I 

 MANAGEMENT OF YOUNG TREES 59 



To a great extent the general management of young 

 trees is altogether different from the management required 

 to be given to old trees ; inasmuch as the difficulties are 

 more numerous, and the care and attention necessary to 

 be bestowed on them more manifold. Our forefathers 

 with the greatest skill and care laid out and formed the 

 old established Topiary gardens of the present day, and 

 afterwards year by year trained and shaped the fine old 

 specimens of the Topiary art now to be seen in some of 

 the old gardens, so that when a person is walking 

 through one of these gardens, and examining the quaint 

 and curious shapes of the trees, he cannot fail to admire 

 them and to reflect upon the amount of skill and labour 

 that has been bestowed on them. It would be curious, 

 indeed, if he failed to pause, and consider the amount of 

 patience the gardeners of earlier years were endowed 

 with. In many respects the gardener of the present 

 time has the advantage in Topiary work at least 

 over his brother of one or two hundred years ago. 

 Whether the gardeners of the present day are more 

 skilled in that special art, is a question which I 

 am not prepared to answer , but I am certain 

 that there is no mistaking the abilities of the old 

 gardeners in the art of training trees. The work they 

 have left behind them proves this beyond a doubt. 

 The gardener of the present day has more variety of 

 shapes to choose from, and a larger and more varied 

 selection of trees to work upon. 



If the trees were a good size and well grown when 

 they were planted, the work of clipping and training 

 them may be commenced the following year, according 

 to the shape into which it is intended to form the tree. 

 It is not advisable that any clipping or training be done 

 to the trees the same autumn or winter that they are 

 planted. It should be deferred until the following 

 autumn, in order to allow of fresh root action taking 



