EARLY CULTIVATION OP PLANTS. 



279 



tempts being made to spread out the roots on tlie sur- 

 face ; and when the separation of the roots is resorted 

 to, it may he so violent as to give a considerable check 

 to the growth, for which reason it is often employed 

 with reluctance : indeed, in old pot-grown plants, whose 

 roots have acquired a firm set, the operation may be 

 impossible, in which case it Avill be more satisfactory to 

 throw them away than to plant them, for they are 

 almost sm^e to be upset by the wind when they have 

 attained the height of fifteen or twenty feet. Most of 

 the pine tribe have few or no tap roots. They spread 

 their principal roots all round near the surface of the 

 soil ; and these roots, being more or less at right angles 

 to the trunk, according to the slope of the ground, 

 afford the tree a primary rest or support independently 

 of the hold which, as roots, they take of the, soU. 

 Of course this advantage is greatly lessened, if not 

 wholly lost, by pot culture. Nevertheless, this mode of 

 propagation cannot be wholly discontinued. Some pines 

 are undeniably tender while young. The facility with 

 which plants can be turned out of pots with good balls 

 is of considerable value. For these reasons this method 

 of cultivation should be, if possible, improved, and its 

 disadvantages sedulously remedied. We would recom- 

 mend the employment of wider and shallower pots than 

 those in common use — say six inches in diameter by 

 four in depth for the first potting, and ten by six for the 

 second. Perhaps it would be better to adopt the larger 

 pots at once, as these would allow the roots to spread, 

 and prevent the corkscrew set, which is the bane of pot 

 cultm^e. Another error is, that pines are generally re- 

 tained too long in pots, being kept dming summer in 

 some back region or shaded frame in a garden or nursery. 



