AN ENGLISH GARDEN IN SPRING 



and March there is a complete bit of garden of one 

 kind of plant in full beauty of flower and foliage. 

 "The nut-trees have grown into such thick 

 clumps that now there must be vigorous thinning. 

 Each stool has from eight to twelve main stems, 

 the largest of them nearly two inches thick. Some 

 shoot almost upright, but two or three in each 

 stool spread outward, with quite a dififerent habit 

 of growth, branching about in an angular fashion. 

 These are the oldest and thickest. There are also 

 a number of straight suckers one and two years 

 old. Now when I look at some fine old nut alley, 

 with the tops arching and meeting overhead, as I 

 hope mine will do in a few years, I see that the 

 trees have only a few stems, usually from three to 

 five at the most, and I judge that now is the time 

 to thin mine to about the right number, so that 

 the strength and growing power may be thrown 

 into these and not allowed to dilute and waste 

 itself in growing extra fagoting. The first to be 

 cut away are the old crooked stems. They grow 

 nearly horizontally and are all elbows, and often 

 so tightly locked into the straighter rods that they 

 have to be chopped to pieces before they can be 

 pulled out. When these are gone it is easier to 

 get at the other stems, though they are often so 



