SUGGESTIONS FOR PLANTING TREES AND SHRUBS. 



415 



plants of Rhus Cotinus stone dead by pruning them shortly before they were exposed to a 

 hard winter. Broadly speaking, nearly all deciduous trees can be pruned with advantage in 

 their young state, and hardly any conifers ; in the case of the latter they are best left quite 

 alone, except for the removal of any superfluous leaders. There is, however, one marked 

 exception in this class, and that is the various Retinosporas, which in this climate, at any 

 rate, are apt to get very ragged and mangy if allowed to grow naturally, but when pruned 

 they make handsome solid and vigorous pyramids. 



It is, of course, very difficult to give general directions as to pruning on paper, though it 

 might be quite easy to say what should be done to this or that tree if it were before one. 

 A general rule may, however, be laid down that all boughs which turn back and grow 

 inwards or across the others, and still more all those which turn upwards and take a vertical 

 direction, should be removed. Most trees, except the Beech, have a tendency to throw out a 

 mass of small shoots from their stems, especiallv where the original boughs have been removed. 

 These should always be taken away, as in a young tree they use up the sap which is wanted 

 for the formation of a tine head, and in an old one they lessen the impressiveness of the 

 trunk and weaken the contrast between grey bole and green branches. 



With regard to the PLANTING of trees, the soil in which they are to grow should 

 whe never 

 possible be 

 thorou ghly 

 t r e n c h e d 

 and broken 

 up ; it is 

 really 

 astonishing 

 to note the 

 different 

 rate of pro- 

 g r e s s of 

 two trees in 

 all other 

 respects 

 similar, 

 one of 

 which has 

 the ad- 

 vantage of 

 trenched 

 ground and 

 the other 

 not. Of 

 course 



where trees are planted as specimens on turf it is impossible to break' up the ground, 

 but in that case the wider the hole in which they are placed the better chance they 

 will have, and it will help them if ever so small a circle of unturfed ground is left 

 round them, as it will give air to the roots and protect the tender bark from being 

 bruised by accidental blows from the mowing machine. If the soil be heavy and 

 the situation moist, the tree will do better if planted on a gently swelling knoll rather 

 than on a dead level, and provided the rise in the ground is sufficiently graduated to 

 produce a natural appearance the tree will also look better. Nothing is so fatal to the 

 prospects of a young tree as standing water at the roots, and this in a clay soil is a 



A GA A DEN 



ALK AT HELMINGHA M HALL, SUFFOLK. 



