No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 621 



Were I limited to selecting a half dozen from the above list, I 

 confess it would be no easy task, but it would probably be these: 

 Golden bell, Japanese snowball, spiraea Van Houttei, lilac, weigelas 

 and hydrangea. 



It is now time to make mention of some desirable large flowering 

 evergreens, and the folloAving sorts are hardy and beautiful: Hem- 

 lock, Douglas, Norway, Oriental and Colorado blue spruces, cedar 

 of Lebanon, Lawson's cypress, coucolor and Nordmann fir. And the 

 following pines: Austrian, Scotch, Himalayan, red, pitch and white. 

 And among those of lesser size, the various arbor-vitaes, including 

 the golden and Rollinson's, Euonymus Japonicus, holly, juniper, yew, 

 retinisporas, yuccas and, of course, laurels and rhododendrons. 



Among the evergreens mentioned, there are several native kinds 

 which have been very much overlooked. I am thinking particularly 

 of those from Colorado, the Douglas and the Colorado blue spruce, 

 the concolor fir and Pius ponderosa, all hardy and beautiful. Then 

 among native pines there are none better fitted for our use than the 

 red, the pitch and the white. The red, which is the Pinus resinosa, 

 of the Michigan forests, resembles the Austrian in its heavy style of 

 growth, but instead of the harsh needles of the Austrian it possesses 

 soft ones, a most desirable feature for a lawn tree. 



Though conscious that I am taking up much of your time, I am 

 tempted to go a little further and touch on a most important subject, 

 the proper management of the trees and shrubs we may plant. In 

 our State, especially in the vicinity of Philadelphia, as a rule, it 

 makes but little difference whether we jjlant in spring or autumn. 

 There are a few subjects we know it is useless to plant in autumn, 

 magnolias and tulip poplar, for example, and there are other things. 

 But whether spring or autumn, do it early. Proceed with spring 

 planting as soon as the frost is out of the ground and the soil dry 

 enough to work nicely. Start with deciduous^ ones and finish with 

 evergreens. With the closing of the month' of September, start 

 again. The order of planting may be reversed, setting evergreens 

 first and ending with deciduous sorts. There is great gain in this 

 early autumn planting. The soil is warm and usually moist, and the 

 combination of heat and moisture entices out fresh fibres, and when 

 winter comes the trees and shrubs are well established, and none 

 are lost. This is no theory but facts, w^hich have been demonstrated 

 many times. 



Referring to the soil being warm and moist in autumn, should it 

 not be moist, after filling in about half the soil about a freshly 

 planted tree and ramming it hard, pour a quantity of water, filling 

 in the remainder of the soil when the water has thoroughly soaked 

 away. As a rule, in autumn planting, a watering as above advised 

 is good practice. 



On the subject of pruning, a good deal could be said, as it seems 

 f(- be but little understood. When setting a tree or shrub it 

 is necessary to prune should there be a particular loss of roots, 

 which there is usually. The cutting away of some of the top equali- 

 zes the loss of roots, enabling the latter to sustain the remainder 

 of the branches. It does not matter what part of the top is cut 

 away, so there is a lessening of the whole. It may be a thinning 

 out of branches only, or a shortening in of some, or a cutting away 



