Feb.~] OF PRUNING, fec. 19 



period of the year. An opportunity of this kind should 

 always be laid hold of; the beneficial results will in season 

 be displayed. 



FEBRUARY. 



WHEN the borders and various compartments were dug 

 in the autumn, and compost, or a thin coating of well de- 

 composed manure given, the advantage will now, in part, 

 be experienced. If the weather is open about the end of 

 the month, the pruning should be done with the utmost 

 despatch, that all may be prepared for a general dressing 

 next month, and let nothing be delayed which can now pro- 

 perly be accomplished, under the idea that there is time 

 enough. 



OF PRUNING, &c. 



Generally, about the end of the month, the very severe 

 frosts are over, and when none need be apprehended that 

 would materially injure hardy shrubs, they may be freely 

 pruned, and the points cut of such shoots as may have been 

 damaged by the winter. Most of shrubs require nothing 

 more than to be thinned of straggling, irregular and injured 

 branches, or of suckers that rise round the root, observing, 

 that they do not intermingle with each other. Never trim 

 them up in a formal manner; regular shearing of shrubs, 

 and topiary work, have been expelled as unworthy a taste, 

 the least improved by reflections on beauty, simplicity and 

 grandeur of nature. 



In fact, the pruning of deciduous hardy shrubs, should 

 be done in such a manner as not to be observable when the 

 plants are covered with verdure. It may frequently be ob- 

 served in flower gardens, that roses and shrubs of every 

 description are indiscriminately cut with the shears, the 

 dmorphas, Viburnums and Altheas sharing the same fate. 



Robinias, Coluteas, Cyticus, RMs, Genistas, with seve- 



