JANUARY. 
5 
careful management, would yield a much more profitable return of fruit 
than would be obtained from three trees crowded into the same space. It 
may not be so immediately profitable, it is true; but this, if an evil, is one 
which will soon cure itself, and the healthy free-growing tree will be much 
longer-lived, and more generally productive, so that in the long-run it will 
completely distance even more competitors than three. 
It is astonishing to what an extent a well-situated Apricot tree will 
develope itself when there is ample room for it both above and below; it is 
certainly rather unmanageable for a few years, but is none the worse for 
that, for with judicious management it soon settles down, as it were, to its 
work, and then it appears to revel in growth and fruit-bearing; the fruit, 
too, from such a tree is large and finely grown, in one place thrusting 
itself out into the full rays of the sun, and in another hiding itself in 
great abundance beneath the luxuriant foliage in a manner most pleasant 
to behold, and showing forth how much a bountiful Providence will enable 
it to produce for our benefit when our treatment is more assimilated to 
the natural tendencies of the tree, instead of shutting it up within a cer¬ 
tain space, and saying, “ Thus far must thou go, but no farther.” I do not for 
a moment deny the absolute necessity there is in many places for following 
out the restrictive system of culture, but I think it may be carried too far, 
and that we shall be apt to lose sight of the many advantages attendant 
upon a more free and natural development; and although, by constantly 
checking and curbing the endeavours of the tree to extend its growth we 
obtain more immediate returns of fruit, we do so at the expense of the real 
strength of the tree, and in the course of time the want of stamina will tell; 
and when exhaustion induces decay, and a consequent necessity for reno¬ 
vation, our healthy, well-developed tree will still be pouring forth its in¬ 
creasingly abundant produce, and, I have no hesitation in asserting, would 
see out more than one generation of trees confined to a space barely sufficient 
for vegetation, let alone a free development. 
Redleaf . John Cox. 
ON CONIFERS. 
As ornamental trees, Conifers are peculiarly valuable for the verdure of* 
their foliage, which, unchanged by the severity of the seasons, is beautiful 
at all periods, and especially so in winter; for the great variety of outline 
and form which many of them assume when fully grown; and for the 
shelter they afford in cold, exposed situations. During three or four 
months, when the landscape is bleak, these beautiful trees give an ap¬ 
pearance of verdure and life to the scene, which robs winter of half its 
dreariness. Though a taste for Conifers is spreading silently through the 
country, it is not advancing with anything like the rapidity which they 
deserve. 
The earlier planters of Conifers fell into great mistakes by planting them 
in low, confined, sheltered situations, and too closely together. It was cus¬ 
tomary to form a pinetum, and, as a matter of course, as many kinds as 
possible were got together. It was no wonder, then, that many of these trees, 
natives of the mountainous regions of the old and new world, should in 
such situations be drawn up weakly and tender, that the growth should be 
soft and unripened for want of a free circulation of air, and that they 
should suffer severely from the frosts of winter. I have little hesitation in 
