404 Draining Garden Pots. 



moved backwards and forwards on the brush, which will soon 

 perfectly clean the shoe. 



In this village churchyard there is a rather extraordinary 

 plane tree [sycamore, A x cev Pseudo-Platanus], of a large size 

 and completely hollow, and the jackdaws build their nests both 

 in the main hole and in the large branches. They have their 

 entrance into the tree through small apertures, which, I suppose, 

 at some time have been branches broken off and decayed. The 

 lads are not able to get at these nests ; indeed very few persons 

 are aware that this tree is hollow in the inside, as it is now in 

 full leaf and of a handsome shape. I have no doubt if there 

 were an opening into this tree, where the jackdaws have their 

 nests, that I and three more men might sit in it ; if you should 

 think a rough drawing and description of it would be of interest 

 for your Magazine, I would send it to you. 



Having said so much, I must leave it to your judgment, as it is 

 now many years since I wrote to you, having given up all business, 

 and retired into the country to spend the remainder of my days 

 where my forefathers did, in the neighbourhood of Garstang. 



Garsfa?ig, June 14. 1842. 



Art. VIII. On draining Garden Pots. By Robert Errington/ 



I beg to offer a few practical observations on a mode of 

 draining garden pots; and as the remarks I shall make are the 

 result of extensive practice, coupled with very close observation, 

 they may be relied on, as far as they go, and may, I hope, prove 

 of service to (at least) amateurs; who now, I fancy, form by no 

 means an insignificant portion of the gardening community. 



When I was a lad, all composts were subjected to a severe 

 scrutiny by the riddle or sieve; all organic matters were scrupu- 

 lously rejected, and the fine-looking residue tossed into the 

 pot on a single ill-placed crock : the consequence was, that, after 

 the first watering, the drainage became progressively more and 

 more imperfect, until, finally, the mass of soil became, in many 

 cases, a nest of worms. 



These facts are now, I am aware, generally known ; and the 

 single crock of former days has given way to a series of crocks, 

 placed with a nice hand and covered yet again, it may be, with 

 a layer of pounded crocks. This is just as it should be : 

 however, pounding of crocks for the thickening multitudes of 

 plants in modern days is no joke ; and as many of these plants 

 are of a somewhat ephemeral character, in point of duration, 

 some compromise is necessary to economise labour, without af- 

 fecting, to any material degree, principles of high cultivation. 



In your excellent publication, the Suburban Horticulturist, 



