406 STATE HORTICULTUKAL aOClETY. 



climate is important. Such plantations serve as a material check to the natural 

 force of cold winds from the north, which rapidly lower the temperature, 

 hasten evaporation, and blow into drifts the snow, which would otherwise pro- 

 tect the ground with an even covering. There is no probable way in which 

 the farmers of the northwest could more easily or more rapidly increase its 

 agricultural product than hy planting such screens from the northeast to the 

 northwest of their farms, and their attention is particularly directed to the 

 importance of this subject. Such plantations would be too limited in extent 

 and too widely scattered to have any general inlluence on the climate or the 

 flow of water courses; but as a means of direct profit it does not seem unreason- 

 able to predict that such protection to our fields would increase the profits of 

 their cultivation fully twenty per cent. 



Orchards thus protected are still productive, and all gardeners know that 

 plants generally supposed too tender to'withstand our climate will thrive when 

 planted under the protection of a garden wall, or among evergreen trees. What 

 garden walls are to the horticulturist, those broad evergreen plantations should 

 be to the farmer. 



JUNIPERUS COMMUNIS DEPP.ESSA. 



M. Milton, in the Country Gentleman, says that the above named evergreen 

 naturally grows compact, and uniformly in shape, but should a branch extend 

 beyond the others, by attending when young and cutting back to proper shape, 

 it can be kept always an attractive bed. IIow many there are of our hardy 

 plants which can be utilized in making the surroundings of our homes beauti- 

 ful ; and as it is not advisable to plant large evergreens too close to dwellings, 

 these small prostrate growing kinds can be planted with good effect, and make 

 the lawn more lively-looking during winter. The foliage of this plant does not 

 get disfigured by change of color during winter, but maintains that light and 

 pleasing color so attractive at this season. It grows only about two feet high, 

 and although the branches extend on every side the center keeps well furnished 

 with branches and foliyge. As it does well on almost every kind of soil, it is 

 desirable in many positions where other similar plants do not succeed well. 

 The junipers are found, in their native habitats, often growing well on poor, 

 gravelly soil, but good cultivation has a marked effect on them as well as upon 

 almost everything else in the vegetable world. 



EVERGREENS UNDER DISCIPLINE. 



Josiah Hoopes in answer to a query in the New York Tribune as to the best 

 evergreen tree that would grow tall but not spread much at the base, says that 

 one can cause any evergreen of whatever species to adapt itself to this require- 

 ment. Nothing easier, and yet many cultivators still believe it is ru!::ous to 

 use a knife on evergreens. Years of practice have demonstrated that no class of 

 trees is more tractable, and, strange as it may appear to some persons, there is 

 not a species known but what will form a new leading shoot without any diffi- 

 culty. Begin when the tree is young, and every season (June is as good a mouth 

 as any) with a strong pair of shears clip off the shoots to promote a denser 

 growth and to prevent the branches from extending beyond a prescribed limit. 



