186 



THE TREE DOCTOR 



ORNAMENTAL TRIMMING. 



"From one extreme to the other" is the way of the world. 

 A quarter of a century ago all went to "trimming" into ornamen- 

 tal forms. Now some landscapers are preaching "under no con- 

 sideration have a shorn tree ; copy after Nature and Nature 

 alone." This extreme is better than the other, but instead of 

 an extreme in anything, it is wiser to use good judgment. Is 

 there anything beautiful in the "natural appearance" of the Irish 

 Juniper, with its half-dead, ragged top, in Photo 174? All that 

 dead center could even now be taken out and, by the use of a 

 couple of bits of copper wire, the base could be drawn in and 

 fastened into a neat pyramidal form; any objection? To the 

 right and left of the entrance to the burial lot, seen in Photo 

 173, are two shorn Norway Spruces. They were cut back and 

 "trimmed" in August, 1881. At that time, (before cutting,) 

 they were the same size as the tall Spruce in the rear. The an- 

 nual pruning cuts away the new growth and stunts the roots 



Photo 172 

 Leaves of Virginia Creeper, Hop, Boston Ivy, Poison Ivy and Plantain. 



