SbrticuUural JVotes. 189 



year, should now be pruned to straight stems and cut back to the height desired for 

 heads. Trees of good shape with heads of the proper height, should not be cut^back 

 in the nursery, excepting the Heart and Bigarreau Cherries, and Peaches. Suckers 

 growing from near the roots of the trees should be cut away, and in August standard 

 trees intended for sale the following fall or spring, should have all the branches and 

 spurs pruned smoothly oflF from twelve to eighteen inches from the ground, — Heike's 

 How to Start a Nursery. 



JIow to Grove the Cauliflower' 



I have been successful in raising Cauliflower, and as there appears to be a want of 

 success — so far as I am acquainted — I will give you my method of cultivation. I 

 sow my seed in the open air at the same time I do for cabbage. I am not anxious 

 to raise hot-bed plants, or even early plants, for I find they do not do as well in our 

 long hot seasons as later ones. From the 20th to the 30th of May is early enough 

 for our latitude and our deep, rich sandy soil. On the 10th of June, 1870, I spaded 

 up a bed of the Wilson Strawberry, which had just yielded its last picking of fruit, 

 burying the tops deep in the soil, and the same day set out the ground with Cauli- 

 flower. They did well, forming fine curd-like heads of fair size. Last season I set 

 my plants on the 25th of May, and although the season was one of severe and con- 

 tinuous drouth, they did well, nearly all forming handsome heads, some of which 

 were very large. One head cut short as it could be and closely trimmed, weighed 

 twenty-eight pounds. These plants were set between the rows of early potatoes. — Ex. 



Jfruning Evergreens. 



Little attention is commonly given to pruning or shortening in the branches of 

 evergreen trees. Some of them naturally assume a handsome form, while others 

 might be much improved by the operation. We do not refer to shearing into stiff 

 geometrical figures, which are discordant to good taste, but to the thickening of the 

 foliage without interfering with the graceful natural outline. 



There are two common evergreens that bear free pruning, and may be worked 

 into any desirable shape — the hemlock and the Norway spruce. Both of these trees, 

 unlike most other evergreens and nearly all deciduous trees, grow well in the shade, 

 and as a consequence, they grow well in their own shade — or in other words, the 

 interior of the tree is not made bald by the shade of the exterior. The arbor vitae, 

 on the other hand, suffers from shade, and the interior of the trees and of screens 

 are found to be bare stems and branches. 



No evergreen appears well when sheared smooth like a wall, although screens and 

 hedges are often admired when thus treated. We much prefer the more free and 

 rich appearance of an uneven surface cut back with the knife. Such trees as the 

 arbor vitae can be kept well filled with foliage only by an irregular cutting back. 



Evergreen trees which tend to an irregular growth, like the hemlock, may, when 

 planted as single trees, be greatly improved by shortening in any stragglers. We 

 find it necessary to do something of this kind on nearly every tree. A nurseryman 

 informs us that he has only to prune his hemlocks into shape, to sell them at any 

 price. There is a vast difference between a thin straggler, and a rich, green, dense 

 tree, with a handsome even outline, and with a form sufficiently graceful to be free 

 from all stiffness. — Country Geiitleman, 



Trnhiing Trees, 'i 



A writer in one of our exchang3s says : Trees with low heads do bear sooner and 

 better, and will bear longer than whip-stalks and bean poles. On our prairies low- 

 headed trees are the only ones that can hold up their heads or hold on their fruit. 

 They are naturally shaped fruit bearers, and they are miserably unpopular with that 

 class of purchasers who know more about trees than the men who raise them. This 

 is a most important subject, and fruit growers will never repent but once, if they 



