of Rural Art and Taste. 



297 



in its branches, and my friend was oflFered 

 $100 for the tree if he would move it over to 

 a neighbor's grounds. 



The pines are more difficult to treat. I 

 know a case, however, where a white pine was 

 growing so fast as to require its removal or 

 curtailment, where the owner cut off the 

 leader, at nine feet from the ground where 

 the tree was two and one-half inches in 

 diameter, and each leading limb at the junc- 

 tion of its branches, leaving only the side 

 branches of the limbs, and in one year after- 

 ward it was a comely looking tree, an orna- 

 ment, but so contracted as to make no further 

 trouble. I have no doubt that any of the 

 other pines can be treated in like manner 

 with success. 



It is to be remarked that of all the dis- 

 taff-headed growing evergreens, the pruning 

 must be above the bud, for, if below, no 

 shoot will start where there is no bud, as is 

 the case in deciduous trees, but, wherever 

 there is a bud, there will be a shoot, and the 

 more the sap is checked by heading back 

 other portions of the tree, the longer and 

 stronger the shoot will grow. 



By the term leader, I mean the main up- 

 right shoot, stem or body of a tree, not the 

 side shoots or branches ; and, when applied 

 to the branch of a body or stem of a tree, the 

 leading or main branch, not side shoots from 

 a branch. 



From what has been above written, I think 

 it must appear patent that " cutting back " a 

 main leader will cripple or dwarf a tap root, 

 and strengthen the side roots, and " headine; 

 in " a branch leader will proportionately 

 multiply and strengthen the side roots, so 

 that the tree, whether fruit or ornamental, by 

 this dwarfing process, becomes invigorated, 

 and trees on the decline, by thorough and 

 judicious "cutting back," may be forced by 

 their tenacity of life to throw out new side 

 roots and thus become healthy. 



Dwarfing Evetv/rcens — To further il- 

 lustrate the principle of dwarfing evergreens, 

 I will refer to the notable evergreen garden 

 of Warner Bundy, in Hillsdale county, Mich. 

 This park is in front of his residence, facing 



the southwest, upon a street to which it 

 descends at an angle of perhaps 20°, say five 

 and a half rods long, and four and a half rods 

 wide, exclusive of a walk on the west side 

 flanked with various and rare ornamental 

 shrubbery. It contains about fifty evergreens, 

 including the Savin, Arbor vitse, Austrian 

 pine. White pine, Silver pine, Swedish juniper. 

 Red cedar. Red spruce, Norway spruce, 

 Balsam, Hemlock, White spruce, etc., fifteen 

 or more of which have been wrought upon to 

 produce various forms. Of these, ten are 

 particularly dwarfed low, and consist in part 

 of Norways and Balsams. Other varieties 

 have been practiced upon, but I write more 

 particularly of the two latter varieties. 



The dwarf Balsams and Norways are about 

 from one and a half to two feet high in the 

 center, averaging six feet in diameter. Semi- 

 oblate spheroids — very oblate and shaped 

 much in the form of a dining plate, reversed 

 side up, highest in the center, with gentle 

 taper from the centre to circumference, set 

 out nine to ten years ago, when about one 

 foot high, with low furnished foliage and side 

 limbs. This park consists of a great variety 

 of forms. Some trees are erect, like the 

 Silver pine. White pine, Austrian pine and 

 Arbor vitte, twelve inches in diameter re- 

 spectively at the ground, set eleven years 

 ago, and then of the same size as the dwarfs 

 I am speaking of. 



The method of dwarfing the evergreens was, 

 in the first place, after the tree had become 

 established, to cut back the top to the lower 

 tier of limbs, then let grow, and the second 

 year cut to the third tier of limbs, and so on 

 from year to year, giving each year a new 

 tier of limbs to grow out. The consequence 

 was that there was a tremendously vigorous 

 growth of the limbs left uncut, and every 

 year's limbs falling on the tier next below, so 

 that the whole tree was nearly flattened to the 

 ground, and each tier of branches became 

 imbricated on the tier below. 



This park is not only a great curiosity and 

 a credit to its maker and projector, but fur- 

 nishes a study to any one who wishes to know 

 what can be done in dwarfing evergreens from 



