74 THE CHRYSANTHEMUM 



As soon as the roots have run freely through the soil 

 given at the last repotting, which can be easily ascer- 

 tained by turning a plant out of its pot, the plants are 

 ready for another shift. They should never remain 

 until they become pot-bound or the resultant check to 

 growth consequent upon letting them get into this state 

 can never be fully remedied. 



"At each potting a stronger soil should be given, 

 using a mixture of fibrous loam, well decayed manure 

 and a sprinkling of bone meal. The dark flowered 

 varieties are very apt to burn, and this trouble may, in 

 part, be corrected by the use of some charcoal in the 

 soil, or larger pieces may be used with the drainage 

 material at the bottom of the pot. 



"The plants should receive their final potting, which 

 may be into ten-inch or twelve-inch pots, according to 

 size and vigor, sometime during the early part of the 

 month of June. For this final shift a good, rich com- 

 post should be made of a rough or open character, 

 using plenty of half-decayed sod. The potting must 

 be well and firmly done and the compost such that, 

 after consolidation, it will still allow of the free passage 

 of water. Should the only available soil be of a heavy 

 or adhesive nature mix some sharp sand with it as, 

 above all things, porosity must be maintained. The 

 plants have to remain in these pots for six months, 

 during which large quantities of water must be given, 

 therefore it is most important to guard against danger 

 of stagnation, as the roots of a water-logged plant soon 

 perish, and it is hardly possible to nurse it back to 

 former health and vigor. 



"A careful, systematic, properly-timed course of 

 pinching the shoots, generally called 'stopping,' must 

 also be pursued from early infancy, but never pinch 

 and pot at the same time, as this would result in 



