46 PRACTICAL FLORICULTURE. 



substitute, has led me to believe that the system is utterly 

 wrong in theoiy and perfectly useless in practice. 



It is wrong in theory, for I contend that the escape of 

 moisture or draining from the flower-pots takes place, in 

 a very slight degree, from the bottom, but almost entirely 

 from the porous sides of the flower-pot. Every gardener 

 knows how quickly the soil gets sour in a glazed, a dirty, 

 or a hard-burned pot, let him drain or crock it as he will, 

 and that yellow leaves and a sickly growth quickly fol- 

 low. If the patient is not too far gone, removal from the 

 glazed pot to one of proper texture will quickly recusci- 

 tate, even if the draining or crocking is dispensed with. 

 Whenever we wish to recuscitate an unhealthy plant, we 

 wash the soil from the roots and pot in a new pot, where 

 the drainage is perfect from its porous sides. "What better 

 evidence can be given than this universally known fact 

 that the theory of the operation is wrong? "Whether 

 this sufficiently proves the theory of the operation to be 

 wrong, may be questioned by some, but that the system 

 is useless, utterly useless, in our practice, cannot very well 

 be questioned. It is upwards of fifteen years since I 

 utterly dispensed with the use of the so-called draining 

 of pots ; in that time some millions of plants have been 

 grown by us, and few will say, from the appearance of 

 the plants, that they suffered by the deviation from the 

 orthodox system. 



In our annual importations of English novelties, at prices 

 often double their weight in gold, the pots always come 

 filled one-third up with the inevitable potsherd. Little 

 reverence is had for this labor of poor John Bull ; the 

 smallest boy in our establishment learns to sneer at him 

 when he sees the drainage dispensed with, and the pam- 

 pered $10.00 novelty growing vigorously under our radical 

 regime. 



"Ah ! but " exclaims some dyed-in-the-wool old fogy, " it's 

 all very well on your Roses and soft-wooded plants ; dis- 



