I50 



• • • GARDENING. 



Feb. /, 



TREES. 



Except in the south planting is at an 

 end for a while. We must now busy oui'- 

 selves with cutting out such trees as are 

 out of place or supernumerary, and thin- 

 ning woods or plantations that are over- 

 crowded. In well kept home grounds 

 never lop off trees as lumbermen do in 

 forests, leaving the root with a stump in 

 the ground, Ijut dig the tree out at the 

 root before you fell it, the weight of the 

 trunk and top, especially if you have a 

 rope tied on the tree to pull on, is of ven,' 

 great assistance in prying the stump out 

 of the ground. But if the earth is deeply 

 frozen wc should disadvise digging out 

 the trees now, the labor would be too 

 great, better wait till the frost has gone. 

 In the meantime we can look after what- 

 ever pruning there is to do. 



Pruning is a necessary evil, the less one 

 has got to do of it the better, but what- 

 ever has got to be done should be done 

 promptly and thoroughly. The first 

 thing to aim at is the health of the tree, 

 next its characteristic symmetry and 

 beauty; work for these points. Prune 

 deciduous trees only at this season of the 

 year. Cut out all dead, dying, sickly and 

 broken wood. Then look at the tree and 

 wherever you find two branches rubbing 

 each other cut out oneof them; if abranch 

 other than the main stem is asserting 

 itself as a leader head it back, if a tree is 

 lopsided lighten it of some of its limbs on 

 the heavy side, and so on, using your eye 

 and brains to make it a handsomely 

 formed tree. But don't cut out anymore 

 good wood than you can help, better do 

 a little at a time than try heroic meas- 

 ures. Besides much winter pruning has 

 a tendency to produce a heavy summer 

 growth of sappy shoots, which is not de- 

 sirable. We often find oaks, walnuts, 

 locusts and other trees with very dilapi- 

 dated tops, it may be as well to head 

 these hard in to the trunks, even cutting 

 back a part of the trunk. Of course such 

 stumps will look bad for a year or two, 

 but then they will soon get covered with 

 a luxuriant growth of fresh shoots and 

 foliage that will be quite encouraging. 

 In the .\mold Arboretum at Boston were 

 many old decrepit trees that were treated 

 in this way and now they are well filled 

 out with new branches in rampant vigor. 

 While all the pruning we are apt to give 

 a lawn tree isn't apt to hurt it materially 

 no matter at what season the cutting is 

 done it isn't a pleasant sight to see the 

 maples, yellow woods, birches and other 

 trees dripping sap from every wound in 

 spring, as they will do if pruning is de- 

 layed till the winter is getting past. In 

 pruning with the saw first make a cut on 

 the under side of the branch and a foot or 

 two, according to size of limb, away 

 from the stem, then cut through from the 

 upper side. The cut on the lower side pre- 

 vents slivering when the branch falls. 

 Then cut the stump off close in to the 

 trunk, shave the wound smooth with a 

 draw knife, and paint it with good lin- 

 seed oil ])aint. All cuts made with hand 

 shears should also be close to the branch 

 and smooth. In fact while shears are 

 very handy implements and indispensable 

 they don't make very smooth cuts; indeed 

 the vilest pruning tool wc know of is the 

 most widely advertised and daintily 

 gotten up of pruning shears, a clean cut 

 is beyond its nature, it is simply a chew- 

 ing machine. 



Weik's Cut-leaved Maple.— There 

 a large and verv' beautiful specimen of 

 this tree at Dosoris. You will find an 

 engraving of it from a photograph taken 

 some years ago, in EUwanger & Barry's 

 catalogue. It is one of the handsomest 



and most elegant trees on the place and 

 always commands admiration. Its sym- 

 metry and elegance have been obtained 

 to a large degree by timely pruning, and 

 we are never troubled with having its 

 limbs broken by wind storms — the char- 

 acteristic fault of neglected trees. When 

 we first found this tree we pruned it into 

 a symmetrical form, and shortened back 

 or cut out every topheavy limb. This in- 

 duced a heavy growth of sprouts through 

 the tree, but we rubbed off a good many 

 and thinned out and shortened others as 

 best we could in summer, and again at- 

 tended to the form of the tree in winter. 

 And no IV it is in a condition when it needs 

 very little pruning, but this little it is 

 sure to get twice a year; it takes only a ■ 

 few minutes each season. Wherever a 

 shoot is inclined to run out too far we 

 cut it back. If this is done in early sum- 

 mer it doesn't cause sprouting at all. k 

 white maple should be pruned with a 

 shears or knife; when branches too big to 

 be cut by these have to be removed the 

 pruning was neglected, and that is why 

 they are lop branched and so susceptible 

 of injurj' by wind. 



PRUNING AN ARBOR UITflE flEDOE. 



O. O. W , Michigan, asks: When shall 

 I trim an arbor vitfe hedge whose main 

 stems are one and one-half to three inches 

 in diameter? I want to cut it down to 

 within two feet of the ground. Can this 

 be done with safety? 



