4i6 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF GARDENING-. 



very common cause of failure. If you notice a specimen tree looking sickly, with 

 leaves of a washy yellowish green colour, you will often save its life by lifting it, putting 

 some fine soil round the roots, and replanting it i ft. or i8in. higher in the ground. 

 Where the tree is of sufficient importance to warrant the expense, a small drain-pipe from its 

 roots in connection with the nearest drain in the paths or elsewhere will greatly help it in the 

 early struggle for existence, and by the time the tree gets old enough to make free root action 

 its roots will drain the soil naturally. 



Where a tree has to stand alone without shelter, whether as a specimen or in an 

 avenue, do not plant it in its permanent situation until it has assumed a fair size, say, about 

 6ft. high ; you will gain time rather than lose it by keeping it in some nursery or shrubbery of 

 your own where it is thoroughly protected though not touched or overshadowed by older trees. 

 Do not attempt to plant choice trees or shrubs in the immediate vicinity of old forest trees, 

 at any rate not under their drip, as the result is certain to be disappointing; the old inhabitants 

 will suck - all the good out of the soil, and the better the mould you put round the new comer to 

 help it the quicker will you find that it has to draw its sustenance from among a mass of 

 extraneous roots ; moreover, the young tree in the natural search for light and air will bend 

 away from the old ones and become warped and stunted, till, after dragging out a miserable 



AN OLD SCOTCH FIR. 



existence for ten or a dozen years, it either dies or has to be cut down. It follows, 

 therefore, that anyone who wishes to make a collection of fancy trees and shrubs should 

 remove (not all at once, but year by year) every old tree that can be spared — I mean all that 

 are ill-grown or injuring others, or that are not required as a shelter from wind. 



Never be content in a garden with the half measure of cutting down a condemned tree, 

 but have it stocked out by the root, otherwise in the case of nearly all deciduous trees you 

 will have an unsightly and cumbersome coppice growth springing up from the stool, and in any 

 case you will leave a quantity of surrounding soil for many years unfertile. People are too 



