CASSELL'S POPULAR GAEDENING. 



useful to give them entire, with their ordinary- 

 prices : — 



MODEEN NAMES AND SIZES. 



As the railway freight on heavy goods so often 

 proves a formidahle item in their cost, the following 

 table of weight per 1,000, 500, 100, 12, and 6 pots 

 respectively from No. 1 to No. 24, is given, and also 

 the numher of each required to make a ton. All that 

 is needful in ordering pots from a distance is, simply 

 to compare the number wanted with the table, note 

 the weight, and ascertain the freight per hundred- 

 weight or ton between the pottery and the nearest 

 station, and add this to the net cost of the pots at 

 the pottery, and so find the whole cost, and prevent 

 any miscalculation : — 



TABLE 01" ■WEIGHTS. 



It will be observed that from the one inch and 

 three-quarters up to sixteen inches the sizes hardly 

 . advance an inch at a time. Such close-fitting sizes 

 are practically useless as far as the shifting of plants 

 from one to the other is concerned ; and in this 



Kg. 1.— Nest of Pots, 

 from 18 in. to li in. 



respect the old sizes seem more sensible than the new, 

 inasmuch as there is a greater difference between 

 them. Beyond sixteen inches in diam.eter there is a 

 difference of two inches between each of the sizes, 

 and this is increased to four inches in the final rise 

 from twenty-six to thirty inches ; the latter being 

 an enormous pot very seldom used. 



However, the nurserymen and florists have been ac- 

 customed to these sizes, as have also the potters, and 

 both classes are almost as con- 

 servative in such matters as the 

 thrower's wheel, which persists in 

 going against the sun, and in 

 turning off pots as it did, pro- 

 bably, four or five thousand 

 years ago. Those who want 

 greater difference in size can 

 easily obtain it by leaping over 

 one or more intermediate sizes, 

 and ordering Nos. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 

 1 1, and so on. 



An illustration of a nest of 

 pots, arranged according to the 

 above list, is given to make the 

 sizes and forms of the common garden-pots more 

 familiar to the general reader (Fig. 1). 



Long Toms. — The peculiar characteristic of 

 this form, which has hitherto been chiefly confined 

 to the smaller sizes, included between thimibs 

 and five-inch or less, is that they are deeper than 

 the "Ordinary make in proportion to their diameter, 

 and that they have no rims (Fig. 2). Being, how- 

 ever, made of the very best clay, and with more 

 than ordinary care, the pots, though also thinner 

 than most others in their sides, are found to be 

 stronger than the average make, though 

 these are fortified with rims. How far 

 it may be possible and safe in practice 

 to abolish rims in the larger sizes, re- 

 mains to be proved, and wUl doubtless 

 be put to the test. The chief object 

 gained by the abolition of rims' is to 

 economise space in the growth, storing, 

 and packing of small plants. This 

 difference in favour of rimless pots, 

 must be , seen to be fully appreciated. With the 

 smaller sizes the number of plants placed in the 

 same area may be almost doubled by the abolition of 

 the rims. This is of enormous importance when and 

 where thousands and tens of thousands of these are 

 raised and grown. 



These advantages, however, lose their force when 

 applied to pots and plants of larger sizes. So soon 

 as the diameter of the plant exceeds that of the pot, 

 the former, not the latter, regulates the distance 



Fig. 2. 

 Long Tom. 



