CULTURAL 
THE cultivation of shrubs and trees is a very simple 
matter, and the principal details can be readily mastered 
by those who have an elementary knowledge of garden- 
ing. Unless the circumstances are quite exceptional and 
the nursery is within a few miles of the garden, plants 
of medium size should be preferred to those that have 
attained to large dimensions. The latter are costly be- 
cause of the large amount expended in labour upon their 
preparation by the nurseryman, and they are much more 
difficult to establish. Sometimes with considerable care 
they die in the summer after they are planted. In other 
cases they are so slow in becoming established that they 
make but little growth for two or three years; and when 
they readily take to their new quarters, it is not unusual 
for them to be overtaken by plants several years younger 
at the time of planting. Speaking in a general way, the 
plants offered at the usual catalogue price are the best, 
having regard to their cost and the rapidity with which, 
under ordinary care, they become established and fill the 
positions assigned them. 
The preparation of the soil for the reception of the 
shrubs and trees must be thorough, for upon the manner 
in which this is done depends ina large measure the after 
success. If the whole of the bed or border is to be 
planted at the same time, the ground should be broken 
up to a depth of eighteen inches or two feet, but unless 
the soil’ is good and friable throughout the whole depth, 
the bottom spit should not be brought to the surface, 
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