cruickshank's practical planter. 



333 



experience, to ascertain whether plants, in the seed- 

 bed, are too much crowded or not, is to compare such 

 as grow on the verge of the alley with those in the 

 interior. If the girt of the latter he equal, or nearly 

 so, to that of the former, the plants have sufficient 

 room." — " When plants have stood for several years 

 in nursery lines, if they are too much crowded, many 

 of their lower branches will be sickly or withered, or 

 the stems will be entirely devoid of branches, ex- 

 cepting within a few inches of the top. This is a 

 mark so plain that no one can mistake. 



" Care should be taken not to purchase plants 

 which betray symptoms of disease. When larches 

 not more than three years old cast the whole, or 

 even the greater part, of their leaves, just when the 

 winter commences, it is a sure sign that they are in 

 an unhealthy state, and that many of them will die 

 in the course of next season ; for, under this age, the 

 larch should retain a considerable quantity of its old 

 leaves till spring." — " There is also a minute white 

 insect, which is fatal to the larch in plantations, that 

 sometimes attacks it in the nursery after it enters 

 its second year ; on this account, it is proper to ex- 

 amine the larch plants the summer previous to pur- 

 chasing them." — " Scots fir may be regarded as sick- 

 ly, when the points of the leaves become withered, or 



