MANAGEMENT OF YOUNG TREES 63 



down a hard and fast rule, as every person who owns, 

 or intends to own, a Topiary garden, will almost to a 

 certainty please himself as to the designs into which he 

 will have his trees shaped. However, I will try to give 

 my readers some little idea of the different shapes it is 

 possible to make out of the yew tree. In the first 

 instance, almost any letter of the alphabet can, with 

 comparative ' ease, be represented ; and nearly all of 

 them can be done with a single tree, although in the 

 case of some letters, two or even three trees may 

 be required to form the letter as quickly as possible. 

 In the shaping of the letter A, for instance, two trees 

 will be necessary for the purpose. Suppose it is in- 

 tended to make a capital letter A. In the first place 

 select two well-furnished trees five or six feet in height, 

 and not more than nine inches in diameter at the base, 

 and plant them as already advised, four, five, or even six 

 feet apart, according to the size it is intended to make 

 the letter. One at least of the two trees should have 

 two leading shoots growing from it ; one to be trained 

 straight up to form the inside of the letter, and the other 

 to be trained across to form the middle of the letter. 

 But, if both trees are furnished with two leading shoots, 

 one of each can be trained across to form the cross part 

 of the letter. If two trees can be got, with two leading 

 shoots, as I pointed out, they will equalise the balance 

 of the letter better, and give a more even appearance to 

 the tree. In the case of the letter B, one tree only will 

 be required for the purpose, if the letter is intended to 

 be, say, eight or nine feet high. To be exact, we will 

 suppose it is intended to form the letter B, nine feet high. 

 The tree that is chosen for the purpose should have only 

 one single stem for half of the way up the tree. It 

 should then branch into three leaders or main shoots, 

 as from this point three branches or stems will be 

 required to make up the different portions of the letter. 



