THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
117 
abundance of flowers ; and to make amends for the comparatively 
small amount of soil in the pot, it was supplied from the first and 
always with soft water slightly charged with some fertilizing agent, 
and always warm as the air the plant was growing in. There were 
other circumstances that conduced to its perfection, but these we 
will not inquire into, because, as remarked above, the amateur culti- 
vator would not be prudent in adopting the practice of the market 
grower in extenso, even if that were possible, as, generally speaking, 
it is not. 
It is, therefore, important to master the art of growing plants in 
pots, and for the practice of this art a certain amount of machinery 
is necessary, which we sliall now hastily describe. 
Tue Potting Shed is the workshop, storehouse, and tool reposi- 
tory. It is a good plan to place it so as to cover the stoke-hole, and 
thus make a snug place of it in winter. It may be a quite rough 
affair, but it must be large enough and weather-proof, and quite 
light. Old window-frames and doors may be used up advan- 
tageously in making a potting shed, and a brick or tile flooring is 
to be desired. A lean-to with tiled roof, in which a few glass tiles 
are inserted, will answer well, if a wall can be spared for it, and the 
whole front may be open, if the situation is quite sheltered. If the 
front is closed there must be two or three windows. To give an idea 
of the proper size for such a shed, we should say that a length of 
twelve feet and a width of eight feet would suffice for a small garden. 
Any way, there must be room for handling plants and for a wheel- 
barrow to turn, and for a store of necessary materials. 
A strong bench should run the whole length of the shed, and 
beneath it should be rough bins with sloping fronts for storing loam, 
peat, sand, and other stuff. The stout uprights which support the 
bench will aflbrd a bolding for the divisions of the bins, which should 
be six in number at least, one or two of them much larger than all 
the rest for loam and peat, of which there must always be a good 
store. The sloping front should drop into grooves to facilitate fill- 
ing the bins. A locker for labels, seeds, and other oddments will be 
useful, and the whole of the garden tools may be accommodated on 
the back wall by providing rails and hooks to hang them on. 
Composts for plant-growing are compounded in a great many 
different ways, as patent medicines are ; but the wise cultivator will 
not have many of them. We will suppose that the bins are filled 
with materials. These should consist of mellow loam full of decayed 
fibre, tough fibrous peat, silver sand, leaf-mould, potsherds, old 
broken plaster or mortar, and the most rotten portion of the manure 
from an old hotbed or any similar source. With these before us we 
will prepare what shall henceforth be termed the universal compost. 
We will put upon the bench a bushel of the loam, a peck of leaf- 
mould, a peck of the powdery manure, and half a peck of silver 
sand, and proceed to chop them over and mix them with the trowel, 
throwing out all large stones as the mixing proceeds. If this is well 
done the compost will be ready, and will suit perfectly nine-tenths 
of all the plants you are likely to cultivate. Another useful com- 
post will consist of one bushel of peat, one peck of leaf-mould, and 
April. 
