24 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



them to start than when grown in larger pots. From 

 this it will be observed that all that I recommend in 

 the way of repotting pines, in their progress from the 

 sucker state to their yielding and ripening their fruit, 

 is simply one shift. 



Before turning the plants out of their pots, a few of 

 the short sucker leaves round their collars should be 

 stripped off. When turned out of their pots, all inert 

 soil on the surface of the ball should be removed with 

 the hand, and the crocks taken from the bottom part, 

 taking care not to injure the roots. The ball should 

 then have a gentle tap or two with the palm of the 

 hand, and the outside roots be disentangled a little 

 without breaking up the ball. This is what is recom- 

 mended in the case of plants that have the soil and 

 roots in a thoroughly satisfactory condition having 

 fine healthy white roots, with a moderately matted ball, 

 and the soil in a healthy condition. When, as may 

 occur in individual plants, the soil is either over dry 

 or soured with wet from having stood in a drip, it is 

 best to shake out the plants either more freely than 

 I have directed, or entirely, according as the condition 

 named may exist to a limited or extreme extent. The 

 pots should be filled firmly up with soil, so that the 

 plants when placed in them may be from two to three 

 inches deeper in the pot than they were before. Be- 

 ing an advocate for very firm potting, I recommend 

 that the soil should be rammed firmly round the ball 

 with a blunt-pointed piece of wood. Be it remembered 

 that the soil I have recommended to be thus acted 

 upon is not a damp mixture of heavy soil and animal 

 excrement, but a light turfy loam through which water 

 passes freely ; and the more firmly it is put into the 

 pot the less water it holds in suspension, a point of no 



