1 50 The Jotirnal of Foi'estry. 



this season liiglily repays those who have had the wisdom and fore- 

 thought to plant them for the principal attraction amongst American 

 plants in their woods, shrubberies, and gardens. 



Several other floweruTg trees and shrubs have been in many 

 instances particularly fine this summer. The hawthorn generally has 

 been a perfect sheet of snowy blossom, the pink and red varieties 

 being equally fine, but we have observed a good many plants of all 

 the kinds with scarcely a flower. However, amongst all the thorns 

 Paul's Bouhh Crimson bears the palm for a rich display and 

 telling effect in the landscape. It is a robust grower and every shoot 

 is loaded with its magnificent rich crimson blossoms, being the nearest 

 approach to a "tree of fire" of any we possess hardy enough to stand 

 our climate. We have seldom seen the laburnum and lilacs so fine, 

 although, like the thorns, some plants were without a flower ; but so 

 far as we have seen the horse-chestnut has made a very poor display. 

 All these fine flowering trees and shrubs should be freely introduced 

 along the skirts of woods and plantations, where their effect on the 

 landscape is most pleasing, and in such a season as this would make 

 the whole country in the " leafy month of June" appear as sweet and 

 gay as a modern flower garden, without its tiresome stift'ness. 



The Baek Harvest being now completed for the season, we are 

 pleased to hear from our numerous correspondents in the various districts 

 of the country that it has been, on the whole, a good harvest, and prices 

 have fully maintained the average of the past few seasons. In the 

 south, where the sap begins to move early, and bark-stripping is usually 

 in full swing early in May, the season has been rather a troublesome 

 and anxious one, owing to the cold and unsettled state of the weather 

 up to the first week of last month ; in fact, the severe storm that blew 

 across the south of England on the first day of June was most 

 unfavourable to the stripping and curing of the bark, and caused much 

 damage to it wherever it happened to be exposed to the wind and 

 rain. The changeable state of the weather also rendered the operations 

 very tedious, owing to the irregular rise and flow of the sap, making 

 it necessary to go over the ground two or three times before all the 

 trees could be felled with the sap " iip," so as to make the bark run or 

 peel off clean from the timber. Such a tedious season requires great 

 care and close supervision on the part of the forester, so as to eelect 

 for the first fall only those trees which will strip freely, so as to save 

 the labour of " hammering," or beating the bark with wooden mallets 

 to make it rise, a process that is objectionable in every way, and 

 ought not to be resorted to except under special necessity. 



