12 
NEW METHOD OF POTTING PLANTS, 
In a day when numbers of gardening practices are undergoing such a scrutinizing 
investigation, and the rays of science are so shed around them as often to render 
considerable modification necessary in their processes, it seems scarcely surprising 
that even a radical change should be efi*ecfced in many operations. So com})letely is 
horticulture — and, we may add, science generally — in its early childhood at present, 
and so little has been absolutely settled respecting its practical application, that 
it would be a sign of inertness, rather than of superiority to past ages, were 
not some new truth, bearing upon refined culture, almost continually being 
evolved. 
There is that in the human mind, in reference to all circumstances and to 
every subject, which must be perpetually impelling it forward. And to be quiescent 
in anything, is not merely to stagnate, but to retrograde. Hence, we hail with a 
satisfaction which derives a depth proportioned to the energy of its cause, and to 
contrast with the prejudicial consequences of inaction, every kind of onward 
movement ; for even failure in any particular track is valuable to the observer, by 
teaching him the futility of expanding his faculties again in that quarter. 
But there is notoriously a tendency in most minds, except those who are so 
happy as to hit upon novel and ingenious expedients, to treat with a most calculating 
suspicion all innovations on existing systems, particularly when the benefits of such 
innovations are not clearly obvious. Few persons of experience have passed 
through life without, at some time or other, being deceived and cheated by extra- 
vagant announcements ; thus acquiring a caution which, like their former heed- 
lessness, is frequently carried to an extreme. Nothing is more easy than to 
denounce an unusual course, by suggesting the improbability of its success. A 
child might have placed a bar in the wheels of a locomotive, and thus, for a time, 
impeded its progress. And so, mere children in experience and understanding may 
cast doubts upon any minor discovery or application of science, thereby retarding 
its diffusion. Such a practice is, however, most unphilosophical and unwise. 
And while every one ought to hesitate ere they adopt measures materially different 
from those they have before followed, the most rational plan, instead of throwing 
questions or ridicule around them, is to examine their actual results, and personally 
test their value by limited experiment. We have considered this prelude essential 
to the dissertation we are about to give, because the statements we shall have to 
bring forward appear altogether to militate against the strong and increasing array 
of public opinion. But if a consideration of popular prejudices prevents us from 
attaching too great advantages to the system we are to describe, it must not deter 
us from discussing it, or from giving utterance to what we know to be facts. That 
is by no means necessarily absurd which contravenes prevailing notions. On the 
