1 8 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



shut up in the afternoon with sun-heat. After the 

 middle of October the heat should be 5° less, and it 

 should gradually decrease till, by the middle of Novem- 

 ber, it is 55° at night and 60° by day. During October 

 the bottom-heat should not range higher than 80° ; and 

 for the three following months I consider 75° quite 

 sufficient to keep the roots healthy through these dull 

 months. In olden times, when every sucker potted in 

 autumn was deprived of its black and lifeless roots in 

 spring, it was considered that pines lost all their pre- 

 vious year's roots in the common course of nature. 

 But there is no doubt whatever that the real cause of 

 the evil arose from the common rule of renewing the 

 beds in which the pines were plunged at the fall of the 

 leaf, the consequence of which was a degree of bottom- 

 heat which pine-roots cannot bear and live. The good 

 pine-grower of the present time is not satisfied if, when 

 September-potted suckers are shifted in early spring, 

 their roots are not white and full of life, instead of 

 black and shrivelled. 



Under ordinary circumstances I would recommend 

 that the suckers now being treated of should be kept 

 quiet from the middle of ISTovember till the middle of 

 February, and not encouraged to grow. To rest them 

 thus a temperature of 55° is preferable to 60°, tmless 

 during very mild weather, but 60° should never be 

 exceeded. The atmosphere should be dry rather than 

 otherwise; and I have very rarely found that, when 

 grown on a bed of leaves and tan, during these months 

 they ever require any water at the root. The tan in 

 which the pots are plunged is generally moist enough 

 for the maintenance of pine-roots in a healthy condi- 

 tion, and the soU. in the pots is regulated as to moisture 



