shift them for fruiting, admit only of one shift without reducing the balls. The strongest plants in 8inch are shifted into pots 12 inches wide and as many deep, and those in 6-inch into 11-inch pots. These sizes are sufficient for the production of the very finest pines. Indeed, fine fruit is not dependent on size of pot so much as on other points of culture. And what is of no small consequence, especially to those who have a regular supply of fruit to keep up from limited accommodation, it is found that pine plants grown in comparatively small pots are much more manageable in the way of getting them to start than when grown in larger pots. From this it will be observed that all that I recommend in the way of repotting pines, in their progress from the sucker state to their yielding and ripening their fruit, is simply one shift.

Before turning the plants out of their pots, a few of the short sucker leaves round their collars should be stripped off. When turned out of their pots, all inert soil on the surface of the ball should be removed with the hand, and the crocks taken from the bottom part, taking care not to injure the roots. The ball should then have a gentle tap or two with the palm of the hand, and the outside roots be disentangled a little without breaking up the ball. This is what is recommended in the case of plants that have the soil and roots in a thoroughly satisfactory condition-having fine healthy white roots, with a moderately matted ball, and the soil in a healthy condition. When, as may occur in individual plants, the

soil is either over dry or soured with wet from having stood in a drip, it is best to shake out the plants either more freely than I have directed, or entirely, according as the condition named may exist to a limited or extreme extent. The pots should be filled firmly up with soil, so that the plants when placed in them may be from two to three inches deeper in the pot than they were before. Being an advocate for very firm potting, I recommend that the soil should be rammed firmly round the ball with a blunt-pointed piece of wood. Be it remembered that the soil I have recommended to be thus acted upon is not a damp mixture of heavy soil and animal excrement, but a light turfy loam through which water passes freely; and the more firmly it is put into the pot the less water it holds in suspension, a point of no small importance in the growth of so succulent a plant as the pine. I never remember seeing really healthy pines or fine fruit in a rich puttied soil, holding a superabundance of water about the roots. The soil should be made thus firm all round the ball and about the collar of the plants up to within an inch of the rim of the pot.

When the whole are shifted they should be plunged in their growing quarters at once. And should there for the time be a scarcity of room for the desired number, with the prospect of more room in the course of a few weeks by getting rid of others that are fruiting off, they may be arranged rather thicker than is proper for them to make their summer growth. But if at once they can have the necessary amount of room -namely, two feet from plant to plant-all the better;

for there is nothing more to be deprecated in pinegrowing than overcrowding.

Particular attention must now be paid to the bottom heat; 85° should be the point aimed at. And, where the heat is derived from tan and leaves, should it exceed 90°, the pots should be moved from side to side so as to leave an opening round their sides. Although there may not be absolute danger of burning the roots while they have not reached the sides of the pots, yet too much bottom-heat causes an over-rapid growth at too early a season, which, in the absence of longer days and brighter sunshine, is exceedingly undesirable. During the month of March the atmospheric heat should range during cold dull weather from 60° to 65° at night. I am not particular as to a few degrees, but much prefer being guided by the outside temperature. During bright sunshining days, when the pinery can be shut up in the afternoons with sun-heat, the temperature at 10 P.M. may be 70°, allowing it to sink to 65° by morning.

For a few days after being shifted they should be kept rather close, and the atmosphere moist, till they begin to lay hold of the fresh soil. Then a little air should be admitted daily as soon as the temperature exceeds 70°; and with steady sunshine the amount of air may be gradually increased till 2 P.M., when it should be gradually diminished according to the character of the day, and shut up so as to run the heat up to 80° for a short time before dark. There should not be any attempt at causing a rapid growth till the days get longer and the light more intense. The plants

will root freely into the fresh soil, from the increased bottom heat and the healthy irritable state of the roots, without much perceptible top-growth for a time.

There will not be necessity for any water at the root for some time-not certainly till the early part or middle of April, and even then water should not be over liberally supplied. The experienced can tell by the very appearance of the plants when they require it; but the inexperienced should examine the soil occasionally and apply water when it becomes dry a few inches from the surface of the ball. Rain water is of course the best, and it should be heated to not less than 80°, nor more than 85°. At this season it is much safer to err on the side of giving a moderate amount of water than to keep the soil too wet while it is yet unoccupied with roots. The perspiratory organs of the pine are not very active at any season, and as the plant partakes so much of a succulent nature, a little extra moisture in the air is a much safer way of preventing injury from drought than by applying much water at the roots so early in the

season.

It is often found, in the case of those who have next to no experience in pine-culture, that young pines after they are shifted are kept far too wet. I have taken the soil out of the pots and squeezed the water out of it. There is no more fatal course to pursue at any stage of their growth, but particularly

SUCCESSION PLANTS-SUMMER AND AUTUMN

TREATMENT.

The night temperature by the end of April should be 70° when the weather is dull, but when the pineries can be shut up with sun-heat the thermometer may range to 75° at 10 P.M. with advantage, falling to 70° towards morning. With a proportionate amount of atmospheric moisture the plants will now begin to grow freely. The increase of light and sun-heat will render a less amount of fire-heat sufficient, and, as a general rule, the state of the weather admits of a more liberal supply of air being given. This enables the cultivator to push forward his early plants without the danger of drawing them, which exists at an earlier period of the year.

In order to keep up the temperature with as little fire-heat as possible, air should be given early in the morning, almost as soon as the sun strikes the glass, and increased as formerly directed, so that the shutting up may take place at an earlier hour than is usual. This allows of the maximum temperature while there is yet a strong light, and husbands the heat of the sun for the evening. The steaming-troughs should be filled up every day when the pinery is shut up, and at the same time the paths and walls damped with the syringe. Without a moist atmosphere at this season the growth will be deficient in broadness, texture, and that dark-green hue which indicates that all is going on well. I disapprove of heavily syringing young growing pines, and much prefer the