SOIL IN POTS SOON EXHAUSTED. 433 



succeed better unpotted, if planted freely in soil exposed to 

 a 'proper amount of hottom-heat. This was first asserted by 

 Mr. Martin Call, one of the Emperor's gardeners at St. Peters- 

 burg {Hort. Trans., iv. 471), and has been since practised very 

 successfully by others. In the year 1830, a Pine-apple, 

 obtained by this treatment, weighing 9 lb. 4oz., was sent to the 

 King of England by Mr. Edwards, of Eheola ; and in modern 

 practice all great Pine growers adopt this plan when circum- 

 stances permit them to do so. (See A Treatise on the Hamiltonian 

 System of Cultivating the Pine Apple. By Joseph Hamilton. 

 Ed. a, London, 1845.) 



The exhaustion of soil by a plant is one of the most obvious 

 inconveniences of potting. The nutrient matter in a soluble 

 state, contained in a garden pot, must necessarily be soon 

 consumed by the numerous roots crowded into a narrow 

 compass and continually feeding upon it. The effects of this 

 are seen in the smallness of leaves, the weakness of branches, 

 the fewness and imperfect condition of flowers, &c. j and the 

 gardener remedies them by applying liquid manure, by frequent 

 shifting, or by placing his plants in panfeeders, shallow earthen 

 vessels containing manure, to which the roots have access 

 through the holes in the bottom of a pot. It is, however, to shift- 

 ing more particularly, that recourse is had for renovating the 

 soil; and this, if skUfuUy performed, without giving a sudden and 

 violent shock to the plant, iS probably the best means ; because 

 the roots are thus allowed more liberty of distribution, and the 

 earth is kept more permeable than when consolidated by 

 repeated applications of liquid manure. There is, however, a 

 difficulty in shifting plants without injury to their roots, in the 

 midst of fuU vegetation ; and at such times the application of 

 liquid manure is preferable when the soil requires renovation. 



Every one knows that the soil of a farm will not bear, year 

 after year, the same kind of crop, but that one kind of produce 

 is cultivated on a piece of ground one year, and is succeeded 

 by some other kind ; which practice, in part, constitutes the 

 important system of rotation of crops. Not, however, to refer 

 to matters extra-horticultural, it is notorious that an Apple 

 orchard will not immediately succeed upon the site of an old 



