48 THE FLORIST AND 



shorten in all the branches one-half, and a few stones are laid over the roots 

 to keep the tree from being blown down, but are never used in sufficient 

 quantity to be of any service ; and others again to make a fancy job of it, 

 cut the whole head off, leaving twelve or fifteen feet, of bare stem, which 

 renders them more like poles for training running roses on than like orna- 

 mental trees. 



Forest trees always extend their roots to a great distance, and the fibres 

 are at the extremities ; when they are dug up these roots are generally cut 

 off three or four feet from the stem,' leaving the best part in the ground — 

 how then could it be expected that such trees would grow ? The roots of 

 hard-wooded trees are not so ready to throw out young fibres when cut as 

 the roots of apple trees. This mode of planting large trees for immediate 

 effect -is worse than useless- — it is nothing but killing time and spending mo- 

 ney for neither end nor purpose. The only thing which will give real satis- 

 faction and produce the desired effect, is to plant young trees with fresh fi- 

 brous roots, and they will very soon grow to be large. There are few nur- 

 series of any note which do not contain almost every variety of tree, so that 

 it is a very easy matter to obtain them. 



I am glad to say that at least one of my neighbors has had his eyes open- 

 ed among the big trees. Last winter he moved from the woods a great num- 

 ber, and some at a great expense ; the situation was a very dry one, and the 

 early part of last summer being hot and dry in this section of the country, 

 they turned out a total failure. Now he is planting trees of small dimensions 

 and of nursery growth, which will in a very few years produce the result 

 aimed at ; besides which it is always more pleasing to look on a small healthy 

 tree, than on a large one in a languishing condition. 



I do not wish to be understood to include all kinds of trees, and under every 

 circumstance and situation ; what I have been condemning is the inexpedien- 

 cy of employing large trees from the woods. Etna. 



Near Pittsburg JPa., Jany. 1854. 



We have received from the editor, Wm. S. King, Esq., of Boston, Mass.,. 

 the third and fourth numbers of the Journal of the United States Agricul- 

 tural Society. It contains various and valuable articles, original and select- 

 ed, on agriculture, cattle raising, horse breeding, fruit growing, and other 

 subjects of interest to the farmer. Among the original contributors we no- 

 tice the names of Messrs. Vail, Haldeman, Brinckle, T. W. Harris, Kenni- 

 cott, B. Munn, and others. It has also a list of the agricultural and Horti- 

 cultural papers in the United States. 



