THE 



GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



AND 



HORTICULTURIST. 



DEVOTED TO HORTICULTURE, ARBORICULTURE AND RURAL AFFAIRS. 



Edited by THOMAS MEEHA.N. 



Vol. XXI. 



DECEMBER, 1879. 



Number 252. 



Flower Garden and Pleasure Ground, 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



We have frequently urged the importance of 

 planting places very thickly at first, in order 

 both to produce an immediate effect, and also 

 because the shelter which one another affords 

 makes the trees grow with greater health and 

 vigor than when exposed singly to the force of 

 wind and sun. At this season no better employ- 

 ment can be found than in thinning out these 

 thick planted places. It will of course require 

 much judgment ; but one fond of trees, and the 

 effects which they produce, will not be much at 

 a loss. Sometimes it is hard to bring oneself to 

 cut down a tree which one has watched grow for 

 so many years ; but it often must be done if we 

 would preserve the symmetry and beauty of our 

 places. "When there is any question as to the 

 proper tree to be taken away, the size of the 

 place may help one to decide. A tree which 

 will in time occupy much space can be more 

 easily spared from a small place than one which 

 will never transgress a limited space. Indeed, 

 except for the purpose of rapid growth to nurse 

 more valued trees, large growing things should 

 not be tolerated in small places. The green 

 grass which is the charm of all gardens soon de- i 

 parts when large trees are about. I 



Of course, this talk about thinning out, brings 

 us to another great winter employment, that of 

 pruning. There is no very great amount of 

 science required for this, and yet some judgment 

 is necessary. This is often done with little more 

 reason than a boy has for whittling a chip — 

 merely to have something to do. For notwith- 

 standing the many papers that have been writ- 

 ten " on the philosophy of pruning," the naked 

 question, " what is the best time to prune 

 trees?" is one with which the gardener is con- 

 tinually bored. The keen-edged gardeners give 

 the cutting reply, " any time when your knife is 

 sharp;" but the more good natured say, "it 

 depends on what you want to cut for." The 

 street cutter "wants to keep the tree head low," 

 and cuts down to make them branch lower; cut- 

 ting in winter does not have this effect, so tha<^ 

 unless one has some other object to combine with 

 it, such as to clean the tree of bark scales or 

 the larva of insects, or the giving of employ- 

 ment to some half-starved tree carpenter, the 

 work might as well be left undone. If you want 

 a branch to push strongly at the point where you 

 cut a pait away, prune in winter. If your tree 

 has branches crossing each other, or has half- 

 dead branches, or anything tending to spoil the 

 form or symmetry of your tree, prune in winter; 

 but as a rule the less pruning is done the 



