I 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
201 
January 5. 
i t.o see that the branches ave not crowded in any part of 
the head; and the third step, that of cutting away the 
lowest tier should never be taken until the second step, 
that of thinning the head, was accomplished; therefore, 
when we know that too much pruning at one time hurts a 
tree, if the necessary thinning happens to require more 
than the value of two bottom tiers to be removed, the 
third step should not take place at all that season. A 
tree taken thus early should be so managed, to the last 
day of its life, as that no branch need be cut from the 
main trunk of more than one inch in diameter. A 
wound made by such a cut will be healed over by new 
wood the first season, and leave no blemish in the wood. 
1 never yet spoke to a man about the necessity of 
stopping a branch that was stronger than its fellows, 
who could not understand the reason in one minute, 
i Wo all agree that there must be a leader in parties, 
creeds, and kingdoms, as well as in trees; and when 
I another tries to get the upper hand things go wrong 
and out of joint, and we stop him; but there is not one 
in ten who understands the reason for thinning the 
head of a tree before the pruning for straight timber 
begins. It is not every one who knows the use and 
value of leaves that can understand how it is that leaves 
can bo useless, or injurious ; but they can be both ; 
j part of the things which go to make timber, or fruit, go 
1 also to make leaves; but unless leaves are allowed full 
exposure to the light they are of no use to the tree; 
i and what goes to make an useless leaf is an useless 
expenditure, and therefore an injury so far. So much 
j for the first three steps in pruning, aud now to conclude 
—Who will take me to task about saying that pruning 
does not “ add an inch or an ounce" to the length or 
weight of a timber tree ? Here is a fine chance for 
some of our young readers, in one of the easiest and 
simplest kind of writing, namely, hard criticism; the 
harder the better, if it is courteous. 1). Beaton. 
DISAPPOINTMENTS IN WINDOW-GARDENING. 
“Our window is all our domain; no terra Jirma 
belongs to us, unless that which is situated there, but 
the small quantity of earth contained in boxes and 
flower-pots is as dear to us as the soil in the boots of 
the Barons of olden time, when at the coronation of a 
king they could severally boast that each rendered 
homage standing upon his own soil; aud yet how 
careless you are of us, never telling us when the frost 
would come, or giving us full information, except in far 
back volumes, how to act. And there now, my soil in 
pots is pressed hard as a brick ; and the plants on which 
I took so much pains are past redemption. Alack a 
day! what shall I do?” In a market town, where 
there are some nice little gardens, where the windows 
during the spring and summer months are well stocked 
with flowering-plants, and this holding good, not only 
as respects the middle classes, but applying equally to 
the homes of the mechanics, and not a few of the more 
j unskilled labourers; a nurseryman told me—and his 
i manner betokened that he had not a spark of a notion 
that ever I put words on paper — “these scribbling 
fellows that let out all the secrets about this plant and 
that plant are really the best friends to us; for do you 
see, they make such commonish things look so grand, 
that ladies ask their gardeners if they have got such a 
thing, and forthwith we get an order ; and others, who 
have a man so many days a-week, resolve upon being 
economical, because these writing men tell them how 
easily such and such things can be kept over the winter, 
and they propagate wholesale, and give a good order for 
pots, aud all goes merry as a marriage bell, until some 
i day or night, when the good jobbing-man, who could 
not be in two places at once, is out of the way, the 
plants are freezed, and as they will not be beat, 1 have, 
in all such cases of ordering of pots in autumn, felt half 
assured of receiving an order for plants in spring, and 
then, Sir, almost all our better-to-do sort of people, who 
make a pride of keeping their plants in windows over the 
season, meet with so many accidents, from a little want 
of thought and attention at the right time, that they 
readily give us a sum for a few nice plants, which they 
would not be inclined to do had they not known some¬ 
thing practically of the labour and attention that were 
requisite to keep the plants healthy.” Now, if our friend 
has no other resources, wo think we can here point to 
one remedy for his grievance, namely—the nearest re¬ 
spectable nurseryman. 
A learned man wo lately heard preach, said—“ If 
you ask me what the morrow will be at this time, 1 
reply, 1 do not know; wait till then, aud I will tell you.” 
Now, to some extent, the same answer applies to our 
friend, as to telling him what the weather should be in 
our uncertain climate. Wo can only give general rules 
in such matters. The reducing of a general principle 
to particular cases must be left entirely to the judgment 
and forethought of the parties concerned. We can never 
supply mere continued observation, and the deducing of 
inferences from it, as to what the weather will be. 
Without, however, waiting, like the learned Doctor, we 
can, from certain circumstances, such as the direction of 
the wind, the absence or presence of clouds, the state of 
the thermometer and barometer, judge pretty accurately 
what the weather is likely to be for short intervals of 
time. For instance, last Monday evening, though it 
was freezing fast, I predicted, from the presence of large 
fleecy clouds, that it would be milder before morning; 
and the following morning and day were, for the season, 
rather warm. These matters, however, were entered 
into rather fully some time ago. They are worthy of 
the study, not merely of our friends the amateurs, but, 
in these economical days of the practical gardener. 
Just think how much might be saved in fuel did the 
furnace-man keep his eye on the sky, the wind, and the 
thermometer in the shade alone: there would be less 
irregularity in houses, less overheating of them, less 
waste of fuel, by sending in dampers and opening the 
furnace doors that the valuable beat may be spent on 
the external air, because it would be injurious to admit 
it into the house. I passed such a furnace at night not 
so long ago, and the able gardener, under whose super¬ 
intendence the place was, said nothing could be more 
vexing, as the waste thus occasioned, in districts where 
coal had to be driven long distances. He added, “ I 
have more bother with this than anything else.” A 
young gardener once showed me a letter he intended 
sending to a periodical, showing the importance of 
noting the outside thermometer in the management ol 
houses; and I said, “ It i3 very well, but surely such an 
article could not be needed—I myself had been so 
accustomed, when a furnace-man, to look to the, glass 
before I went into a house, or touched a fire.” He 
assured me that in a large establishment he never saw 
it done; and I can partly believe it, as I have long 
found that in the case of young men attending houses 
it requires some scores of questions as to the condition 
of the outside thermometer in a winter’s evening,,,betore 
any other answer can be got than “I dont know, or “I 
forgot to look.” Now, in these competing days it re¬ 
quires no prophecy to foretel that such easy-going 
unobservant persons stand a good chance not to be 
loolced at but forgotten. 
“ I have had a handsome bow sash made for my 
window, retaining the common sash as before, there 
being nothingdifterentfrom a window with double sashes, 
farther than that the outside one projected more than 
ordinary, and in the space between I have kept my 
