I873-] SMALL POTS IN FORCING. 343 



the ventilation was effected by letting down and pulling up every 

 light separately with a rope ! aud where the whole front had to be 

 opened in the same clumsy inconvenient way. It is almost incredible 

 that such a mode of ventilating should be adopted at this era of hot- 

 house building. 



Any system of ventilation that necessitates the moving of half 

 or the whole of a roof to give a few inches of ventilation, is wrong in 

 principle and most laborious in practice, and should not be tolerated 

 for a moment. It is not our intention here to enter into the desirable 

 minutiae of hothouse arrangements. "We desire to point out a few 

 errors to be avoided, and would recommend all who contemplate hot- 

 house building, and who do not employ practical gardeners who are 

 up to the times in these matters, to secure the services of some com- 

 petent practical gardener as their adviser. Builders do not under- 

 stand the requirements of plants and fruits, and commit great blunders 

 in such matters ; and it would not only save gentlemen much annoy- 

 ance and disappointment, but it would ultimately save them much 

 money to do as we advise. 



SMALL POTS IN FORCinSTG. 



The winter and early spring is, at first sight, tbe period of the year 

 when the forcing gardener is most active; there is, at least, great 

 activity in the stock-hole, and much and anxious communion with the 

 boiler, thermometer, and coal-shovel. But all this activity will avail 

 but little, if the subjects to be forced have not the desired product 

 stored up within their tissues to yield to the forcing. 



The sun, it cannot be too often or forcibly insisted on, is the great 

 storer and manufacturer of flowers and fruit. It is not the soil, or 

 water, or manure, and certainly it is not coal or hot water, in winter, 

 that brings success to the gardener. But if a Yine or Strawberry 

 plant has been well charged with the fruit-yielding elements the pre- 

 vious summer, indifferent management in the way of forcing will often 

 result in a fair crop of fruit. As a general rule, all bad setting of fruit 

 at the blooming season is the effect of weakness of the fruit-giving 

 powers of the tree. 



Now is the season when the sun is exercising his greatest influence ; 

 and therefore now, and for a few more weeks, the gardener who would 

 force with success should be most awake and active. The sun is now 

 maturing our annual supply of bulbs in Holland. All our own early 

 spring flowers are being ripened, and their energies concentrated for 

 another early display. The buds are forming on Azaleas and Ehodo- 



