MY FARM OF EDGEWOOD 



dernesses, 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 suc- 

 cessive seasons waft us their bloom and per- 

 fume. 



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 re- 

 moved, 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 abey- 

 ance. After this, a single dressing is amply 



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