POTTING PLAN rs. The successful florist knows that the best soil for plants is a normal one, or one in which it naturally grew, and naturally seeks to give it those conditions as near as he can. All this requires a pretty extensive knowledge, not only of the habits of the plants themselves, but of soils also. But the normal condition of a plant is not to have its roots cramped in a pot. So, the cultivation of plants in pots must be entirely artificial in practice. One natural supposition of the amateur is, there fore, the richer I can get the earth in my pot,the better, and to this end lie makes it fat with strong manure, or the larger the pot the better for the plant. Yet both these natural propositions are wrong in practice. A soil exceedingly fat tends to disease in plants, in artifieial culture. A large pot tends to increase growth at the expense of bloom. A six inch pot is amply large for ordin ary house plants. The soil should be pure,what is known as a sandy loam, enriched with none but the most thoroughly digested compost—that is, manure and soil so thoroughly seasoned, tem pered and worked that rankness no longer exists. Again, the florist depends largely upon liquid manure to stimulate the plant when it needs it. For this there is nothing better in the West than blood or offal manure. To use this dissolve from one-quarter to one-half pound in a gallon of water. Give this on the surface, once a week or ten days, as the plants seem to need it, and in quantities only sufficient to moisten the soil of the pot, allowing. so much soft, clear, tepid water from time to time as the plants may need. When guano is substituted, from one to two ounces will be sufficient, beginning with the smallest quantities and noting the results. If the fertilizers named are not easily procured, prepare a tight barrel with sticks and straw at the bottom, to form a receptacle for the liquid at the bottom, as in setting up a leach tub, set it where it will not freeze. Mix a peck of hen or pigeon manure, with sufficient barnyard scrapings to fill the barrel, well packed down, pour on rain water until it stands in the hollow at the top, and draw from the bottom from a plug as wanted, adding more water from time to time as needed. As you
draw from the bottom, dilute properly and apply as before directed. In shifting from one pot to anothet use only a size larger than the plant bad before. An easy way to proceed is to select the pot, cover the bottom with bits of crock or broken flower pots, cover this with sharp sand and rich compost, half and half. Put into the larger pot, one a size less than the one containing the plant, filling about it good compost earth well packed down. Lift out the pot and fill with earth, so the ball of earth with the plant to be placed thereon will reach to within a half inch of the rim of the pot. Set in the plant, press in the earth about it, and fill up with more soil if neces sary, jar slightly to settle all firmly together, water, and the whole is as well done as possible. and in far less time than we have written it. If the plant has no ball of earth, the pot must have drainage as before direeted, and filled with earth pretty firmly packed, so the neck of the plant—when the roots are spread—will just reach within half an inch of the top of the pot. Sift fine earth about the roots, pressing. the soil well about them, filling only so full that when well settled it will be even with the neck of the plant or that portion at the old surface of the earth. Water and shade for a day or two and the plant should do nicely. To remove a plant from the pot in which it has been growing, turn the pot upside down upon the hand so the stem of the plant will come between the first and second fingen, covering the earth with the thumb and fingers. Strike on the bottom with the other hand, or jar the rim gently on some hard substance, and the hall entire will, as a rule, slip easily and intact from the pot. If the plant have a mass of roots next the side of the pot, trim them with a sharp knife as desired, and the whole is ready for re-potting. One thing should be remembered; liquid manure should not be given after re-potting until the plant is growing well, and the roots have filled the pots or nearly so. Thus a little observation and practical experience -will soon enable the novice in flori culture to become expert.