Gol THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. [Fcl/. 



when taken out of the bed, to see if any of them require shift- 

 ing. This should not be done as a matter of course, but as a 

 matter of necessity. Those which appear stinted for room in 

 the pots should be carefully taken out and repotted into larger 

 pots, without disturbing the ball but as little as possible. If 

 the ball seem hard, and the mould appears exhausted, loosen 

 the surface of the ball carefully, by gently patting it all round 

 with the hand, but if too hard to be thus easily broken, it has 

 the more need of being shifted; in such cases, as nuich of the 

 outer sides of the ball should be displaced, so as not to shake 

 it (piitc to the centre, and the roots carefully separated, and 

 such as are injured in the operation, or decayed, should be 

 thinned out with a knife. A larger pot should be prepared by 

 being previously well drained, and the plant thus treated 

 potted in it, carefully spreading out the roots, and shaking the 

 mould in among them, but not using a stick, as is often prac- 

 tised, by which the roots may be injured. The plant thus 

 repotted should be placed rather deeper in the pot than it was 

 in the former, and if any useless or decayed leaves remained 

 about the bottom of the stem, they should be displaced, thus 

 affording an opportunity for fresh roots emitting themselves 

 near the surface of the mould. After potting, a moderate 

 supply of water should be given, to settle the mould about the 

 roots. Those plants whicii appear healthy, and are judged to 

 be in pots sufficiently large, should not be chsturbed, as it is 

 presumed that they have been all potted in autumn in full-sized 

 pots, in which they are to perfect their fruit. Nothing can be 

 gained by repotting plants at this stage of their growth, most 

 of them starting into fruit, and many of them already farther 

 advanced. The act of shaking them out of their pots at this 

 time must certainly give them a check that they will not get 

 over for some weeks, and will be evidently detrimental to the 

 formation of the fruit, which wUl be now in an embryo state. 

 Those plants which appear sickly, and do not stand steady in 

 the pots, may require to be taken out, and the whole of the 

 ball carefully broken ; the roots should then be examined, and 

 such as are decayed should be displaced, and the plant repotted 

 into the same sized pot ; or, if very sickly, into a smaller pot 

 than that in which it was first placed, which, when the plant 



