The earliest-potted suckers of last year should now be examined, and if they are becoming pot-bound take the earliest opportunity of shifting them. If dry, they should be watered five or six days before they are shifted, so that they may be suitably moist for shifting. The necessary quantity of soil should also be put in a warm place, to have the chill taken off it before it is required. A calcareous turfy loam that has been stored a few months is the best, mixing an 8-inch-potful of bone-meal, and about half that quantity of soot, to every large barrowful of it. If the soil is damp, it should be spread out thinly in some dry airy place, to get dry before potting with it. Such open soil should be put very firmly into the pots. In turning the plants out of their pots, shake out entirely any that may have been standing in a drip and have the soil soured and sloppy. Those too that are much pot-bound should have their roots carefully disentangled, for if potted with a severely-matted ball, they have a tendency to start prematurely into fruit. When all are potted, plunge them in a light pit near the glass. Keep the night temperature at 60° in cold, and 65° in mild weather, with a bottom-heat of 85°. Avoid crowding them thickly together if possible.

Two feet by two is sufficiently close. Look over later suckers also, and water such as may be getting very dry. By the end of the month raise the temperature for them to 65°, and give air on all favourable occasions, to prevent them from drawing. Early-fruiting Queens that have been subject to an increase of temperature for the last month or six weeks, should in most cases be showing fruit by the end of this month. Immediately it is noticed that they have started into fruit, give them a watering with guano-water sufficient to well moisten the whole ball. Some plants may show a disposition to grow instead of starting into fruit, and these must be kept rather dry than otherwise, or the chances are that they will continue to grow. When it is clearly manifest that they are going to miss fruiting, there is no better way of dealing with them than to cut them over at the surface of the soil and repot them. This seldom fails to cause them to fruit. After they are started, and it is desirable to push them on to succeed as closely as possible the latest fruit, the night temperature may range to 75°, especially if coverings can be applied to the glass at night. Shut up early, so as to make the most of sun-heat. Do not much increase atmospheric moisture till the fruit are bloomed off.

At the same time, do not allow the atmosphere to be parchingly dry. Range the bottom-heat from 85° to 90°. Any plants that have started in October and November, and that have been properly attended to, may now be pushed on to ripen at a time when Pines are scarce and much appreciated. Succession fruiting plants intended to be started in March and April should still be kept quiet and rather dry at the root. Suckers potted in the dead of winter may now be subject to more heat and moisture, giving air on every fine day in the forenoon.