PROPER TREATMENT. 47 



or deeper into the soil, according to their need, while 

 they have the benefit of the hoeing, or the operation of 

 natural agencies, in loosening and ventilating the soil. In 

 pots not too large they send their roots by the very short- 

 est line to the inside surface, where, if the pot is porous, 

 there is always the needful supply of air. But what 

 chance of obtaining air have the roots of a small plant in 

 a large pot or tub set up in the house ? So you see " cir- 

 cumstances alter cases," and the facts of out-door culture 

 really favor the in-door use of the smaller pots. 



But the rule is amply supported by actual experiments, 

 as well as by the philosophy of the case. When a florist 

 has a sickly plant, choice enough to claim his special care, 

 he puts it into a hospital, or sanitarium, by changing it to 

 the smallest pot possible, and there it generally recovers. 

 Even healthy plants show a remarkable difference of 

 growth between the two conditions. I have before me now, 

 in a large pot with other plants, but not crowded by them, 

 an ivy two years old and five inches high. Another of 

 the same kind and age, has been growing in a small pot, 

 changed occasionally for the next size larger, until now it 

 has a length of ten or twelve feet with lateral branches. 

 In nearly every case where I have heard complaints that 

 plants would not grow, and have sought out the cause, I 

 have found some victim of suffocation. So far as my ex- 

 perience goes, there is no surer way of checking the 

 growth of any plant kept in the house, than to put it 

 into a pot so large that the roots can not easily reach its 

 sides. 



5. To pot a plant properly, have the soil moist, but 

 not wet, the roots naturally extended, and the stem in 

 about its previous position at the surface. Pack more or 

 less closely as the plant is hard or soft-stemmed ; but or- 

 dinarily trust to the settling effect of a smart rap or two, 

 a slight pressure with the thumbs, and a thorough water- 

 ing. Leave from half an inch to an inch of pot-room 



