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MANAGEMENT OF YOUNG TREES 63 
down a hard and fast rule, as every person who owns, 
or intends to own, a Topiary garden, will almost to a 
certainty please himself as to the designs into which he 
will have his trees shaped. However, I will try to give 
my readers some little idea of the different shapes it is 
possible to make out of the yew tree. In the first 
instance, almost any letter of the alphabet can, with 
comparative ease, be represented; and nearly all of 
them can be done with a single tree, although in the 
case of some letters, two or even three trees may 
be required to form the letter as quickly as possible. 
In the shaping of the letter A, for instance, two trees 
will be necessary for the purpose. Suppose it is in- 
tended to make a capital letter A. In the first place 
select two well-furnished trees five or six feet in height, 
and not more than nine inches in diameter at the base, 
and plant them as already advised, four, five, or even six 
feet apart, according to the size it is intended to make 
the letter. One at least of the two trees should have 
two leading shoots growing from it; one to be trained 
straight up to form the inside of the letter, and the other 
to be trained across to form the middle of the letter. 
But, if both trees are furnished with two leading shoots, 
one of each can be trained across to form the cross part 
of the letter. If two trees can be got, with two leading 
shoots, as I pointed out, they will equalise the balance 
of the letter better, and give a more even appearance to 
the tree. In the case of the letter B, one tree only will 
be required for the purpose, if the letter is intended to 
be, say, eight or nine feet high. To be exact, we will 
suppose it is intended to form the letter B, nine feet high. 
The tree that is chosen for the purpose should have only 
one single stem for half of the way up the tree. It 
should then branch into three leaders or main shoots, 
as from this point three branches or stems will be 
required to make up the different portions of the letter. 
