296 THE PLEASURE, OR [March. 
come dry, and when sufficiently so, and wanted for use, pass it 
through a coarse screen or sieve, to reduce its parts, and take out 
stones, or any other extraneous substance which it contains. 
The pots made use of for spring potting, should be ten inches wide 
at the top, five inches at the bottom, and eight inches deep in the 
side, with a hole in the centre of the bottom, an inch in diameter. 
The pots are first to be near half filled with compost, previously 
placing an oyster-shell or such like, with its hollow side down- 
wards, over the hole in the bottom of each: the compost is to be 
higher at the sides than at the centre of the pots, and the plants 
intended for them, which are supposed to have been wintered in 
small pots, containing three plants each, are to be carefully turned 
out with the earth adhering to them in a ball; and after rubbing off 
half an inch of the surface of the old mould round the plants, above 
their fibres, cleaning thern and cutting off the points of their de- 
cayed leaves, the ball is to be carefully placed in the centre of the 
pot, and the space between it and the sides filled up with the pre- 
pared compost. 
If your plants have been vvintcred one plant in each pot only, a 
size much smaller than the above, will be sufficient to shift them 
into, but when three plants grow and flower together in a large 
pot, they appear to more advantage. 
This being done, give the plants a little water, and observe that 
the earth comes no higher up their stems than it did in the former 
pots, nor should the compost come nearer than within an inch of 
the top of the rim, after it has been gently shaken or struck against 
the ground in finishing; as an inconvenience will attend its being 
too full, when the operation of laying comes to be performed, which 
requires some additional mould on the surface, for the layers to 
strike into. 
When the plants are thus potted off for bloom, they should be 
placed in an open airy part of the garden under an arch of hoops, 
that in case of cold drying winds, heavy rains, or cold frosty nights, 
mats may be thrown over, to preserve them from the effects of 
such unfavourable weather. In this situation they are to remain, 
always open to the air, except in the cases above mentioned, and 
be kept regularly watered with soft water, as often as appears ne- 
cessary, from a fine rosed watering-pot. For their further treat- 
ment see next month, May, ijfc 
The plants which were planted in large pots last autumn, where 
they are to remain to flower, should now have the old mould taken 
out, as near to their roots as possible, without disturbing them, and 
replaced with fresh compost; after which, treat them as above. 
The common carnations in beds, borders, SiC. may be removed 
towards the latter end of this month, and planted where desired. 
Pinks. 
The culture of pinks is much less difficult than that of carna- 
tions: they are hardier, more easily prop^igated, increase more 
abundantly, and are less liable to incidental casualties than the latter. 
