April 14, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



object that concerns all who would adorn 

 P=^5t their gardens with Conifers. Happily this 

 CS'rTi class of the vegetable creation is not so fanci- 



J^~>- V fill as to soil, &c, as was generally supposed 



yfi some years ago ; we now see many good 



specimens growing where even planting an 

 Oak was little thought of before, and. owing to their very 

 low price, good plants can be bought to ornament many 

 waste piecps of ground. 



I would here caution amateurs who are about to plant 

 Conifers not to run away with the idea generally enter- 

 tained, that the ground cannot be too poor, or that a cart- 

 load of good manure will be the death of a Conifer ; such 

 is not the case ; still I think the system of planting is of 

 greater moment than manure, if the soil has any nutriment 

 to afford. 



I will take three ways in which Conifers are planted — 

 namely, in hollows, level with the ground, and on mounds. 



The third method has been commented upon in these 

 eolumns, with no other facts than to say it was doing well 

 or badly ; but the question is, Is the system suitable under 

 varying circumstances ? Is this generally considered when 

 we recommend or condemn a different plan ? I think not. 

 If we happen to see a tree doing very well, we are apt to 

 accept its planting as a model for our future guidance, 

 not taking into consideration the difference in soil and 

 situation. An enterprising amateur on a visit here, who 

 takes great delight in Conifers, seeing we had been and 

 still were planting this class of trees, was struck with dis- 

 may at our planting them on mounds. " Mine are all 

 level with the ground," he said. " What is your subsoil, 

 your situation, your surface soil, &c. ?" "All are good," 

 was the reply, " but yours, I see, are quite the reverse." 



We must now go back, and take the first system, which 

 is not often adopted, nevertheless it is not to he overlooked, 

 for in uplands, where the ground and subsoil is of a very 

 dry and sandy texture, it is well the trees should be planted 

 below the general level of the surrounding ground. This 

 will not be approved of by some Conifer planters ; but 

 let me ask them if they have not been surprised when 

 taking a ramble through a wood, park, or large shrubbery, 

 to find before them unexpectedly some of the most vigor- 

 ous and well-balanced trees which have come up, as it 

 seems, spontaneously from an old hollow that had been 

 excavated in years gone by, offering a grateful abode for 

 a host of Ferns ? Do we not often, when reading the 

 travels of botanists, find them state that when they were 

 crossing a mountainous country they came to a beautiful 

 clump of such and such a tree in a hollow ? I have ever 

 found this the case in woods and parks with a light sandy 

 soil resting on a gravelly or rocky subsoil. But the 

 planter, in such a place, must be careful not to penetrate 

 into a hard subsoil to carry out the design of planting 



No. 472.— Vol. xvm. New SERIES. 



below the surface, for in doing so he makes a boundary for 

 the roots, and in a few years the trees will be brought to 

 a standstill. 



I know of an avenue of Cedars that would be beautiful 

 but for this cause. They did well until their roots came 

 to where the pick and spado left off. Better far to plant 

 on the subsoil, and cart a few loads of soil yearly to in- 

 crease the dep'h of the surface soil : and here we come at 

 once to the second method, or surface-planting. 



What I mean by surface-planting is not to raise the 

 ground above the level, but as we generally plant other 

 things. This mode is well adapted for good deep land with 

 an open subsoil, and where there is efficient natural drain- 

 age, but if there should be any doubt respecting the latter, 

 planting on mounds is certainly the safest plan, especially 

 if the ground is very flat with a clayey subsoil ; for of all 

 soils, I think, a cold adhesive clay soil is the worst for 

 Conifers : the exceptions are the Silver Fir and the Scotch 

 Fir. White clayey subsoil seems almost essential to the 

 former, while a red clay or marl seems to suit the latter 

 well ; at least, the finest I ever saw was growing on such 

 a soil. 



I would advise all who contemplate planting woods on 

 a cold wet subsoil not to employ the common Spruce Fir. 

 We have a large wood that was planted forty or fifty years 

 ago, and the trees, although growing at a very rapid rate 

 for the first twenty or thirty years, are now struggling for 

 existence, and every storm that comes upon them tears them 

 down by scores, and the timber, although 50 or GO feet 

 long, is only fit for firewood, being so rotten. Hence the 

 necessity of putting stones beneath trees in such a soil, as 

 much for keeping the central roots from penetrating the 

 cold clay as for drainage. 



I find that the primary cause of disease is from those 

 central roots descending into this uncongenial soil, there 

 perishing, and carrying the disease to the heart of the trees. 



I am now planting some parts of these grounds with more 

 valuable trees, and it may help some similarly situated if 

 I describe the way in which i am inserting them. The 

 situation is very high, facing the north, with a range of 

 high mountains about six miles distant. It will at once 

 be seen it is a very cold and bleak situation, added to 

 which the soil is very poor and shallow, varying in colour, 

 but principally a black heavy bog, here and there running 

 to the depth of from 3 to 5 feet without a particle of sand 

 or grit of any sort (and this is thoroughly saturated with 

 stagnant water), resting on a white clay bottom. 



My first performance was to drain it: in 

 doing so we came across many old drains, 

 which were completely choked up by not 

 having enough fall to keep them clear, al- 

 though the situation off-red every possible 

 facility for it. But the plan is here to put 

 the drains in a horizontal direction, with a 

 main drain for them to empty into. This 

 may do if there is a main every 12 or 

 14 feet : if not, in this bog soil the drains 

 act far better in a slanting direction, thus — 



The drains are put at the bottom of the bog, and in 



No. 1184. -Vol. XLIII., Old Sebjbs. 



