7$ BRITISH MODES OF CULTIVATING 



heat ; the lights were then shut down close, and as 

 great a heat kept among the plants as the heat of 

 the tan and sunshine could raise, and when the sun 

 shone long and very bright, the plants were shaded 

 a few hours in the middle of the day. The plants 

 were thus managed till they had struck root and 

 begun to grow, when a gentle watering was given 

 to them, and a little air admitted daily. About 

 the end of October or beginning of November, if 

 the state of the bed required it, a little fresh tan 

 was added, and if the plants by growth had become 

 crowded, some of them were removed into another 

 place, and the remainder plunged into the tan bed, 

 in which they continued till February or March, 

 when of course the bed required an addition of 

 fresh tan, which was given it, and the plants plung- 

 ed again into it at such distances one from the other 

 as to give them room to grow ; here they remained 

 till May or June, at which time they were shifted 

 into larger pots with the balls of earth about their 

 roots entire, and at this shifting, if the tan bed 

 wanted it, fresh tan was added to and mixed with 

 the old, which in general- enabled it to retain a 

 sufficient heat till the month of August or Sep- 

 tember, when the plants, with their roots unhurt, 

 were shifted into pots large enough to admit earth 

 easily round their balls between their roots and the 

 sides of the pots. In these pots I let the plants 

 remain in general till the fruit was over. At this 

 time of shifting, the rotten part of the tan was 

 taken away, and a sufficient quantity of new tan 



