72 MARKET NURSERY WORK 



on which the young plants lie. Convenient to our hand is the 

 heap of pots. We reach the pot forward with the left hand 

 and some soil with the right, and immediately the pot is in posi- 

 tion before us the soil is dropped in, practically simultaneously, 

 followed by the fingers of the right hand which presses the 

 soil towards one side of the pot to half its depth. That completes 

 the first movement. 



Next, the left hand takes up a plant at the same moment 

 that the right hand takes up soil, sufficient to fill the pot. The 

 plant being placed, the soil is dropped over the roots, while the 

 thumb and index finger of the left hand and the thumb of 

 the right, encircling the stem of the plant, press the soil firmly 

 down to its roots. This completes the second movement. 



Next, the pot is gripped in this fashion : the index fingers 

 embracing the pot on the far side, the bent middle fingers 

 embracing the near side, and the two thumbs pressing on the 

 soil. One smart rap, accompanied by thumb pressure, a sharp 

 half turn of the pot, then another rap and pressure, and the 

 operation is practically complete, except that as the left hand 

 removes the potted plant and brings back another pot, a sweep 

 of the right hand on its way for soil clears away any crumbs 

 which may be in the way of the succeeding pot. Thus there is 

 always the clean hard bench to rap the pot on. 



This takes some time in the telling and it is difficult to describe 

 the movements with that clarity we would like, but there are 

 other minute details quite indescribable which stamp the 

 individuality of the potter. These will only be detected and 

 acquired by practice. To disabuse any mind which considers 

 these movements at all complicated we can only say that as each 

 movement is practically simultaneous, it is simple and rapid 

 enough to enable us throughout a long day to pot from 500 to 

 600 per hour, or about ten per minute. When we come to 

 describe the potting of established plants into large pots, the 

 practice is of a more stereotyped character, and practically 

 all plantsmen do it in the same way. Individuality counts for 

 little in the necessary movements, but we think it does count in 

 the efficiency and thoroughness of the work. 



We will take the re-potting of a Dracoena from a 48 to a 24 



