4 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



bodies, particularly from the walls ; it is also necessary as a 

 preventive to the bad effects of cold cutting winds. Those 

 points from which the most inclement winds generally blow 

 should be guarded (if not naturally) by trees, and no time 

 should be lost in planting them. In making choice of the 

 sorts of trees, those should be particularly selected which are 

 of rapid growth ; 



Nor will ai t, that sovereign arbitress, admit. 

 Where'er her nod decrees a mass of shade. 

 Plants of discordant sort, unequal size. 

 Or ruled by foliation's different law ; 

 Studious with just selection, those to join 

 That earliest flourish, and that latest fade. 



Sometimes the situation is rendered sufficiently sheltered by 

 the natiJiral shape or situation of the ground, but if this be 

 not the case, recourse must be had to the planting of trees, 

 these however must be kept at such a distance from the walls 

 as to guard against the evil of being too much shaded, as well 

 as to prevent the roots of the trees, of which the plantation is 

 formed, from robbing the borders, which may surround the 

 walls. The winds principally to be guarded against are the 

 north, the north-east, and north-west, for it is from those 

 points that our coldest winds proceed. In the formation of a 

 new garden, the artist has it probably in his power to adopt a 

 situation already sheltered, and, if other circumstances be fa- 

 vorable, the chance of this situation is not to be lost sight of; 

 for if the garden has to be sheltered by plantations made after 

 it is finished, a certain loss will be sustained. In the event 

 of having the plantations to make, it will be an object to 

 get thera up with all possible despatch; the ground, there- 

 fore, should be well trenched, and planted with sycamore, pop- 

 lar, larch, spruce, and balm of Gilead firs, which are our fastest 

 growing trees, and therefore should have the preference ; taking 

 care, at the same time, to intermix a sufficient number of oak, 

 beech, elm, and chestnut, to remain after some of the others 

 have been thinned out or have attained too great a height. 

 It is a rule that there should never be any trees of any height 

 on the south side of a garden for a very considerable distance, 

 for, during winter and early in the spring, they fling their 



