Raising Korway Spruce from SEED.y-Having been a reader of your journal for some time, and 

 often had a desire to pass a remark on many of your practical observations, has induced me to 

 do 80 at this time. 



I perceive in the April number of the Hortieiclturist your directions to " A Subscriber " how 

 to raise " Norway Spruce from seed." I would therefore beg to differ a little from your method 

 In the extensive seedling nurseries of Scotland, where they are very successful, their system is, 

 previous to sowing, should the weather incline to be dry, (such as we have in this chmate), they 

 generally immerse the bags of seed in shallow ponds of water (with a stone to keep the bags 

 under) for eight or ten days ; it is then turned out of the bags, on a deal floor, in a cool, tempe- 

 rate place, for forty-eight hours, to dry gradually. 



In preparing the ground there is a great deal of nicety and judgment required. The ground 

 should be well under-drained and well thrown up roughly with the spado, the fall previous, in 

 such a manner as to catch the frost to pulverize so as it may crumble down when the spade and 

 rake enters again at sowing time. The ground is not all dug over and then raked, as is gener- 

 ally done by many when preparing for garden seeds. After two or three spades are turned 

 over, a coarse rake is applied to break the clods ; a second comes after, and a third, to level — 

 that is only where there are a number of spades are going at the same time. The ground is then 

 marked off into four-feet beds and fifteen-inch alleys, with a heavy, square, or round-headed, rake. 

 The operator (technically called cuffing) stands sideways, one foot before the other, at the right 

 hand alley, and commences, with the head or back of the rake, to move back the soil fiom the 

 center of the bed to the opposite alley to the depth of three or four inches, taking care to keep 

 in a straight line to form the edge of the bed, and keeps moving on around the bed in the same 

 way until all is thrown back, which soil is to serve as the covering for the seed. In cuffing 

 much depends on the weather — if moist, shallow; if dry, a little deeper. The seed is then 

 thrown regular on th& bed by the person taking up one-balf and down the other, at the same 

 time being careful not to tramp on the soil cuffed out of the bed. When all is sown, a small 

 roller the width of the bed is drawn over the seed, or it is pressed in with the back of the spade. 

 A short-toothed rake is then introduced to draw the cufied soil over the seed, which must be 

 done with a smart jerk of the right hand; a little is then thrown up out of the alley and finally 

 a fine rake traces over the top of the bed to make it a little regular. Sometimes in dry weather 

 any waste small nursery stock is laid thinly over the bed to shade and keep the birds off while 

 it is coming through the ground. A Nurseryman. — Mt. Pleasant, C. W. 



Nurserymen's Reputation. — I think it is high time for the public to know what a nurseryman 

 is, and how a respectable nursery is conducted, as their regular and systematic way of pruning 

 and transplanting, to insure success to the purchaser against those quack impostors that stiik a 

 thing in to grow as a stick and then sell it for gain, with all top and no bottom, the same as a 

 well grown tree, to people that know no better than to buy for its fine top and low price. 



I have found many such as the Country Gentleman and Mr. Prince describes among country 

 people, with high-colored plates, (fee, telling great tales about tliis and that, and where from, 

 in my opinion that knew more about the properties of winning a dollar than eitlier a tree or 

 shrub. It makes one almost disgusted with his profession when such comes in his way. What 

 is wanted, is a register of all the trade, such as Glenny, of London, publishes yearly in his Gar- 

 dener's Almanac, or an association of nurserymen and seedsmen such as was formed some ten or 

 twelve years ago in Scotland, when there was so much fraud, called the North British Associa- 

 tion, for the protection of an honest man against a quack selling a counterfeit for a low price, 

 which I believe was of great benefit to the public by getting good and genuine seeds, plants, <tc. 

 A Nurseryman. — Mt. Pleasant, C. W. 



