298 



The Hmiicullurist and Journal 



top downward, and furnishes a rich, dark 

 green, vigorous foliage. 



There is a class of evergreens that, for 

 many years, have grown to a height that was 

 not " bargained for " when set out, and having 

 been set too close together on the start, have 

 grown into high pinnacles, and become so 

 near to a nuisance that it is a question 

 whether to cut them down or let them stand. 

 The trouble is that they have been let grow 

 to from twenty to thirty feet high, just as hap- 

 pened, without any attention whatever. The 

 result is that the Balsam, Black spruce, and 

 such slow growing kinds, are thinning out and 

 denuding their under limbs, looking sickly, run- 

 ning up into spindles and losing their beauty. 

 The Norway spruce has a rank and shaggy 

 growth, but has lost all its original comeliness 

 from inattention. The question is, what shall 

 be clone with these neglected pinnacle trees ? 

 Early in the spring, before the sap begins to 

 move, cut oif the Norway spruce, say ten feet 

 from the ground, if that is the height you 

 want, two inches above a tier of limbs, and 

 then head in the ends of the limbs, forming a 

 taper from top to bottom, and practice like- 

 wise for three years, and you will have a 

 comely ti-ee. When you head in the side 

 limbs and cut oflF the top, you will see a 

 wonderful difference in the handsome growth 

 of the tree. As to the Balsam and Black 

 spruce, if the lower limbs have thinned out 

 too much, the tree has " gone up," and no 

 use of doing anything but cut down the tree. 

 Sometimes, if not too far gone, the top may 

 be cut off as before said, and the side shoots 

 shortened in, the tree trimmed up three or 

 four feet if the lower limbs are dying, and a 

 fair, vigorous tree be secured if annually 

 attended to afterward. 



I think I have now said enough about the 

 principles of treating evergreens, so that the 

 inexperienced, using good judgment, can 

 transplant and manage them as well as he can 

 desire. I will now mention a few points 

 about pruning deciduous trees. 



I'riniiiif/. — It doesn't seem to be generally 

 known, but nevertheless it is true, that the for- 

 est tree is capable of being made a thick, shady. 



vigorous tree on the same principles of shorten- 

 ing in that have already been laid down. The 

 Sugar maple, Butternut, Black birch, and all 

 sap-wasting trees should be shortened in before 

 they shed their foliage in the fall, that the 

 wood may dry and season over the amputated 

 end to prevent a bleeding flow of sap. All 

 other trees may be shortened in early in 

 spring or late in autumn. Trees transplanted 

 from the forest should have good roots — all 

 broken or injured roots cut off from the under 

 side with a sharp knife, and well set in late 

 autumn or early spring, the top first cut off 

 twelve or fourteen feet from the roots, with a 

 single limb left on to attract up the sap ; this 

 should be cut off the next year, so that the 

 tree may head out evenly. As the top begins 

 to grow, all limbs growing faster than others, 

 should be headed in to make a uniform head. 

 The principles referred to above in pruning 

 the Red cedar may be applied in pruning a 

 park of deciduous trees, giving each tree, how- 

 ever, its natural shape. The head of a tree 

 once well shortened, it will continue to grow 

 on evenly and handsomely in future, with a 

 tight, thick, shady top. Whenever a limb is 

 headed in, two, three or more shoots im- 

 mediately put out near the excision, and the 

 tree takes the habit of continually thickening 

 up its head and enlarging its stem and limbs. 

 The American larch or tamarack is said to 

 become a weeping tree by heading in its top. 

 When a tree has attained a considerable height, 

 two men with a double ladder to be moved 

 around the tree, are required, and the pruner 

 should have a long, sharp, heavy knife, to sever 

 the ends of the limbs. — / he Western Rural. 



Dwarf Floivering Almond. — The 



Rural Neiv Yorker recommends the budding 

 of this beautiful shrub on plum stocks, for giv- 

 ing a handsome form like miniature trees. A 

 small head is first formed to the plum stock 

 about three feet high, by cutting back at that 

 point, giving three or four side shoots. These 

 are budded in summer with the almond, and 

 treated as other budded trees. It is recom- 

 mended also to work the new and beautiful 

 PriDins trilobata in the same way. 



