SLATE FOR HORTICULTURAL PURPOSES. 
215 
so much by way of recommending it, as show- 
ing that it can be done, and how to do it. 
While, therefore, some people gravely assure 
us that the one-shift system is the best for 
everything, and others are denouncing it as 
an impracticable, impossible thing, I desire to 
say that the Balsam gi'ows larger and in less 
time than it will groAV in the ordinary way; 
the only drawback is its coarseness as a plant; 
the flowers are individually noble, but they 
do not form such a mass as those on a smaller 
plant. They are more distant apart in mine 
than I had seen two seasons before in those 
I grew in the ordinary way, but each indi- 
vidual flower was magnificent, and I never 
saw a prettier sight than a tujay of them laid 
on moss; for, besides showing different varie- 
ties from the different plants, the variegated 
plants had a dozen different flowers on each ; 
some very little spotted or striped, some half 
coloured and half white, some nearly all white, 
and in the different proportions between them. 
I am not sure that I shall grow them on this 
one-shift principle again; but it has taught me, 
that I ought to go from the seed-pot to a 
forty-eight, from a forty-eight to a sixteen, 
and from the sixteen to the one I finish the 
bloom in ; and I believe this is what we shall 
all come to. I object to slight changes, but 
perhaps only one potting is carrying things to 
an injudicious extreme, if only for the enor- 
mous room it takes. — P. P. 
SLATE TOR HORTICULTURAL PURPOSES. 
Much has been said in favour of this mate- 
rial for boxes, as substitutes for pots and 
tubs; among other recommendations, economy 
of space and money are the chief, and upon 
these grounds, the advocates show something 
in their favour ; but against these, we have 
simply to observe, that the saving of expense 
is very small, if the interest of money ex- 
pended is considered, and as to space, we must 
dissent altogether; while there are disadvan- 
tages which we cannot overlook, and among 
them weight is no small one. The grand 
secret spring which has made the movement 
in behalf of slate, is the perseverance with 
which the manufacturers of the article have 
pushed the sale by liberal advertising, and the 
readiness with which portions of the press 
second anything that brings "grist to the 
mill." The expense in the first instance is 
much greater than that of either pots or tubs, 
and we are not quite sure that a square re- 
ceptacle for roots which spread all round alike, 
can be defended seriously as appropriate. It 
is true that squares fit better in stowage than 
circles; but, until it can be shown that the 
corners added to a circle are advantageous, the 
packing or stowing part of the affair falls to 
the ground, while the additional weight of the 
slate, and of the soil which fills the corners of 
a square, are manifest evils. With regard to a 
square being neater than a circle, we must 
admit, whether we will or not, that if any one 
says he likes a square better than a circle, he 
may insist that it is neater, and better; but 
doubt very much whether, beyond the 
interested parties, and those who desire to 
serve them, the preference will be found to 
exist. We are prepared to hear that imported 
orange and lemon trees are mostly in square 
wooden boxes, and therefore that squares were 
not invented for the benefit of slate quarries ; 
but it must be remembered that stowage on 
board ships, which are tossed about in all 
directions, is an excuse for that form. It must, 
however, be remembered, that nobody keeps 
them longer in those boxes than they can help, 
and that they are soon transferred from those to 
something more ornamental. There is something 
a good deal too mechanical in the form of a 
square, and even when, for the sake of eco- 
nomy, boxes instead of tubs are used, they are 
made, for the most part, smaller at the bottom, 
and very different from the straight-sided things 
formed of slate. But, if it be said that square 
is better than round, and that it is desirable 
to lug about all the extra weight of the 
additional soil to fill the corners,-— which, be it 
remembered, the roots do not fill till they meet 
against the sides, — and which we deny, then we 
are reduced to the simple question of economy; 
for no one will venture to say that wood can- 
not be worked as neatly as slate can be. And 
then we have not the objection of weight, and the 
awkwardness of handling. With regard to the 
economy, there is the disadvantage of large 
additional present outlay,, and the consolation 
merely, that if no unlucky wight breaks it in 
the course of removing, or otherwise using, it 
will last out several wooden boxes. We have 
inspected the slate boxes, and, indeed, seen 
them in use in many places, as well as at shows, 
— and great merit is taken by some writers for 
the plan upon which they are made, — this plan, 
however, being nothing more nor less than 
standing upon four feet, which the wooden 
boxes have done for the last half century, to 
our knowledge, and, for aught we know, for 
half-a-dozen. Of the slate boxes, it is said: — 
" The bottom being thus raised from the 
ground, is obviously favourable to drainage, 
and a means of deterring snails and worms 
from entering through the holes, and these 
advantages are increased, and a circulation of 
air at the roots of the plants promoted, by the 
box standing on four small castors screwed to 
the bottom, which also facilitate their removal 
from place to place. The sides are also pro- 
vided with small inverted iron hooks, so that 
with the aid of two shafts, cut of a convenient 
