PEACH TREES IN POTS. 79 



with a pointed stick, thereby reducing the individual 

 balls more or less, according to circumstances, and 

 then repotted. Those that had been in twelve-inch 

 pots went into fifteen-inch pots, while those that had 

 occupied fifteen-inch pots were shifted into pots 

 eighteen inches in diameter. The plants which had 

 been already in that size pot being reduced sufficiently 

 to enable their returning to same, the roots were 

 shortened back a little before repotting, the pots 

 washed before another use, and a large piece of 

 potsherd placed (hollow side down) over the 

 hole in the bottom of each pot. This is followed 

 with from two to three inches of smaller pieces, 

 the chinks filled in with potsherds passed through 

 a quarter-inch meshed sieve, and over these place 

 a layer of thin turf, grass-side down, to secure 

 perfect drainage. Into these pots the trees were, 

 as indicated above, repotted. A compost ;cprir 

 sisting of, say, four ordinary garden barrow- 

 loads of good turfy loam, one barrow-load of old 

 lime or plaster rubble, one peck each of some good 

 plant food and charcoal, and an eight-inch potful 

 of new soot, the whole well mixed before being 

 used, forms an admirable rooting medium. This 

 should be rammed in well round the balls, using flat 

 rammers to work the soil into the space between the 

 edge of the pots and the roots, blunt rammers being 

 employed in making the soil firm on top up to within 



