GARDEN-POTS. 



is one of the most primitive and astonishing of all 

 the processes in the art of pot-making. The potter's 

 wheel has undergone little or no improvement since 

 the Israelites made pots, doubtless as well as bricks, 

 on such -hard lines in Egypt; and any one that looks 

 at the speed and perfection -with which, under the 

 spell of the eye and hand of the potter, it does its 

 work, cannot wonder that in a world of change 

 this rude piece of mechanism remains the same 

 throughout the ages. As the pots are made, they 

 are ranged by fifties, more or less according to size, 

 on a drying-board, and placed in drying-sheds until 

 fit for baking. When they arrive at this state, they 

 are made into nests, as it is technically called — ^that 

 is, the different sizes are sUpped into one another 

 until the whole is filled with pots, and so placed in 

 the oven. This economises space to the utmost, and 

 has also other advantages. "When the kiln is filled, 

 the door is built up, and rendered air-tight with clay. 

 The fires are then lighted, and a strong heat kept up 

 for two or three days of twenty-four hours each. The 

 fire is then allowed to die out, and the fire-place is 

 hermetically sealed to allow the glowing mass of pots 

 to cool slowly and regularly, sudden changes of 

 temperature having a tendency to fracture the pots 

 at this stage. When cool the pots are withdrawn. 

 In large establishments, where from fifty to sixty 

 men and boys are employed, several kilns are in 

 use ; as they can hardly be fiUed with pots, the pots 

 be drawn, and filled again, within less than a 

 week. 



As the making of garden-pots in quantity is a 

 very modem manufacture, and information in re- 

 lation to it is rare, and not readily accessible, it is 

 hoped the details here given wUl prove useful and 

 interesting to our readers. 



Cleanliness. — This merit was named in connec- 

 tion with the other good qualities of strength, light- 

 ness, and durability. The phrase, however, is liable 

 to be misunderstood. All new garden-pots are clean, 

 but what of the old ones ? Ah ! there's ii^e xub. Kow 

 the best garden -pots, such as those here described, 

 will wear clean ; that is, the texture and qua,lity is 

 such that they oiler no foothold for fungoid growths 

 on their outer surface, nor adherence of earth to their 

 inner sides. The best pots are more or less porous ; 

 less, however, rather than more. This matter will 

 be further adverted to in estimating the merits or 

 demerits of glazed pots. Pots sufficiently porous 

 to be seldom or never dry are decidedly dirty pots ; 

 the damp invites and retains all sorts of atmospheric 

 impurities, and living spores cling to, abide, and 

 grow on their slimy surfaces. Similar processes go 

 on inside ; and pots thus coated without and within 

 with foreign excrescences and impurities are totally 



unable to maintain the plants imprisoned or 

 poisoned in or through them in health and vigour. 

 A good pot, when dry, rings clear as a beU; a 

 bad one gives forth a dull sound, more like a soaked 

 brick or a log of wood. No amateur should 

 purchase old pots. They are not seldom poisoned 

 with dirt, and infested with the germs of the most 

 troublesome vermin, and are far too dear even if got 

 for nothing. Purchase only of the best makers, as 

 these cannot affiord to make or sell bad pots. They 

 either give them away should any occur by ac- 

 cident, or smash them at the kiln's mouth. The 

 maker who makes and sells fifteen or twenty thou- 

 sand pots a week, cannot afilord to make them of 

 inferior quality: it is the quality alone that creates 

 and sustains the trade, and consequently that must 

 be upheld at any sacrifice or cost. 



Sizes and Shapes. — If what has been said 

 about casts has been clearly understood, it will be seen 

 that pots must be of many varied sizes, when the 

 same clay that may be moulded into one will make 

 eighty, or even a hundred. These extreme varia- 

 tions of size are also necessary, as the seedling 

 almost too small to handle finds a suitable home 

 in a thimble-pot, while the orange-tree, camellia, 

 oleander, or fuchsia, ten feet Jiigh and five through, 

 is as much at home in a number four, two, or one- 

 sized pot. The old names and sizes of pots were 

 as follows; and as ihey are still used in some parts 

 of the country it may be useful to give them here, 

 as well as the newer nomenclature, which is based 

 on measurement only : — 



The modem current list of sizes is as follows. 

 It gives the diameter only ; and these are inside 

 measurements about an eighth of an inch below the 

 rim. These sizes and prices may be said to be the 

 arverage of the trade generally, not only of one 

 eminent manufacturer; and it may therefore prove 



