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this recommendation of shading we entirely dissent, 

 considering it to be one of the most incorrect prac- 

 tices in modern pine culture. In this country, where 

 we have so much gloomy weather, and consequent de- 

 ficiency of light, there is never such an excess for 

 any plant that is a native of the tropics as to render 

 necessary shade when it is established, or its fruit 

 swelling. It is a recommendation not it accordance 

 with the dictates of nature, though such a recommen- 

 dation was very necessary in those by-gone days, when 

 pine plants were cultivated almost without roots. 

 "We condemn the shading system altogether, for 

 plants of any age which are established with roots. 

 Applied to fruit, or fruiting plants, it must certainly 

 occasion a considerable sacrifice of their best qualities. 

 A far more correct principle is, instead of shading, to 

 secure in fervid weather a genial humidity to the in- 

 terior atmosphere. We are fully aware that shading 

 was in full practice among cultivators of the pine 

 years ago, but considering the poor rootless system 

 then adopted, and the parching, unkind interior at- 

 mosphere, and the fine, soured compost employed, un- 

 doubtedly shading was then necessary, to keep upon 

 the plants even a slight degree of green colour ; 

 otherwise they would have had a more seared, lean, 

 narrow-leaved appearance than they then had. In- 

 stead of shading, let the pine-grower secure a regular 

 and constant circulation of moist air in the interior 



