54 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Propagation and General Treatment. — Soil for culture in pots. — Get 

 the turf from an upland pasture ; take off about three inches thick, and 

 keep it in a heap for a year, to cause the grass roots to decay and mellow 

 the soil ; chop it, and turn it over four or five times during- the year, it will be 

 in finer condition for use. During this, the wonns and grubs, especially wire 

 worms, should be picked out, for it is frequently the case that the soil best 

 adapted to the Carnation contains its greatest enemy. Before being used, 

 the soil should be passed through a course sieve or screen, and the fibre 

 rubbed through with the soil. The soil in which the plants are bloomed and 

 that in which they are kept in small pots through the winter, should be 

 different ; for in the latter they are not required to make much progress, 

 and the less they are excited in autumn and winter the better, provided they 

 make steady progress and preserve their health. This can only be secured 

 by abstaining from the use of stable dung, using pure loam, and such 

 decayed vegetable matter as is afforded by the grass naturally growing in 

 loam when the turves are cut. Neither should the loam be too adhesive, 

 but sufficiently porous to allow the water to percolate freely ; should it not 

 be so naturally, a little sand may be used to lighten it. In preparing the 

 soil for blooming the plants, take of this loam three parts, well decomposed 

 leaf mould one part, thoroughly rotted cow dung one part, (if this cannot be 

 obtained, hotbed manure, well decomposed, in fact reduced to a fine black 

 mould, may be substituted), and of sandy peat one part. A small portion 

 of old lime rubbish, slightly sifted, will be of service to the plant, mi;4pd 

 among the compost. Being duly mixed in sufficient quantity, let it be 

 brought under shelter to dry sometime before tlie potting season. 



On receiving the plants from the nursery, if in the fall, they should be 

 potted, as above, in four inch pots, giving two inches of crocks at the 

 bottom for drainage, and nearly filling the pot with the earth, but highest 

 in the middle, and spreading the roots as much as possible all around alike. 

 The soil is only just to cover the roots, and to be pressed gently to them, 

 and in this state, after watering to settle the loam about their roots, they 

 should be placed in a common garden frame upon a hard bottom, into which 

 the waste water, when refreshed, cannot soak, but with a very gentle slope, 

 that any water which runs through the pots may run away. In the winter 

 management the chief object is to give all the air they can have in mild 

 weather by taking the lights off; to give them water very seldom, and 

 never till they absolutely want it. If to be grown in pots, they should be 

 repotted early in twelve inch pots, two or three plants in a pot, using the 

 soil above directed. Let there be, at least, three inches drainage. In put- 

 ting them in those large pots let the ball of earth be turned out whole, rub 

 off a little of the surface, and, after having filled the large pot high enough 

 with the compost, place the ball so that the collar of the plant, which is 

 just above the surface of the old ball, be within half an inch of the edge of 

 the pot, put the soil around it, press it down between the ball and the side, 

 and fill the whole up level with the collar of the plant, and the edge of the 

 pot. Let them all be placed in a sheltered spot, and refreshed with water 

 when they require it, which will be more or less frequently according as the 



