THE 



Gardeners' Monthly 



AND 



HORTICULTURIST. 



DEVOTED TO HORTICULTURE. ARBORICULTURE AND RURAL AFFAIRS. 



Editsd by THOMAS MEEHAN. 



Volume XXVII. 



DECEMBER, 1885. 



Number 324. 



Flower Garden and Pleasure Ground. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Twenty-eight year? ago the Editor took pen 

 in hand to prepare the first number of the 

 Gardeners' Monthly. It has been a long term 

 of very hard but very pleasant work. Large 

 numbers of those who subscribed and read what 

 he then wrote have since gone to their long homes, 

 but the homes of those who have taken their places 

 are still to be made beautiful. The elements with 

 which we make beauty are ever new, so that we 

 not only have new readers, but have constantly 

 new things to say to them. But sometimes the old 

 will bear repetition. An old sermon is often as 

 profitable as a new one, and from what we see 

 around us it is worth repeating that thinning out at 

 this season should be the rule in every well- 

 ordered place. Trees and shrubs must be planted 

 thickly at first, or we have to wait half a life-time 

 for shelter or fine effect. A few should be taken 

 out every year. Sidewalk trees especially are 

 almost always too thick after some years. Where 

 the trees are not entirely taken away, judicious 

 pruning is an advantage. Branches should be cut 

 close to their source, so that the wound may heal 

 over. If the scar is large, paint it. The rotting 

 of wood after a branch is cut ofT often starts decay 

 in the whole tree. Weakly and weatherbeaten 

 evergreens are improved by pruning. But in 



their case the leader must be cut at the same time, 

 even though we have to train up a side branch to 

 make another leader. Sometimes rare evergreens 

 raised from grafts or cuttings, show little dis- 

 position to make leaders, but they will do it if 

 severely pruned. Poor evergreens are improved 

 also by a top dressing of very rich manure. The 

 spruce family are great lovers of shelter. Where 

 winds are keen and cutting, pines should be em- 

 ployed. The White Austrian and Scotch are still 

 the most approved. For dwarf evergreens to 

 stand wind, nothing equals the dwarf mountain 

 pine. What is known in nurseries as Mugho 

 pine. Mountain, and Dwarf pine, are all forms of 

 one thing. Pinus Cembra is a beautiful plant for 

 cutting by windy situations, and intermediate in 

 growth between the dwarf and the larger pines. 



Manure is good for lawns and flowers in beds 

 for the summer, and this should be remembered 

 at this season. 



If not yet done, gather in the " bag-worms," 

 especially from evergreen trees ; and where the 

 soft cottony cocoons of the Orgyia or " cotton cat- 

 erpillar" are sheltering on the rough bark of trees, 

 destroy the eggs with a hard brush. Birds are all 

 right to help keep down insects, but a little hard 

 labor is also excellent. 



Variety is always pleasing, and at this season 

 study a little how to have differences from last 



