TREES AND SHRUBS FOR LARGE TOWNS. 



77 



cushion around, but at some distance from the trunk. A mulch- 

 ing around the roots, kept in place by the grating, in that situa- 

 tion is of great benefit to the tree by retaining the moisture of 

 the soil, and may be renewed from time to time. 



Supposing the tree to have been suitably planted and pro- 

 tected, it still demands occasional attention. Town gardeners 

 too often ignore the circumstance that occasional inspection is 

 necessary, and that a timely application of the hose to the roots 

 in time of drought, or the frequent use of the spray to the 

 leaves to ensure their periodical cleansing, are of the greatest 

 possible benefit to the trees and shrubs condemned to grow 

 within the limits of wind-swept or dirt-polluted towns. The 

 injury that may be inflicted by the steam-roller should not be 

 overlooked, the speaker instancing a street in Chelsea, and an- 

 other in Southwark, where the roots of the tree had been 

 massacred by this instrument, and where the trees in conse- 

 quence had well-nigh perished, and would probably soon do so 

 utterly. 



These and other practical details are well understood by 

 trained gardeners, and it is a misfortune when the management 

 of town trees and of town gardens is confided to persons destitute 

 of the necessary knowledge and experience. At the same time 

 even trained gardeners are too apt to allow themselves to be 

 trammelled by long-established, but unintelligent, routine, and to 

 pay scant attention to the mode of growth, habits, and require- 

 ments of individual plants. The thoughtless treatment of 

 shrubberies and shrubbery borders, the ruthless disturbance of 

 the roots, the mutilation and massacre of the branches and 

 trunks that go on under the name of pruning and " tree-cutting," 

 may be seen in every suburban road. The hideous deformities 

 into which trees are converted by the knife and saw are mostly 

 the outcome of previous neglect and inattention. For want of 

 occasional attention and regulation of growth, by means of dis- 

 budding or the removal of young shoots, trees are allowed to 

 overgrow their limits, or to become misshapen and unsymmetrical. 

 When this happens the trees become, as was once observed to 

 the speaker by a gardener, " hugly things ! " As a matter of 

 fact not a few town dwellers never have an opportunity of seeing 

 the noble grandeur of an unmutilated tree, nor of studying the 

 manifold ways in which trees, each according to its kind, adapt 



