THE 



GARDENER'S MAGAZINE, 



OCTOBER, 1839. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. An Account of the preparatory Operations made in the 

 Birmingham Botanic Garden previously to planting the Arboretum 

 there ; tvith the Dimensions which some of the Trees have attained 

 in Seven Years. By D. Cameron, Curator there. 



Agreeably to your request (see p. 450.), I now send a short 

 account of the preparation made before planting for the 

 arboretum in this garden, and the height of a few of the trees. 



The whole of the ground was in pasture when we com- 

 menced operations, in the spring of 1831. The soil through- 

 out the whole of the garden is of a light sandy nature, upon a 

 subsoil chiefly of a coarse sand mixed with gravel, about from 

 20 in. to 24 in. under the surface. In a few small spots the 

 subsoil is inclined to clay, and in others to white sand. The 

 bottom is very dry in the upper portion of the garden, but wet 

 and springy in several portions of the lower grounds. 



The whole of the ground for the arboretum, and also the 

 peat ground for American plants, were regularly trenched over 

 two spits deep, and three shovelings. First, we pared off the 

 turf from the surface, then took off a spit in depth, then a 

 shoveling, then another spit deep and lastly a shoveling to level 

 the bottom, in all about 20 in. deep. This was done during 

 the spring and summer of 1831, and the surface was kept free 

 from weeds during the season. From the inequality of the 

 grounds, the formation of the walks caused some portions of the 

 arboretum ground to be considerably deeper of soil than others ; 

 but I cannot observe any improvement in the growth of the 

 trees planted upon those spots where the soil was deepest. The 

 whole was planted in the spring of 1832, with trees and shrubs 

 from Messrs. Loddiges. The spring and early part of the 

 summer of that year were rather unfavourable for newly planted 

 trees ; but, notwithstanding that circumstance, we lost very few 

 plants out of the whole collection, and scarcely any of the larger 

 free-growing species. This, in my opinion, was owing to a 

 careful pruning and thinning of their tops, so as to make them 

 correspond to the mutilated state of their roots. 



In planting, the different natural orders were brought together 

 Vol. XV.— No. 115. o o 



