66 AMERICAN GARDENER. 



half an inch. Make the top very smooth again, 

 Then take the pot in your two hands, and give five 

 or six gentle taps with the bottom of the pot upon 

 the ground, or upon a block, or some solid thing. 

 This /$ the earth down; and it needs no press- 

 ing at the top, nor any other thing done to it. 

 After this settling, the top of the earth should be 

 about an inch lower than the top of the pot ; else 

 you could not, when necessary, give water; for 

 the water would run off, there being no place to 

 hold it. 



113. Suppose you have a Geranium to plant, 

 which has been raised from a cutting, and the root, 

 of which cannot be very large. Put some earth 

 in the pot. Hold the root of plant upon it to see 

 that it will be of the right depth, if its root stand 

 on that earth. Then, when you have got the 

 earth to the right height, hold the plant with one 

 hand, and fill up the pot, round the plant, with 

 the otner. Then, tap the bottom of the pot on 

 some solid thing, as before mentioned, leaving the 

 earth, as before, an inch lower than the top of 

 the pot. Put the pot in the pan; and, in this 

 case, water the plants moderately; for, observe, 

 that a plant in a pot has not an under-soil and, 

 dews and a mass of fermenting earth to supply 

 it with moisture, as a plant in the open air has. 

 Yet, even in the case of pots, it is best, unless 

 the plant be of a very juicy nature, to suffer the 

 ground to get dry at top before you water ; be- 

 cause, water falling upon freshly-moved earth y 

 always makes it bake hard at top, which is ve- 

 ry injurious to every kind of plant. 



114. These two instances will suffice for the 

 operation of sowing and planting in pots; for. 



