GENERAL DIRECTIONS. 183 



sickly. Plants with fine hair-like roots should only be given small 

 shifts; rapid growing plants and those with large roots will take larger 

 shifts. In every case the ball should be moderately moist when potting. 

 Plants in the younger stages of their existence, whether seedlings or 

 cuttings, require the soil to be of a finer nature than when older, when 

 it may be rough and fibrous, and in the case of those which need it 

 manure of some kind added. In potting ordinary plants in pots above 

 the size of 4 or 5-inch, the firming of the soil should be done with the 

 aid of a piece of wood about li/^ inches wide and i^'-inch thick, or larger, 

 for very large plants. Enough space should always be left at the top of 

 the pot, so that when the ball of earth is in need of water one applica- 

 tion will be sufficient to wet it through. In potting cuttings it is the 

 usual custom to put in soil to one-third the depth of the pot; the cut- 

 ting is put in place, the remaining space filled up with soil, firmed with 

 the thumbs, then the bottom of the pot is knocked several times on the 

 bench. A better method is to have the knocking precede the firming 

 with the thumbs, for this reason : When the cutting is placed in posi- 

 tion, the soil added and thumb-firmed, the soil does not get well distri- 

 buted among the rootlets nearly so well as when the pot is given one or 

 two gentle knocks before the thumbs are used. For most plants in the 

 cutting stage the thumbs should be used for evening the surface more 

 than for firming. Another reason, just as weighty as the last, is that 

 pressure from the thumb acts unevenly on the roots, pressing down 

 opposite sections, while the intervening spaces containing the tender 

 roots are stationary. This must necessarily result in twisting and 

 wrenching, which dangers are done away with, or at least lessened, by 

 first firming with the knocking process. Again, all the cuttings of a 

 batch will not have the same quantity of roots, and therefore they 

 should get different methods of treatment in potting. Those which 

 have a satisfactory number of roots may be put in the middle of the 

 pot, according to the usual custom; but those which have few roots, 

 and which look as if they would benefit by being left in the cutting bed 

 for a longer period, will, as a rule, come along all right if placed at the 

 edge of the pot instead of at the middle. The roots in this position 

 make progress rapidly, and the plantlets can easily be given a place 

 in the middle of a pot during their next shift. Cuttings with very fine 

 roots should always be treated in this way. Many cuttings, when 

 ready for potting, will be found to have the roots pointing downward 

 from the base of the cutting instead of radiating from it; these, if of a 

 delicate and easily bruised nature, can be preserved by taking some soil 

 in one hand, letting the fingers accompany it into the pot, and before 

 withdrawing them press the soil against one side of the pot; place the 

 roots against this and fill up with soil. In course of time practice will 

 enable the operator to pot cuttings as rapidly by this as by the ordinary 

 method. In potting cuttings during the Winter months very great care 

 should be exercised in preventing a check through putting them in soil, 

 which is of a lower temperature than the sand from which they have 

 been taken. It should not vary more than two degrees at the time of 

 potting. 



