280 PARKS AND PLEASURE-GROUNDS. 



to save the trouble of frequent watering ; and the result 

 of this treatment is almost invariably a stunted habit, 

 which is very difficult to overcome. Pines in pots should 

 be encouraged to grow vigorously, and should be ^ut 

 out as soon as they are able to bear the open air. It is 

 right to add, that nurserymen have met with unmerited 

 reproach in regard to the small-pot culture of pines. 

 We have examined few private collections m which the 

 system was not equally prevalent. 



Planting of the Pinetum. — As a general rule, the best 

 season for planting pines is in October. If the plants 

 are in pots, or are growing in the vicinity of their per- 

 manent site, and have been well prepared by frequent 

 removals, they may be successfully transplanted during 

 moist weather in April or in the beginning of May. At 

 each of these seasons the soil should be thoroughly satu- 

 rated with water when the operation of planting is two- 

 thirds completed. The plants should not be placed 

 deeper in the earth than they were previously; and it con- 

 tributes much to the early prosperity of the plant that 

 the roots be covered with leaf-mould or well rotted turfy 

 loam. It is injudicious to stake the trees any further than 

 may be necessary to prevent windshaking, for a year or 

 two. While the young plants are tender, and require pro- 

 tection in winter, three or four stakes driven into the 

 ground and rising a few inches above the top of the tree, 

 and covered with matting or spruce-fir branches, will ge- 

 nerally afford sufficient shelter. Some protect the lead- 

 ing shoot by a bell-glass, or cap of felt, supported in the 

 same way. For subsequent cultivation, little more is 

 required than the clearing away of long grass and weeds 

 from the young plants, and the thinning out of nurses, 

 where that mode of protection has been employed. 



