44 



JFlOttttt: 



FEBRUARY. 



Where the borders and beds were dug in the fall, 

 and compost or a thin coating of well decayed manure 

 given, the advantage will now in part be experienced. 

 If the weather is open about the end of the month, the 

 pruning should be done with the utmost despatch ; that 

 all may be prepared for a general dressing next month, 

 and let nothing be delayed which can now properly be 

 accomplished, under the idea that there is time enough. 



OF PRUNING, &c. 



Generally about the end of the month the very se- 

 vere frosts are over; and when none need be appre- 

 hended that would materially injure hardy shrubs, 

 they may freely be pruned of all dead branches, and 

 the points cut off such shoots as have been damaged 

 by the winter. Most of shrubs require nothing more 

 than to be pruned of straggling, irregular, and injured 

 branches, or of suckers that rise round the root, ob- 

 serving that they do not intermingle with each other. 

 Never trim them up in a formal manner. Regular 

 shearing of shrubs and topiary work have been expell- 

 ed as unworthy of a taste the least improved by re- 

 flections on the beauty, simplicity, and grandeur of 



