264 ON THE CONSERVATION OF 



dition, mixed with lime, or applied alone ; or of old well decomposed 

 leaf-mould mixed with peat soil ; the scourings of ponds or ditches, 

 which have been allowed to dry, and been well turned over and 

 aerated by the frecpient use of fork or spade ; or, indeed, of any good 

 clean fresh earth of open texture. The surface of the ground about 

 the tree should be lightly forked over previous to its application. 

 The depth to which this compost or top-dressing should be laid, 

 de] lends upon the situation of the tree to be operated upon, but it 

 should be deposited round the trunk to a depth of not less than two 

 feet (in some cases, when the trunk is exposed at the neck, to a depth 

 of three or four feet), and be gradually tapered off, so as not to offend 

 the eye, from the stem outwards to a final depth, at the extremity 

 of the circumference of the branches, of one foot of fresh soil. In 

 the following season all the dead branchlets in the head of the tree 

 should be cut back to where young wood will have formed, and it 

 is a considerable assistance to the formation of young wood to thin 

 out the head of the tree carefully, by cutting off several of the side 

 .shoots springing from the main branches; thus admitting light and 

 air, and promoting a condition favourable to the development of 

 young wood and foliage. In some cases, ash trees, from 60 to 70 feet 

 in height, and growing in strong loam with a clayey subsoil, thus 

 treated after they had shown evident signs of incipient decline, have 

 been known to recover their former vigour. Horse chestnut and lime 

 trees, in the same situation, and from 200 to 250 years of age, have 

 been also successfully treated by the same process, after having been 

 allowed to remain " stag-headed" for fully three years. Hollies 

 injured in the memorable winter of 1860-61, and from 20 to 80 feet 

 in height, after presenting an almost dead appearance, were treated 

 in this manner, and the dead branches cut back to the very stem, in 

 some instances leaving almost nothing but the quasi-dead trunk 

 above, and are now fully furnished with dense masses of foliage 

 of the most healthy hue of glossy brightness ; and although now 

 lacking the large wide-spread arms, they have been by this treatment 

 saved, and their height, as tall evergreens, secured, where absence 

 would have created an unsightly blank. The growth of young wood 

 under this treatment is sometimes so thick that it is necessary, after 

 the first season, to thin it out, removing superfluous shoots, and 

 singling out leading twigs into which the force of the resuscitated 

 action maj r be directed for .the formation and development of new 

 cellular tissue, ft may sometimes be necessary, where the natural 

 soil in which the tree is placed is inimical to its habits and nature, 



