Transactions of the Londori Horticultural Society. 345 



six bushels] an acre more than when cultivated in the usual 

 mode ; namely, by small sets, and in rows 2 ft. asunder. 

 In the two other kinds, which were late ones, the produce of 

 the new method has been inferior ; but one kind had suffered 

 considerably from the depredations of a herd of rats, so that 

 the result in this case has not been satisfactorily ascertained. 

 But more of this at some convenient time." 



25. Upon the Cultivation of the Carnation. In a Letter to the 

 Secretary. By Mr. William May, F.H.S., of the Pickhill and 

 Hope Nursery, Leamington. Read April 5. 1831. 



Mr. May pots his layers off the parent plants, in Septem- 

 ber, into pots of the size No. 48, in previously prepared soil, 

 composed of one half old leaf mould, and the other half 

 coarse pit sand approaching to grit, having first drained 

 each pot with a handful of potsherds broken small. When 

 the plants are potted and watered, they are placed in a frame 

 filled with old tan, " so that it will just admit the pot and 

 the plant to stand on the surface and not touch the glass : " 

 this frame is kept closed and shaded for a few days, until the 

 plants have recovered, when air is given daily by degrees. 

 When the plants are established, to daily airing are added 

 watering as required, complete exposure in dry warm wea- 

 ther, and careful protection from dew-falls and excess of wet, 

 until November and frequently December. After having 

 passed the frosts of winter in this situation, during which 

 Mr. May merely keeps the lights completely closed and has 

 had them covered with snow for even eight weeks, he, on the 

 return of fine weather, airs and heats them as before, " until 

 the latter end of March, when, for a few days before final 

 removing, I give them full air night and day." Each plant is 

 then potted for blooming into a SO-sized pot, drained to one 

 sixth part of its depth with well broken potsherds, in a com- 

 post, prepared in the winter, of three fifths decomposed 

 leaf soil, one fifth coarse pit sand or grit, and one fifth road- 

 scraping from a limestone-made road, or the subsoil or 

 paring next the stone used for lime. " These," says Mr. 

 May, " I cause to be turned, exposed, and mixed well toge- 

 ther ; and, as the quantity wanted for even a large stock of 

 carnations is easily looked over and picked by hand, all 

 worms, wire worms, &c., are taken out." The plants, when 

 potted, are plunged in the ground where intended to bloom, 

 so that the rim is just covered with soiL" 



The remainder of Mr. May's directions we copy entire : — 



" Before each pot is plunged, I have a small quantity of 



soot put into the bottom of the place intended for it, so that 



