gi |tto Mar^s on d^btrgrnns u)i 



fiWltx glitttcrs. 



CEDAR OF LEBANON. 



MPORTANT to the landscape, for shelter, 

 and for winter and summer beauty, as ever- 

 green trees and shrubs are, we never lose an 

 opportunity of speaking a good word in their 

 behalf, though we run the risk of repeating 

 what has been said before. Their cultivation, 

 in England, is a perfect passion, carried some- 

 (Q times to a degree that appears almost unpar- 

 O donable in a country where the land would seem 

 ^^"j to be required for food. The English climate is, 

 y\ undoubtedly, much better adapted for a pine- 

 '\] turn, or collection of pines, than our own. 

 ^ Dropmore, not many miles from Windsor 

 Castle, presents as fine examples of Ever- 

 greens as it is well possible to conceive. 

 Its proprietor. Lord Grenville, had a love for the subject, and procured the newer 

 evergreens as soon as they were imported ; his trees (and those at Elvaston Castle) 

 present as large specimens of the new kinds as are to be found in cultivation ; 

 happily, his widow takes pride and pleasure in keeping them in condition. Most 

 of them have space to develop their beauty, and a system of feeding the trees was 

 early employed, that has been attended with most happy results. The operation 

 is a very simple one, and may be practised by every body. Trenches are dug in 

 radii that approach the body of the tree ; beginning at a distance of forty or 

 more feet from the body of a large specimen, a gutter, twelve to twenty-four 

 inches in depth, is excavated, and the soil carted away ; when the young rootlets 

 at the extremities of the roots are reached, they are gently raised and imbedded 

 in a composition of decayed leaves and virgin mould, that has been thoroughly 

 prepared and mixed ; or, if any particular description of food is known to be 

 better adapted to a given kind of tree, it is of course employed. In these nume- 

 rous radiated trenches the trees find their nourishment, and acquire a vigor and 

 beauty that is a perfect regale to the eye. 



Carrying out the idea at home, the following experiment was tried on a Norway 

 fir, which is still the graduated thermometer to tell of the advantages of feeding 

 roots. It had the appearance of being quite healthy, but had been planted two 

 years before in a clay soil, in a hole about three feet wide. We had trenches dug 

 to its rootlets, beginning at a distance of seven feet and a half only from the tree. 

 The rootlets were found making a vain efi"ort to penetrate the clay which they 

 reached the previous autumn. Additional nourishment gave continued impetus 

 to the plant, which grew far beyond its contemporary neighbors, rarely increasing 



Vol. YI.— May, 1856. 



14 



