157 
PARK AND CC/nCTCRY. 
necessary. It should embrace every branch, both 
from a practical and theoretical point, that will be 
likely to come up before the incoming generation. 
^ jf: * 
We need such an institution and must have it. 
How to get it and where to establish it, is another 
question. 
The United States has already been very liberal 
in the establishment of its experimental stations and 
state agricultural colleges, and though these col- 
leges take up horticulture indirectly as one of the 
courses, still it does not serve the purpose. 
As regards our large colleges, horticulture is 
taken by some of them, but not very deeply, merely 
because sufficient money has not been left for that 
purpose, the public benefactors usually leaving 
their money for other branches, which are already 
well off. 
^ * 
Look at the amount of money being spent year- 
ly for public parks, and so forth, throughout the 
country. Why not put a little more money to such 
places, and make a grand educational institution 
out of it? 
The public could have the benefit of it just the 
same, as it could be laid out in the manner of a 
large estate, park, or botanical garden, and always 
open to the public. This would iri no way interfere 
with the work of the students. I say, always open 
to the public. Of course, some departments should 
be closed trom the public certain hours of the day 
to allow work to be done that could not be done 
with strangers about. Thus you see you would not 
only educate a limited number of students, but the 
world at large, and create a greater interest in plants 
and flowers. Special attractions or exhibitions 
should be oftered from time to time, as is the prac- 
tice at Schenley Park, and the place should become 
as famous as Kew. 
Trees. 
THE BEST SEASON FOR TREE PLANTING: — It 
does seem as if the question as to the best 
season for planting will never be settled, and it 
never can be settled by any general rule. What 
may be good for one location would be bad for 
another, although but a few miles apart. In this 
part of the world. Eastern Pennsylvania, admirable 
success is always secured by planting as early in the 
fall as possible after rains have softened the soil 
sufficiently to enable the ground to be dug into. A 
correspondent from Boston tells us that he always 
has complete success by planting in August, and he 
plants very extensively too. One would suppose 
that where the winters were very severe, and cold 
winds strong, the transplanted stock would dry out 
in the winter time. If this is the case, planting 
should be deferred until spring, — but even then 
there is this difficulty that the hot summer weather 
will follow so soon after planting that trees suffer 
from dying out in the same way. There can be no 
general rule. Every one with a little experience 
should endeavor to find out the successful practice 
of his neighbor as well as to experiment a little for 
himself. 
* 
TRANSPLANTING LARGE TREES: — Part the 
first of volume 19 of the “JmiTnal of the Royal 
Horticulture Society of England,” which has 
recently appeared, has a lengthy and elaborate arti- 
cle on the transplanting of large trees. The method 
employed is extremely costly and is in striking con- 
trast with the simplicity with which the art is prac- 
ticed in America. It is found, in this part of the 
world, that a large tree can be removed just as suc- 
cessfully as a small one, providing the same care is 
exercised to get all the roots in the large tree, as 
we would do in the case of the small one. No in- 
telligent planter now cares more about the removal of 
a large ball of earth with a big tree than a little one. 
The only care required in a comparatively small 
tree is to get all the roots possible, and this is all the 
care required for a larger one. The digging has to 
start a little farther from the trunk in the large 
trees, and that is all the difference. In a small tree 
digging may start at two feet from the trunk — in a 
larger one three feet; and four and five feet, according 
as the tree increases in size; and the ne.xt care is in 
seeing that the earth is properly packed in about 
the roots when it is transplanted, and not merely 
packed in, but pressed in and hammered in as 
tightly as possible. The writer has known trees be- 
tween two and three feet in circumference and 
twenty-five in height to be moved several miles and 
replanted all within a cost of twenty dollars; and 
the trees would subsequently thrive just as well as 
small saplings would do. — Meehans' Monthly for 
November. 
It is an unquestioned fact that public parks and 
playgrounds are one of the most important factors 
in the real, practical development of cities. Com- 
munion with nature is always elevating and the 
good done to the overworked denizens of crowded 
city streets in wandering through green pastures 
and beside still waters is incalculable. The mind 
is purified, the eye is educated, the heart delighted 
and the tired body refreshed. Innocent pleasure 
and healthful exercise are combined in a fine and 
bracing air, and it can be truly said that a park is 
the heart free beating, the lungs free breathing of 
a great city. — 0 . C. Simonds, 
