ARBORS — PRUNING. 



AilBOBS. 



Akbors, covered walks, ami shaded rest- 

 ;-pliices, come within the limits of pictur- 

 (ue ffroimds, if they are formed of liWug 

 es or shrubs. On the continent, the vine 

 Buch used for this purpose; and so it may, 

 a certain extent, in the south of Eng- 

 d; but beyond the midland counties, and 

 Scotland, the Hop, Clematis, Ivy, Hon- 

 uckle, and Climbing Roses, must be used 

 lubstitutes. Fig. 1 displays tho taste of 

 French and Germans in this matter, who 

 ^neral place them against walls, and of- 

 carry them by a flight of steps to a con- 

 irable height, as in our figure, 

 n Germany, arbors are fitted up among the 

 nches of very large and old trees, and access got 

 hem by means of a ladder. If study or privacy 

 ice the visitor to ascend, the ladder can be drawn 

 and so intrusion be prevented. AVe may here 

 ark, that in general the terms arbor and bower 

 e been considerel synonymous; it appears that 

 oorly they are not Mr. Mallett, of l)ublin, fre- 

 atly quoted in this work, says: "An aibor is a 

 ;e covered and enclosed by the interweaving 

 iches of trees, and reticulated stems of living 

 .ts, intended to afford shade and retirement. The 

 3s arbor aud bower are properly very distinct : 

 former alone being formed of the living branches 

 stems of trees, whereas the bower, which is not 

 ved from bough, or any analogous word, means 

 )Iy any small chamber; yet they ai-e used indi.s- 

 linately by the best writers. 



Fio. 2. 



iie term bower seems, as it were, the word of po- 

 in which it is frequently made use of; whereas 

 r seldom is, if ever. 



'ith us, few natural arbor-i are to lie met with, 

 least artificial are those formcil by slightly ar- 

 ing the pendant branches of the Weeping Ash, 

 imikr growing trees. .-V few props within, to 

 lort a rod or hoop, to carry up the pendant 

 ches, is all that is required; and if these have too 



Fio 1. 



much the appearance of art, the smaller branches of 

 th^ tree may be trained down upon them, or ivy may 

 be planted and trained over them, and allowed to in- 

 termingle with the branches fonning the roof. 



The next kind of arbor for simplicity of form, is 

 that formed of tall, straight, young trees, of beech, 

 horabeam, mountain ash, willow, kc. These planted 

 close together in a line, forming the back and sides 

 of the proposed arbor, the front being in general left 

 open, are bent over at the tops to form the roof, and 

 tied together to keep them in their proper places. 

 Sometimes the stems are crossed in trellis fashion, 

 and after a time they unite by a species of natural 

 engrafting, and become exceedingly strong, and will 

 last for years. 



Fig. 2 represents a Gothic rustic arbor, or resting- 

 place; the basement to be of stone, the superstruc- 

 ture of unbarked timber, and the roof thatched with 

 heath. The Hoor should be pitched with pebbles in 

 Gothic pattern, and the seats be made of oak plank. 



PKUNING. 



Prunino, properly speaking, is tb3 judicious remo- 

 val of encumbering and useless wood every year, so 

 as to regulate the branches in every part of the tree, 

 and thus give access to the sun and air to freely pen- 

 etrate through the whole tree; this is necessary, for 

 if the air and sun cannot get freely to the fruit and 

 the leaves, they are imperfectly matured; the loaves 

 cannot properly perform their functions, thus the sap 

 is imperfectly elaborated, and both the wood and 

 fruit is imperfectly ripened. 



As to the time to prune, there is a diversity ot 

 opinions, whether it should be performed in the fall, 

 after the leaves are off, or early in the spriug, before 

 the buds break. This is immaterial; it is only a dis- 

 agreement whether trees should be pruned at the 

 beginning or end of their dormant state, but it 

 amounts to nothing; pruning may be done any time 

 during the dormant state of the tree; it should, how- 

 ever, be performed before the sap begins to flow in 

 the spring. In these remarks we allude to what is 

 termed winter pruning — summer pruning is a difler- 

 ent operation, of which we shall speak on a future 

 occasion. 



In pruning it is necessary to be well acquainted 

 with the nature of the tree to be pruned; without 

 this, it is impossible to prune to advantage. All trees 

 are not alike in their nature; some produce their 

 fruit on the young wood of the previous year's growth, 



