STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 101 



is necessar}^ for the growth of nearly all the plants we cultivate — 

 sods, with two or three inches of good loam cut from some old 

 pasture, and well rotted cow or horse dressing. The sods should be 

 cut in the spring and turned grass side down in a heap to decompose. 

 They should be turned and broken a few times during the summer. 

 The dressing is then added, and the whole thoroughly mixed and 

 fined for use, and unless for small pots or seeds it need not be sifted, 

 as in sifting the roots of the sods are left out, and they contain a 

 quantity of fertilizing matter too valuable to lose. The proportion 

 should be about three or four of sods and loam to one of dressing. 



Potting plants from the garden for winter window decoration 

 needs not a little good judgment, as this is the time they should 

 receive especial treatment in pruning and shading, in order that they 

 may be healthy when carried to their winter quarters. In pruning 

 or cutting back it should be remembered that plants, as well as 

 shrubs and trees, should be cut back according to the amount they 

 are disturbed when lifted from the ground. The more the earth is 

 removed at this time the more the danger of loss if the plant is not 

 pruned accordingly. The habit of the plant will determine how it 

 is best to prune, whether for a dwarf compact growth, or tree form. 



The size of the pot the plant is to be potted in should be in accord- 

 ance to the size of the plant and quantity of its roots. It is gener- 

 ally better to change once or twice from a four to a five or six inch 

 size, than to pot at once in a size too large, where the earth would 

 soon become sodden, and the plant be likely to stand still until such 

 time as the roots had spread out to take up the extra moisture the 

 earth contained. When potting, one or two inches of charcoal or 

 broken bits of pot should be placed in the bottom for drainage. 



One of the most common errors in growing plants in dwelling 

 houses is that of keeping the temperature too high. The greater 

 part of our house plants do not require a temperature higher than 

 from sixty to sixty-five degrees in the day, with ten or fifteen degrees 

 lower at night. To be sure there are plants that require a higher 

 temperature than that. I do not mean to imply that the two classes 

 of plants will not live in the same room at either the high or low 

 temperature, but they certainly will do far better by having the tem- 

 pprature their nature requires. Such plants as geraniums, fuchsias, 

 roses, carnations, callas, azaleas, heliotropes, etc., should be grown 

 in the lower temperature, sixty or sixty-five, while begonias, palms, 

 bouvardias, dracenas, coleus, and plants of the hot house class re- 

 quire the higher degree of seventy to seventy-five. 



