HINDRANCES AND HELPS. 297 



clivities, and on lands, else unserviceable ; or as a 

 shelter to my garden or poultry yard, as a screen 

 from the too curious eyes of the public ; tangled 

 wildernesses, not without an order of their own, - 

 offering types of all the forest growth, where the 

 little ones may learn the forest names, and habit a 

 living book of botany, whose tender lessons are read 

 and remembered, as the successive seasons waft us 

 their bloom and perfume. 



These groups will, of course, demand some care 

 for their effective establishment ; care is a price we 

 must all pay for whatever beautiful growth we secure 

 whether in our trees or our lives. 



It is specially imperative that all turf be removed, 

 wherever a group of shrubs or forest trees are to be 

 planted; trenching is by no means essential, and 

 with many of the forest denizens, promotes a woody 

 luxuriance that delays bloom. My own practice has 

 been to compost the turf as it was taken up, upon the 

 ground, with lime, and possibly a castor-pomace, or 

 other nitrogenous fertilizer ; this I reserved for a top- 

 dressing, as the shrubs might seem to require, and no 

 other application of manure is ever made. Three 

 times, the first year, and twice, the second year, it 

 may be necessary to give hoe-culture, in order to 

 keep the grass and other foreign growth in abeyance. 

 After this, a single dressing is amply sufficient ; and 

 13* 