Arbor vita; can be pruned severely from 

 the first to the middleof May more safely 

 than at any other time, but as your cor- 

 respondent does notgive the height of the 

 trees as they stand now nor the width to 

 which the hedge has been pruned I do not 

 know whether it can be cut down to two . 

 feet without taking off all the foliage, as 

 the sides would require trimming to cor- 

 respond with the top height. We have 

 trimmed or rather sawed off eight feet 

 from the top of an arbor vitas hedge fifteen 

 feet high, and sloped the sides wedge- 

 shaped so that in a few weeks it showed 

 to perfection. It is 35 or 36 years old 

 and looks as j'oung as a 10-year old. 



Waukegan, 111. Robert Douglas. 



EVERGREEN WINDBREflK-CWESTNUT TREES. 



B. E. H., Oneida, Illinois, asks: 1. What 

 kind of evergreens should I plant for a 

 windbreak? At what age and at what 

 time in the year should thej' be trans- 

 planted, and at what distance apart 

 should they be set? 



2. Please tell me about the different 

 kinds of chestnut trees. How do they 

 rank as shade and ornamental trees? 



] . Much depends on the situation and 

 exposure of your property. In an open 

 exposed country evergreens alone have a 

 hard time of it to begin with, and we 

 generally plant some quick growing 

 rugged deciduous trees on the windward 

 side of the evergreens till the latter get 

 up big and bushy enough to protect them- 

 selves. With us the Austrian pine is the 

 best of all; then come Ihe Scotch pine and 

 white spruce. The Norway spruce will 

 out grow any of them to begin with if it 

 thrives well in your neighborhood. The 

 Colorado blue spruce and the Colorado 

 Douglas fir arc as hardy as any of them but 

 they are somewhat slow growing at first. 

 Plant in early spring as soon as the ground 

 is nice and mellow. If in one row plant 

 six feet apart, and when the plants meet 

 chop out every second tree; if in two rows 

 let the rows be ten or twelve feet apart, 



and chop out the alternate trees as in the 

 case of the single row; if in three rows, 

 have the rows ten feet apart, and in due 

 time cut out the middle row. Four year 

 old trees make fine stock for planting. 



2. We have three tj'pes, namely the 

 .American having the smallest but best 

 flavored nuts; the European, of which 

 Paragon and Numbo are varieties vifith 

 very large nuts, and the Japanese, a small 

 early-bearing tree with large nuts. .\11 

 are perfectly hardy and fruit freely on 

 Long Island. If well attended to in their 

 youth they make handsome garden trees 

 —we have a picture of one at Dosoris to 

 show you soon — but, except the .\mericnn 

 one, not large shade trees! Big fruits of 

 European sorts are apt to be a little 

 baggy. 



T«E FINEST HOLLY TREE. 



On the beach by Assateague Lighthouse 

 there stands a holly tree that is a wonder 

 for .size, symmetry and wealth of berries 

 Easily thirty feet high, straight and well 

 balanced it is fully as much in diameter 

 at the lower branches. The general out- 

 line might be called pear shaped, and the 

 picture presented this second day of Jan- 

 uary, 1895, of sharply cut dark green 

 leaves against which show in sharp relief 

 the brightest berries imaginable— every 

 twig bearing its vivid cluster, is a sight 

 not to be forgotten. The lighthouse 

 keeper's son. Mr. Anderson, said the tree 

 was the delight of visitors from every- 

 where, who freely praised it as the finest 

 specimen anywhere, while the boatman 

 who carried me across said he had known 

 the tree for twenty-seven years and it 

 had not to his eye changed a foot in that 

 time, but "every day in the year looked 

 the same." I was unable to get a photo- 

 graph of it for you Does any reader 

 know of a finer holly? Giles Leahy. 



Chincoteague Island, Va., Jan. 2, 1895. 



Orchids. 



CflTTLEyflS. 



Cattleya Trianx is now a leading feat- 

 ure among orchids in bloom. More than 

 ordinai-y care should be taken to keep up 

 an even and moist temperature by damp- 

 ing the floor and the benches between the 

 pots, but give very little water in the 

 pots, for now is the critical time of their 

 existence. If too much water at the roots 

 be given the plant will be thrown into an 

 unhealthy condition. If possible it is a 

 good plan to remove the plants when out 

 of flower to a cooler house, say 50° to 

 55°, giving them only water enough to 

 keep the bulbs fresh and without shrink- 

 ing. Water in the pots only on very fine 

 days and not more than once a week 

 until the plants begin to grow again. 



Cattleya Triana: Backhouseiana andC. 

 T. alba are now showing fine bloom and 

 are much admired for their loveliness. I 

 find the latter varies much, some plants 

 show a delicacy of constitution and bear 

 flowers of such a delicate texture that it 

 can be noticed at a glanc.-, while others 

 have a strong stem, stout leaf, broad 

 sepals and petals, heavv and well fringed 

 lip, that are as remarkable on the other 

 hand. These last conditions are shown 

 as the subject of the accompanying illus- 

 tration. 



When the plants are out of flower will 

 be a good time to go through the Trianas 

 and see that they have got good drainage 

 and clean potting material. There is 

 nothing more conducive to successful cat- 



