January 9, 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
277 
chimnies, or staring cottages, the trees must be fastened 
somehow, to keep them from blowing about, and sack- 
ties are far better, and nearly as cheap—in some places 
much cheaper—than long forked stakes, provided these 
forked stakes are put up as they should be, which is, 
however, not always done. 
The right way to fasten a prop, or this kind of stake, 
is to have the forked end just under a hough, or branch, 
and three of them are necessary for a heavy-topped, or 
large tree; to have the forks wadded round and round 
with haybauds, before fixing them, or to place the hay- 
band first twisted round that part of the tree where the 
props meet; but the first is the best practice. Tho 
other end of the prop, which goes into the ground, 
ought to be blunt, and to bo as firmly fixed as a gate-post. 
Instead of this, we often see a handful of loose hay, or 
straw, or moss placed in the fork of the prop, which is 
! then pushed up .against the tree, and a slit made in the 
ground with a spade, to receive the bottom end, which 
I then gets a few stamps with the foot, aud all is finished; 
I or, perhaps, for greater security (?) a cord is now run 
round the ends of tho three props where they meet 
up to the tree. Now, if there never was a puff of wind 
| stronger than one’s breath this kind of staking would 
1 do very well; but the tree would do just as well without 
it. The fork with the mouthful of hay begins to 
wriggle about with the first strong wind, it soon gets 
I loose enough to let the tree shake about, and after that 
it does as much harm as it was intended to obviate, by 
chaffing the bark, and by allowing the roots to bo 
; doubled up at every move of tho tree. The doubling of 
tho roots is by far the most serious objection to careless 
[ staking ; but as it is not seen, few people think there is 
any harm that way, if tho tree keeps upon its legs, 
i However, when this great evil is once perceived and 
j understood, the planter will appreciate the value of a 
perfect tic. That he may be able to see his danger, let 
j us put a case,—an every-day instance; a line, tall 
| evergreen, which was cut round the roots last year is 
i to be removed, or is up ready for planting; you see 
! those white fibry roots set round the hall as thick as 
| they can come forth, and from the careful lifting none 
j of them arc broken; they all stand out from the ball, 
j some two, four, or six inches long, and somo twice that 
I length ; but all of them are as soft and tender to the 
touch as the now roots of a cut-down Geranium; tho 
| tree is planted with water, that is, to get the little 
distances between the numerous roots filled with soil, 
or the sandiest part of it, water from the spout of a 
| pot is poured on as the roots are being covered with 
earth, and the water carries off tho sediment, as we may 
say, into every open space all round tho ball, and among 
the roots; every one of the soft white roots, or fibry old 
ones, lie at full length in a muddy trench when the tree 
is finished; as the water escapes, the soft earth about 
the root gets firmor and firmer every day, till, at last, it 
is as solid as a tub of Dutch butter, and as soft to the 
touch, and nearly as greasy, if the soil is good loam,—no 
condition could be more favourable for the young roots 
to extend in; but, now, mark tho consequences of bad 
staking. The first time tho wind bends the head of this 
tree to one side, the ball moves a little to one side also, 
and draws the tender roots after it; hut when the tree 
is righted again, the roots on one side are doubled up, 
for they cannot be pushed into their former position like 
the top of the tree; the next change of wind rolls the 
tree to the other side, the roots on the other side follow, 
but cannot go back as they were, and thus, bad staking 
is doing the mischief out of sight, and no one heeds it, 
till the dry winds of March reveals the truth, and the 
fault is ascribed to other causes than the true ono,—the 
crippled condition of the roots which was so promising 
at the time of planting. 
The old way of shaking a tree to this and to that side, 
or up and down, when the earth was being thrown in 
after the roots, told just in the same way ; all the small 
fibres must have been doubled over and over again, in i 
the act of filling the earth in between them; when this 
was discovered at last, the value of having the roots in 1 
their right position was seen, and filling in the soil by I 
means of the water-pots, and no shaking of the plant, ! 
were adopted, as the best means of securing the desired 
end ; yet the very same practice of displacing, and of ! 
doubling them up into bundles, has been carried down 
to this very day, by all who neglected to have their trees 
properly secured after planting them; I say to the pre¬ 
sent day, because I am not aware that the evil of bad 
staking has ever been pointed out in its effect on the 
young roots; but the thing is as clear as if it were 
visible on the surface of the ground, instead of being 
out of sight below the surface. Indeed, wo often wonder 
such and such trees could die, seeing all the pains which 
had been taken to secure good roots to them, and by the 
best planters ; but there was a hitch in tho manner of 
staking them; they rolled from side to side, some time 
or another, before the roots and earth were firm enough 
to hold against the strain, and they died and died by 
inches ; no one knowing for why ; but the why is plain 
enough now, and the smallest Gooseberry-bush we plant 
is as liable to it as the largest tree; and so with all 
plants; hence the necessity of the greatest care in fixing 
them, so that the roots are not displaced from the 
trainiug they received at the first time of planting ; and 
hence, too, the reason why I would do away with stakes 
altogether for the finer specimens, and use sack-tie 
ropes instead, on the recommendation of the coachman, 
sailor, and woodman, all in one tie. 
The treos for which this tie was recommended were 
various Hollies—green and variegated—Yews, Cypress, 
Arborvitses, Box, and others, from ten to fifteen and 
twenty feet high, full-headed, and planted without much 
shelter round them. They were transplanted last 
autumn, fixed by sack-ties, and now they have made j 
some healthy progress in new roots ; and if they die, it j 
will not be from bad fixing, for they can hardly move 
an inch at the top. They are mulched, too; and I 
would venture my head on it, that none of our readers 
could guess at the first hit with what thoy have been 
mulched. There is nothing more sure than facts; and 
ono fact is worth three proposals. If I had proposed to 
mulch trees, in general, with the same kind of mulching 
material, I should not, probably, obtain a hearing; but 
tho thing is done, and two birds lmvo been killed by j 
ono stone in the doing of it; therefore, to save fifty per j 
cent in hard times is worth more than a passing notice, j 
—it is worth remembering for future use ; but 1 must i 
tell it in my own way. 
The large clump of evergreens was planted at the j 
extreme corner of a lawn, looking from the drawing- j 
room. Tho lawn itself is as soft as velvet; the gardener | 
who kept it so for more than twenty years, is, and has 
always been, as fond of mossy lawn as your humble j 
servant, and he says, his father was even more partial 
to moss than either of us. One wise gardener, there- - 
fore, lived in the last generation, at any rate, and his 
mantle has fallen to his successor; but, liko me, he is 
now getting old, and is not so fit as he was to keep tho j 
moss and tho grass in that balance which gives tho 
velvetty touch to the lawn; in truth, the moss has boen 
gaining ahead for the last few years, till, at last, when 
you walked across it, the yield under the foot was like j 
the yielding of dry sand along the beach, and you 
slipped so much backwards at every step,—yet it was j 
very soft and agreeable should you not bo in a hurry ; 
but tho grass was getting more feeble, year after year, 
and more liable to burn in summer, when the moss 
was resting, till at last, or the last week before last 
Christmas, it was resolved on, that a sweeping change j 
