550 PllUNING EVERGRKEXS. [Jan. 



inches and upwards realizes upwards of Is. 2d. per cubic foot, and 

 under 12 inches 8d. to lOd. delivered in Newport. The soil of 

 these moors is principally a blue clay, but here and there is found a 

 dark loamy clay, also a red loamy clay where the land is more 

 elevated. Although the elm grows so plentifully on the blue 

 clay, it does not seem to thrive as well as in soils of a dark or red 

 loamy nature. I should recommend planters of the elm in this 

 county to plant deep loamy soils on gravel or sandstone witli it only, 

 and by preference only where there is good shelter. 



There are some very fine elms growing at Wonaston, near 

 Monmouth town, also in and around tlie neighbourhood of Newport. 

 There is one very fine old specimen at Raglan, in the castle grounds. 

 The fine old monarch standing in Llantamam churchyard, now in a 

 state of decay, is not the largest, but it is one of the oldest in our' 

 county. The trunk is a mere shell, being hollow, and one side 

 having been carried away by a storm ; the top also is completely 

 gone. As it stands, the bole is 9 feet in height by 24 feet in 

 circumference at 5 feet from the ground ; but before the missing side 

 was blown away, it may have been quite 35 feet in circumference 

 at that height. There are three limbs still attached to the trunk, 

 which extend from 15 to 20 feet, and which still bud and produce 

 a fair flush of foliage every spring. 



The Wych Elm {Ulmus montana) grows well in many parts of 

 this coimty, the timber of which makes very good shaft plank when 

 clean and free from knots. I find the Wych Elm flourishes best in 

 a good deep loam, and rapidly reaches valuable dimensions. 



PRUNING EVERGREENS. 



THE pruning of evergreens is often much neglected, no doubt 

 from a variety of causes, but certain it is the practice is more 

 honoured in the omission than in the application. Plantations are 

 made, and we are in haste to see results as early as possible, conse- 

 quently we withhold the knife in the early stages of progress. We 

 cannot' bear to shorten back growth even for the purpose of 

 improving the base of the su]3erstructure of the future shrub or 

 tree. As for trimming an over-luxuriant branch in order to balance 

 the sides of a promising specimen shrub or tree, why, such a thing 

 would be so nmch waste of growth. And truly so it would be, 

 because such an unequal development of growth as is imagined in 

 this case, shoidd never have been allowed to make way for a whole 

 season. It should have been pinched back as soon as it was observed 



