54 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
grown in shrub shape. It flowers freely every year, 
and is much admired when in this shape. A small 
plant has its leading shoot tied to a stake for a year 
or two until it sustains itself, when the shrub is 
formed or sometimes a small tree. 
* # * 
Care of Newly Planted Trees. 
It is certain that many newly planted trees are 
lost for want of a little care after being properly 
planted. The mulching of them before hot weather 
sets in is one of the best things that can be done- 
for them. Mulching consists of placing about the 
base of the trees some material, such as short grass 
or long manure, to the depth of a few inches. This 
covering keeps the soil beneath it moist and cool, 
and this is something the tree much appreciates. 
Probably one-half of the trees which linger along 
and die in summer would live were they mulched. 
It is the practice of many persons to mulch es- 
tablished trees for a tew years after planting, to aid 
them, but after roots have been made afresh and 
the tree is growing well, it is not at all important 
that it be done. Beds of shrubbery, roses and or- 
namental grasses grow much better if mulched, but 
the mulch need not be continued after the hot months 
of summer are over. 
Pruning of freshly set trees is sometimes 
neglected at the time of planting, and it is often 
not too late to do it in summer. Birch and other 
trees will often push out down the shoots, beating 
part of the top almost lifeless. Prune away all such 
half dead wood. Trees which have not pushed at 
all should be considerably shortened, to give them 
a chance to sustain what is left. But let me advise 
that if a tree pushes out a stray leaf here and there 
that these leaves be not cut away. Always try to 
preserve such few leaves. The tree that makes 
them is weak and if the twigs bearing them 
are cut away, no more will be formed, and it will 
die. But preserve the leaves, though but one on a 
limb, until the close of the season, and it will live, 
and the next season it will leaf out all right. 
Tulip Poplars and Magnolias, after attaining a 
fair size, are known to be difficult to transplant. It 
is useless to attempt to transplant them at any other 
time than spring. Even then they are not sure to 
grow. On the other hand they are hard to kill out- 
right; invariably they try to push from the base. 
If this effort be encouraged by cutting down to the 
ground those appearing doubtful of growing further 
up, in nearly all cases a shoot or shoots will form 
which will make a tree in time. When the ever- 
green Magnolia, grandiflora, is transplanted and the 
leaves are not stripped off, it rarely lives. 
When they are stripped, they have about the 
.same chance as ordinary kinds, and what has been 
said of them applies to these as well. 
The best of planters will occasionally fail to 
pound or tramp in the soil firm enough that the 
tree does not sway about. Anything of this kind 
being perceived the tree must be set straight and 
the soil pounded in tight. A tree that sways about 
cannot grow. As it is driven about by the wind, 
its fibres are torn off, and progress is stopped. 
Among evergreens pines are known as particu- 
larly hard customers to transplant. Arbor-vitaes, 
Japanese cedars, spruces and like trees can be moved 
with tolerable safety, but the line is drawn at pines. 
There are two reasons for this, these trees make 
but few fibres, nothing but a few forked roots, and 
then the foliage is out of all proportion to the roots. 
And in such sorts as the Austrian and Scotch the 
tops are so heavy that there is often no way to keep 
them erect, except by staking them in some way. 
Large evergreens may oftentimes be pruned to good 
advantage after transplanting, but in doing this do 
not cut below the live foliage, as they rarely break 
fresh shoots from old wood. 
Joseph Meehan. 
The Lady of Warwick hostel at Reading, Eng- 
land, which was opened last December, was founded 
for the purpose of enabling educated women to 
obtain a course of training in all the lighter 
branches of agriculture. The council of Reading 
college provides the necessary instruction and 
demonstrations — the grouuds of the hostel give 
ample scope for practical work. The course of 
training extends over two years, and though 
students are admitted for one year under certain 
cirsumstances the shorter term is not advocated. 
There is practical work at the British Dairy Insti- 
tute and in the hostel garden lectures on dairy 
farming and demonstrations in various gardens and 
farms. There are also visits to the cowsheds, pig- 
geries, barns, granaries and tramps over the fields 
and farms of the neighborhood. To each horticul- 
tural student a strip of ground — about a rod — is 
given, which she is taught to cultivate, digging and 
trenching to begin with, then the sowing of seeds 
in rotation. Three quarters of each plat is devoted 
to vegetables and one-quarter to flowers. Seeds 
to the value of $1.25 a year are allowed to each 
student; anything further she may provide herself. 
Each plat is numbered, and in the potting shed is 
a corresponding number under which hang the set 
of tools — also stamped and numbered— belonging 
to that particular student. As far as is possible 
everything at the hostel is made an object lesson 
for future use and everything grown is for the home 
consumption. 
