December 20. 
THE COTTAGE G A HUE NEK. 
211 
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I 
great power, the condensed drops from the glass and 
sash-bars would bo falling all over the house, and the 
only mode of getting rid of them was to insure a suffi¬ 
ciency of heat to enable us to give air, and thus allow 
the saturated air to escape. When the sun heated the 
glass, it acted no longer as a condensing medium. Air, 
therefore, and light, whenever they can bo given with 
safety, are the great means of freedom from the evils of 
which our correspondent complains. I have mentioned 
an extreme case where air may be given, where the glass 
was not uncovered. In dull weather, with the outside 
temperature above 40°, it may be given somewhat freely, 
if not loaded with mist. 
In frosty weather, that is, though hot in the sun it is 
next to freezing in the shade, it should be given with 
caution, that is, merely elevating the top of the sashes 
a little, and care being taken to shut up early after 
noon. Though thus the enclosed space be raised in 
temperature 5° or 10°, there is no danger of sickly 
elongation, or the healthy action of fungous vegetation 
from the increased temperature that comes from sun¬ 
light. A variety of statements similar to that of our cor¬ 
respondent, making this matter appear as a stumbling- 
stone, must plead as an apology for the length of these 
remarks, and the neglect of other matters 1 intended to 
notice. II- Fish. 
THE WOODS AND FORESTS. 
(Continued from page 210.) 
What a glorious sight it would be to see a part of our 
redundant population at work on the waste lands ot 
England, Ireland, and Scotland, draining, levelling, and 
otherwise preparing the wilderness for the reception of 
youug trees hereafter to produce timber for the genera¬ 
tions that are to come after us! Our countrymen ot the 
poorer classes, many of whom are now, even with all 
our trades and commerce, driven to seek bread in foreign 
countries, would rather, much rather, seek work on the 
moors, hills, and mountains ot our happy, quiet, sate 
land, if such works as reclaiming waste soils were forth¬ 
with proceeded with and known to be in progress. 
Many inhabitants of large towns and manufacturing 
districts imagine that all our able-bodied poor are, or 
may be, in full employment; but such is not the case, 
as I can prove, in a small degree, by my own experience; 
for, since I began to break up my ground tor nursery 
purposes I have had numbers of able-bodied men 
applying to me for work almost daily. Men strong in 
sinew, and willing to labour even for the small sum of 
12s. per week; and I am quite confident, were it made 
known that Government, or large proprietors, were about 
to try to make the wilderness to smile by planting it 
with trees, they would have plenty of strong labourers 
applying for leave to work at very moderate wages at 
such labour. 
These remarks about labourers are not out of place, 
for without them no improvement can be accomplished 
in our woods, forests, or wide-spreading, desolate, naked 
moors. It has been suggested, and 1 believe, in some 
degree, acted upon, that our unhappy convicts might 
be employed in such work, rather than send them away 
to a penal settlement; but no true-hearted Englishman 
would like to see his fellow-countrymen that have 
transgressed the laws employed in that work that ought 
to be given to the honest hard-working labourer, striving 
to provide his family with their daily bread by the work 
of his hands. Give such men employment, and remove 
poverty from them, with all its ^temptations to crime, 
and that will lessen the numbers of the offenders_against 
the laws. 
1 shall first bring into consideration how to manage 
and improve existing woods, and then how to plant and 
manage new ones. 
A well-managed wood, of course, needs no remark; it is 
such as have been planted and utterly neglected after¬ 
wards tlint need improvement. The great evil in most 
woods is the negloct of pruning and thinning. On these 
two heads I shall dilate a little. 
A great mistake is often made in planting in good 
ground by putting in the trees too thick, and by planting 
the wrong kinds of trees as nurses. If the ground is 
tolerably good and well drained, then plant Oak or Ash, 
or the Silver Fir, with Hazels for underwood. The first 
to be the crop, and the other the nurses, to be cut down 
when they begin to draw up the Oak. The pruning of 
them all should commence the second or third year. 
The knife is then the instrument strong enough for the 
purpose Wounds made with it soon heal, and are 
covered over with new bark, so that the timber, when 
sawn up into boards, will be free from knots. Cut off 
1 the side branches close to the stem, from two to three 
feet from the bottom. Especially pay attention to tbe 
trees intended to stand for timber; the others may be 
pruned less carefully. 
I As soon as the nurse, or superfluous trees, begin to 
encroach upon the timber trees, cut every second one 
down, they will be fit for, atleast, stakesor bind wood, and 
will pay for the labour. The others may remain three 
years longer, and then remove every second one again. 
If they have grown well, as they will do in good ground, 
they wili then be fit for rails, as well as the thin tops for 
stakes ; and by this time the uuderwood should have a 
dressing by severe thinning. The great object to aim 
at being to have a sufficient number of trees growing 
for a certain number of years to shelter the permanent 
trees, and rather draw them up, so as to have clear, 
straight stems, or boles, as the woodmen term them. 
The pruning should be attended to yearly, removing a 
tier of branches every season. The time for pruning 
the hard-wooded timber, such as the Oak, Ash, or Elm, 
i should be just before the spring-growth commences, 
after the sap has risen; then the wounds more quickly 
j heal. The Fir tribe should be pruned in the autumn, so 
that the cuts may heal up before the spring. As the 
trees become large the pruning may be dispensed with, 
the object having been attained, namely, a clean, straight 
stem, some forty or fifty feet high. The trees should 
have sufficient space for the head of branches to spread 
out over and cover a space ot ground at least from 
twenty five to thirty feet diameter, and each tree should 
stand clear of its neighbours. No branches should be 
allowed to project beyond their fellows, but every side 
should be equally furnished, so as to balance the tree 
against the wind from every quarter. So far, we may 
consider pruning to have done its work from the infancy 
to the full maturity of the timber tree. 
In my next, I will consider what pruning ought to 
have done to trees that have never been pruned or 
otherwise. T. Appleby. 
THE IRIS. 
(Continued from page 220.) 
Iris Favonia. —(The Peacock Iris.) This species re¬ 
quires the greenhouse to grow it in. It is a dwarf¬ 
growing plant, seldom exceeding nine inches in height. 
The flowers are produced on short footstalks, and the 
prevailing colour is a most lovely blue, contrasted with 
a pure white eye. I know no plant with more bright 
and pleasing colours. Though so beautiful, it is not 
often seen in cultivation; a circumstance I cannot 
account for, excepting that it is a bulb, and for nine 
months in the year either dormant, or producing such 
small foliage that it is neglected and perishes. I think 
