PURCHASING PLANTS. 



87 



lated by the greatest quantities of manure. It is 

 necessary, no doubt, that plants should be of a size 

 to qualify them for being removed, and suit them 

 to the situations for which they are intended ; but 

 if they have attained this size sooner than the due 

 time, by being forced, they are in the worst state 

 imaginable for growing in a barren moor, or the 

 bleak side of a rugged mountain. 



A seedling larch is large enough for being remo- 

 ved to any situation to which it is proper to trans- 

 fer it, if the part of it above the ground be an inch 

 or an inch and a half long ; and if it exceed two 

 inches, we may conclude that it has attained this 

 extra size, by being forced, and is consequently 

 deficient in hardiness. Other circumstances be- 

 ing the same, the growth of any plant will vary 

 according to the temperature, the wetness or dry- 

 ness of the season. But two inches, exclusive of 

 the roots, may be regarded as the maximum size to 

 which a seedling larch will grow, in land that is not 

 too strong, and where the local heat is not rendered 

 greater than the general warmth of the air, by close 

 shelter. Scots firs of two years old, the age at which 

 it is most proper to remove them from the seed-bed^ 

 should not exceed two, or at most two inches and a 

 half in length, above the surface of the ground 



