 

 time to begin their special training, but no time must be lost. They 

 will now have completed their first growth, or nearly so, yet will not 

 be so dormant, but that they will lay hold of the fresh soil when 

 repotted, which must be done at once if they are pot-bound. Still a 

 large shift should not be given, for tliey do not force so readily unless 

 the pot is pretty loell filled loith roots. Endeavour to hit that mean, 

 between a pot filled with roots to starvation point, and the opposite 

 extreme of a pot so large that it is impossible the trees can this 

 season fill it. Indeed, the same sized pot as that out of which they 

 are taken will often be found sufficiently large after a portion of the 

 loose and exhausted soil has been carefully removed from the ball 

 with a pointed stick ; but if it is found that sufficient of the old soil 

 cannot be removed without endangering the roots, to allow a mode- 

 rate quantity of new, then a larger sized pot must be used, and be 

 especially careful that the new soil finds its way into and fills up 

 every interstice between the roots. 



Por descriptions of suitable soil and manner of potting, I shall 

 borrow from Mr. Hibberd's essay on the cultivation of strawberries 

 in pots, the description of his mode of procedure, which will exactly 

 suit the rose, provided of course that a difierent handling of the 

 plant is necessary, just to the extent that, in the form and character 

 of its roots, a rose differs from a strawberry, I the more gladly 

 copy this little bit because it has a general usefulness, for almost 

 any plant that is to reside for some time in a pot, and any kind of 

 tree especially would thrive better by such treatment, than by any 

 other. Mr. Hibberd says : — " The stuff for potting should consist of 

 one-third rotten dung, and the other two-thirds stiff" loam, with 

 plenty of fibre in it. Whatever the soil of the place, the cultivator 

 must endeavour to prepare a mixture as nearly as possible answer- 

 ing this general description. In sandy or chalky districts, the clear- 

 ings of ponds and ditches, turf from roadsides, and other similarly 

 nourishing and tenacious materials, may generally be had, and in 

 clay countries turf and dung will mellow the staple ; and, if need 

 be, a sixth part of broken brick or charcoal, or grit from the sifted 

 sweepings of gravel walks, may be added to prevent the soil in the 

 pots from becoming a cement, for before we have done with it we 

 intend to have it well hammered. We have had so much to do with 

 tenacious clays that we never fail to use as much as we dare in all 

 composts, and in potting strawberries we usually make the compost 

 thus : — One part rotten duog from a cucumber or melon pic, in 

 which the crop has been completed. This is generally in a buttery 

 state, and the fibre completely broken down. One part rotted turf, 

 which has in the first instance been taken in a thin slice off" a loamy 

 pasture, and subsequently stacked up till the whole mass has become 

 like an elastic felt ; one part clay which has been a long time ex- 

 posed to the atmosphere, and the top crust of which has pulverized 



