October 17. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
43 
no\v-a-days, that the generality of young men imagine 
that they can learn the science and art of gardening 
during work hours only. As soon as the day’s work is 
done they dress and go out into company, and waste the 
precious hours at least idly (if not worse), which ought 
to be devoted to study and improvement. This is a great 
mistake. No young gardener ever can attain the 
eminence the worthies mentioned above have achieved, 
who thus wastes the precious hours of youth in dis¬ 
sipation and folly. Gardening is a science that must 
be studied with all the powers of the mind, and the 
period for that study is from the first entrance into 
the garden, till a sufficient knowledge of gardening is 
obtained to render the student master of his business in 
all its branches. This is no easy task; and to acquire it, 
a division, or portion, of time must be set apart, and 
most perseveringly adhered to. 
I suppose the youth to have received at school some 
knowledge of reading, writing, and common arithmetic, 
and, perhaps, a slight acquaintance with grammar. 
These are a good foundation to work upon, provided he 
resolves to improve them, and acquire other branches of 
knowledge by his own industry. The grand source of 
all learning is books; but to make them beneficial they 
must be read and studied. Botanical and horticultural 
works will, of course, form a large portion of his reading. 
The division of time for improvement will be, one 
night in the week for reading; one for drawing; one 
for arithmetic, geometry, and land surveying; one for 
studying botany, chemistry; and one for preparing an 
herbarium of plants and a collection of insects; and the 
last for studying a foreign language. On each of these 
heads I will dilate more fully in my next. 
T. AprLEBY. 
(To be continued .) 
WOODS AND FORESTS. 
THE ASH. 
Having written several papers on the culture of the 
Oak, and having, as I think, pretty fairly exhausted the 
subject, I now beg leave to introduce our next best 
native timber, The Ash, for consideration. 
The Ash is a tree that, in favourable situations, rises 
to the height of from seventy to eighty feet. If majesty 
is the characteristic of the Oak, 1 may claim for the 
Asli elegance as its character. The stem is generally 
straighter and slenderer than the Oak; the bark is of a 
silvery-grey hue, and the foliage is pinnate ; a term our 
Fern readers will well understand. The colour of the 
leaves is a lighter green than its majestic compeer, 
though more tender. It has been remarked, that the 
Ash, of all our native trees, comes last into leaf, and 
falls the first in the autumn. Often has the idea struck 
me very forcibly, that the Oak l'esembles a sturdy, 
strong, powerful man, and the Ash a slender, elastic, 
graceful woman; the one, bold, uncompromising, braving 
the early and latter storm; the other, modest, retiring, 
and delicate, fearful of the frosts of spring, and nipping 
cold of the autumn blast. I know this is but a fanciful 
idea, yet I think it has some truth in it; at least, it 
always pleased me in meditating on the different habits 
of the denizens of the forest. 
The Ash, like the Oak, will not thrive well on a high 
elevation. Indeed, the timber, in such situations, small 
though it be, is not by any means so valuable even in 
proportion to its size. In such a situation the wood is 
brittle; just the opposite quality for which the Ash is 
used and valued. The best Ash timber is valued in 
proportion to its toughness, being used for carriage 
shafts, where that quality is indispensable. This being 
so, it follows, as a matter of course, that the proper 
situation for this tree is one that is neither too low, 
(for it will not thrive in wet boggy land), nor yet too 
high, where it cannot grow quickly. The soil it thrives 
best in is of a deep loamy nature, such as we often find 
in dry valleys; such soil is formed by the continual 
washing down by heavy rains from tbe mountain side. 
In such a soil and situation the Ash will thrive, and 
sooner make a timber tree even than the Oak. If Ash 
timber was as high in price as Oak, it would be the 
more profitable tree to plant, because of its more rapid 
growth, and that quick growth, instead of rendering 
it softer in grain, and more rapid in decaying, adds to ■ 
its value, because it is more elastic aud tough; the two 
things that the Ash is valued for. 
It should always be planted in masses, aud never in 
hedgerows, because its roots run on the surface, and 
impoverish all vegetation as far as they reach. I have 
heard farmers say, that the worst tree in their hedges is 
the Ash, for nothing will grow under its shade. As 
this tree has numerous fibrous roots, it may be planted 
when of a considerable size; but I think the most 
profitable size is from two to three feet; smaller trees 
are liable to be choked with weeds, brambles, &c., and 
larger ones are so much longer in recovering the 
removal, that there is nothing gained by their extra 
height at the time of planting. 
The ground should always be duly prepared previous 
to planting. If it is wet it should be deep-drained. I 
recommended, in the Oak plantation, that the drains 
should be open ones, because the roots of the trees soon 
choke up covered drains. If that be true of the Oak, 
it is still more so in the case of the Ash, because the 
roots of the latter tree are more numerous and spreading. 
I lay much stress upon the necessity of draining for 
the Ash as well as the Oak; for I have seen them, in 
the course of my planting experience, planted in wet 
land, and in seven years they had not grown as many 
inches. Such a wood fell once under my management; 
I had deep drains cut and left open, and the year 
following the Ashes grew a foot or more, and the year 
after from two to three feet, and, as the saying is, they 
never looked behind them. If there are two feet of dry 
soil before water is found, then draining is unnecessary. 
Wherever it is possible, I strongly recommend the 
ground to be trenched, or, at least, deeply dug the 
summer before the planting is done. The trees grow 
then right away, and at least two years are gained by 
the loosening and cleaning process of trenching, or 
digging, thus amply covering the expense. 
The best season for planting is immediately after the 
first frosts have caused the leaves to fall, which gene- j 
rally happens towards the middle of November; and, as 
1 remarked above, the Ash has many fibrous roots, in 
planting them, the roots should be spread well out on 
every side; hence, the holes should be opened wide to 
receive them, wide enough to allow every root to be 
spread out to the fullest extent. They should then be ! 
covered in about two or three inches deep, and the finer I 
parts of the soil thrown upon them and firmly trodden 
down. For the size 1 recommend (two to three feet), I 
there is no necessity for stakes, if they are properly 
planted and well trodden in. With regard to tbe dis¬ 
tance between each tree, four feet should be allowed 
every way. If the plantation is a large one, aud no ob¬ 
jection to a regular plan, I would plant the trees in 
rows; and then, in order to cover the expense of drain¬ 
ing, cost of trees, and planting, a crop of some kind or 
other might be, without any damage to the trees, planted, 
or sown, between the rows. The hoeing and cleaning 
of this crop would greatly benefit the trees : perhaps the 
best vegetable to grow between them would be Potatoes, 
and the next Mangold Wurtzel. I have, at this moment, 
the latter vegetable growing between rows of trees, and 
I find it does no injury to them, but, on the contrary, 
