4U STATE rOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



AN EVEEGREEX PLANTATION. 



There arc many wlio have small bits of ground near their houses or build- 

 ings, Avhich may be made useful screens, or wind breaks, or even ornamental 

 plantations, and to whom the following article, written by a correspondent of 

 the Ciardener's Monthly, will ail'ord some useful hints even if it comes from so 

 far south as Pennsylvania. The writer says : 



I have a narrow, good-for-nothing strip of ground, about ten rods from my 

 liouse, its nearest boundary being a small winding stream, while the other side 

 reaches to a dividing fence. It is so rocky that it is almost useless for tillage, 

 and 1 concluded that the best use I could make of it was to plant it with ever- 

 greens. It was thinly covered with small chestnuts, oaks, maples, etc., and 

 any that were likely to injure the future occupants of the ground by falling on 

 them, were cut down ; the brush was gathered and burned, and without further 

 preparation my site was ready for planting. I had a quantity of shrubs and 

 trees on hand, consequently there was little selection of kinds to be made. 



The front of the strip, next the stream and the house, was set with Ameri- 

 can arbor-vita?, varied occasionally with hemlock spruce (which by the way, is 

 one of the finest, hardy evergreens grown, when properly treated), and Ameri- 

 can rose bay (Rhododendron maximum), while at suitable places, at the ex- 

 treme margin, a few plants of the dwarf yew, or ground hemlock (Taxus 

 Canadensis), were placed. 



The background was filled mainly with Xorway spruce, sparingly interspersed 

 with beech, to be still further relieved by a few white stemmed birch and a 

 specimen or two of the purple-leaved beech. The arbor-vita3 were set about 

 eight feet apart, and the larger-growing trees at proportionate dis.tances, not in 

 straight rows like an orchard, but imitating the irregularity of nature. The 

 planting was quickly done in this way : 



Small holes were dug with a mattock, and the trees (already trimmed, and 

 which had been several tunes transplanted) were taken up, with nearly all their 

 roots and a mass of soil adhering to them, and placed in the holes ; the loose 

 surface soil was drawn about the roots and well worked in with a sharp pointed 

 stick. As soon as the roots were thus covered, the soil was well stamped down 

 all around, as llrmly as possible by the feet ; more soil was drawn in, stami)ed 

 again, the tree straightened up, the surface finally filled in and covered with a 

 good coat of leaves and brush. No water was used, and, although some of the 

 trees were four or five feet high, I would not give any one four cents to war- 

 rant the whole lot to grow. My little plantation, or copse, is already quite a 

 noticeable feature in our landscape, and will become more so every year; its 

 uever-f ailing green forming a point that the eye is glad to rest upon. 



