CULTURAL 



THE cultivation of shrubs and trees is a very simple 

 matter, and the principal details can be readily mastered 

 by those who have an elementary knowledge of garden- 

 ing. Unless the circumstances are quite exceptional and 

 the nursery is within a few miles of the garden, plants 

 of medium size should be preferred to those that have 

 attained to large dimensions. The latter are costly be- 

 cause of the large amount expended in labour upon their 

 preparation by the nurseryman, and they are much more 

 difficult to establish. Sometimes with considerable care 

 they die in the summer after they are planted. In other 

 cases they are so slow in becoming established that they 

 make but little growth for two or three years ; and when 

 they readily take to their new quarters, it is not unusual 

 for them to be overtaken by plants several years younger 

 at the time of planting. Speaking in a general way, the 

 plants offered at the usual catalogue price are the best, 

 having regard to their cost and the rapidity with which, 

 under ordinary care, they become established and fill the 

 positions assigned them. 



The preparation of the soil for the reception of the 

 shrubs and trees must be thorough, for upon the manner 

 in which this is done depends in a large measure the after 

 success. If the whole of the bed or border is to be 

 planted at the same time, the ground should be broken 

 up to a depth of eighteen inches or two feet, but unless 

 the soil is good and friable throughout the whole depth, 

 the bottom spit should not be brought to the surface, 



