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selection for growing into specimens. In due course the fine 

 things from California must have a place, and so furiously did 

 the fever rage that I could name gentlemen who planted Sequoias 

 within twenty yards of their front doors, and crowded their 

 grounds to suffocation. Some old gardeners had an antipathy to 

 noble deciduous trees, and accordingly hemmed them in with 

 Conifers, and in too many instances, I say with sorrow, they 

 succeeded in getting them removed. The memorable winter of 

 1860-61, as a matter of course, made a tolerably clean sweep of 

 these gloomy, dimly-lighted grounds. The rising generation of 

 builders expressed a wish to be nearer the sun, and in this way 

 provided the most suitable sites for the choice Coniferae. I will 

 imagine the owner of one of these elevated, and I hope, undula- 

 ing spots, now about preparing for a choice selection of Conifers, 

 really and truly a winter garden, more beautiful in winter than 

 in summer. The first step is the formation of dry easy-going 

 walks, to be finished off after the ground is drained and planted. 

 Is it wet, or in the lowest parts capable of holding water in sus- 

 pension ? If so, he must drain thoroughly, as, independently of 

 the low temperature of water-logged soils, many of the Fir and 

 Pine tribe which rejoice in a very heavy rainfall strongly resent 

 stagnant water. The nature of the soil is a matter of chance, 

 probably more than of choice. It may be a deep sandy loam, 

 it may be thin and poor, or it may be deep, heavy, and sur- 

 charged with water ; the latter must be got rid of at any cost, 

 and in each case I would strongly recommend deep uniform 

 trenching, the top soil being retained on the surface, eventually 

 to be returfed or seeded. This, in the end, is much the cheapest 

 and decidedly the best mode of preparing for planting : the open 

 glades and spaces should be left to discretion, according to the 

 plan. Heavy soils may be improved by burning with wood, and 

 by using the ashes in planting ; light soil may be broken as deep 

 as the rock will allow, and marled or dressed with good heavy 

 loam in preference to animal manure. If one can have the 

 choice of staple, a sound sustaining loam of course is to be preferred, 

 as trees grow dense and well in it, and do not get thin and 

 spidery in dry summers. Others, no matter how poor, as I have 

 remarked, may be corrected. The majority of old writers, who, 

 I suppose, have seen the Scotch Firs in Scotland, and travellers 

 who have seen the New World Conifers in their native habitats, 



