BRIEF REMARKS. 283 



not settle, as I have just said ; and the second, that the water should 

 not pass through it readily when the plants were watered. This would 

 have been a very injudicious proceeding on some soils, although in our 

 case it was necessary. The soil here is so liglit, that a fresh bed of it, 

 like tlje one for this box-hedge, would let tlie water pass right tlirough 

 it to the bottom, without doing any good for the plants, unless it was 

 thus compressed ; whereas some retentive soils, if this process were 

 applied to them, would not drain at all, which would be as injurious 

 the other way. Now, here is one of those sources of disappointment 

 and vexation inseparable from the system of learning how to do parti- 

 cular things from books. We read of so and so liaving been performed 

 with great success, and we think that by following the writer step by 

 step we must also succeed in similar attempts. Here, then, is where 

 the " practical " man has tlie advantage of the book man ; the book 

 may put us on tlie right scent, but unless we have as much practical 

 knowledge as will sliow us how far we may be justified in carrying out 

 a set of rules under different circumstances, we may make a mess of it 

 after all our reading. Heuce the reason why I would not recommend 

 others, under different circumstances, to follow me implicity in the 

 planting of large evergreens, even at any season. 



To make this experiment more complete, I made it a point that none 

 of the men engaged in the gardens should have a finger in it. I took 

 half a dozen strong men who worked on the farm, with spades, pick- 

 axes, and three-tined strong forks, and set them to work on Monday, 

 the 3rd of June, and in ten days the hedge was planted, which then 

 looked as if it had been growing there these twenty years. The first 

 five weeks passed with only one slight shower, and the sun poured his 

 unbroken rays on the hedge all the time ; in short everything tended 

 to test the experiment of planting large bushes or trees at mid- 

 summer, on light soils ; and no experiment could be more complete — 

 not a single leaf drooped, and even the young growth went on without 

 let or hindrance, just as if the plants had not been interfered with at 

 all. If the same men had continued to plant large trees or bushes 

 from that day to this, I can see no reason Avhy a single leaf on all the 

 plants removed should take any hurt ; and if that be so, it is surely a 

 safe time now to remove evergreens, — not only so, but every week 

 that passes from this day will add to the disadvantages under which 

 removed trees must more or less be liable. The Horticultural Society 

 of London had set a very good example, by the removal of the holly 

 hedge in their garden early in the autumn of last year ; not but that 

 gardeners were well aware of the fact, that such things could be done, but 

 in a public place like their garden, and under the auspices of a public 

 body, the thing was more likely to take the attention of the gardening 

 world. The true time, however, to begin to tiansi)lant large ever- 

 greens, as I said before, is as early in July as their growth is finished 

 for that season ; and the credit of the discovery is undoubtedly due to 

 Mr. Barron, at Elvaston Castle ; and all that I, or, indeed, any other 

 gardener has done in this line, is no more than picking up the crumbs 

 from under his table. i 



Tliere was nothing particular in the modus operandi of our pro- 



