THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 21. 
374 
those in the Crystal Palace, I have never'yet seen a 
respectable crop of fruit on them. 
In the Royal Gardens, at Paris, there are a great 
number of very large Orange-trees grown in boxes and 
tubs. These are placed in opaque-roofed houses during 
winter, and that situation appears to suit such large, old 
trees; but then the summers in France are longer and 
warmer than in Britain; consequently, the fruit sets and 
ripens tolerably; but even there, a glass roof would be a 
great improvement. For though these trees, when not • 
growing, will live with less light than others that are 1 
growing, yet, even on the continent (and much more in 
Britain) they sutler by the want of light in winter, as 
may be seen by the pale colour of their leaves, and the 
great number that fall off when the trees are brought 
out of their dark abode, and exposed to the full blaze of 
daylight and sunshine. T. Appleby. 
(To be continued.) 
WOODCRAFT. 
I fear that proprietors of forest lauds and plantations 
of young trees imagine that they require no attention or 
labour during the summer months ; at least, I may 
venture to say, that in my various journeyings I scarcely 
ever see any foresters at work at this time of the year. 
This is a matter of surprise to me; I consider wood¬ 
lands, especially such as have been planted only six or 
seven years, or less, require a considerable amount of 
attention, even now. The impression of the utility, 
and even economy, of a certain amount of care and 
labour at this season is so strong on my mind, that I 
have resolved to write a short essay on the subject, and 
to make my meaning clearly understood, I shall divide 
my subject into the following heads:—• 
1st., Pruning ; 2nd, Destroying Weeds; 3rd, Fences ; 
4th, The Nursery; and 5th, Preparing ground for new 
plantations—all matters that require attention at the 
present time. 
1st, Pruning. All young woods should he pruned with 
the knife only. This is a law that should never be 
broken in well-kept plantations; hence, I strongly 
recommend going over them at least twice a year— 
once now, or perhaps a month earlier, and again in the 
winter. An active man, with a good, strong knife, will 
prune ten young trees in less time than he would prune 
one of the same trees where the branches to be pruned 
off require the bill-hook or the saw; hence, it is not 
only better to prune the trees when young, but it is, 
also, a saving in labour. The wounds made with a knife 
will heal up in a year, whilst those made with the saw 
require two or three years; and besides the exposing 
of the wounds to the air, the injury of large wounds is, 
that before they are covered with new bark a large 
patch of dead wood is gradually enclosed in the tree, 
and this dead wood greatly lowers the value of the 
timber. This is more especially the case with trees 
that have two or three or more leaders. When pruning 
is neglected for several years, either those leaders are 
reduced to one, which leaves large scars on the tree, or 
they are left merely because they are too large to be 
cut off. The tree grows up then with all its leading ! 
shoots, and when it is felled the woodman exclaims, 
“ What a pity this tree was allowed to grow with so 
many stems, or trunks! ” 
Particular attention, then, should be given, whilst 
the trees are young, to prune away every loading 
shoot, excepting one that is the most promising to 
form a clean, straight trunk. There is no time so lit 
for this particular branch of pruuing as the present. 
This should be done now, even if the mere side- 
shoots are left till the winter pruning, though they 
may bo pruned now, also, with great propriety. This 
direction of cutting all superfluous leading shoots is 
at this season more especially desirable for conifer¬ 
ous trees. The ascending sap has ceased, in a great 
measure, to flow; and, therefore, they will not suffer 
by its oozing out. Very lately, I went over a young 
plantation of Pines and Firs, for the express pur¬ 
pose of cutting out extra leaders made this year, and 
I was glad to find that they scarcely bled out of the 
wounds made with the knife at all; and this is not the 
; first time I have so pruned coniform at this season. I 
1 always found such wounds made now heal quicker than 
at any other time of the year. The descending sap is 
the active agent in healing and covering wounds made 
in pruning, and that sap always is most abundant and 
active in its functions (the forming of new wood) 
during the later months of the growing season. In 
winter, it ceases to descend, or, in other words, is dor¬ 
mant; hence, large wounds in winter are more injurious 
in winter than now; but more especially still in spring. 
This leads me to give another golden and important 
rule— Never to prune in spring, when the ascending sap 
is rising. A familiar instance of the injury of late 
pruning is well known to every cultivator of the Vine. 
If the Vine is pruned severely after the ascending sap 
is in motion, it will flow out of the vessels divided by 
the knife ; and if not stopped (a matter of great diffi¬ 
culty) the Vine will die. Now, though our forest trees, 
at least many of them, will not bleed, as I may call it, 
to such a ruinous extent, yet they will do so in ardegree, 
especially the coniferous tribes. This is the reason for 
my rule of not pruning after the ascending sap begins 
to rise. I, therefore, strongly recommend, for reasons I 
have given, which, I think, are conclusive—the pruning 
of forest trees immediately. The days are long, hence 
the workman has full time at his command ; and if the 
work will allow him to prune his trees with his knife 
only he will go over many hundreds of trees in one day; 
he will do his work comfortably, and go home satisfied 
that his day has been well spent. The owner may rest 
satisfied that his young rising woods have been pruned 
at the very best season, both as regards the health of 
the trees and the forming of them into straight, good, 
round timber at the least expense, and in the least 
possible time. 
I only wish I had the direction of a tolerable large 
young wood, to prove the soundness of the principles of 
pruning during summer and autumn instead of spring. 
T. Appleby. 
(Zb be continued.) 
NOTES FROM PARIS. 
BOIS DE BOULOGNE.—ST. CLOUD. 
Those who have not seen Paris and its environs for the 
last three or four years can have but a faint idea of the 
changes and improvements which have been effected during 
that time. The completion and embellishments of the 
Louvre are the theme of every one’s admiration; but for my 
own part, I think it is questionable if grand architectural 
monuments alone exercise so much influence on the cha¬ 
racter of a people as is generally supposed. If we look into 
| the moral condition of the Greeks or Romans, whose 
temples and statuary still form the models of all modern 
artists, we shall find much room for doubt on this point. 
Even in great Britain, at the present day, there are certain 
large towns, which, for their architecture and romantic 
beauty, are said to rival ancient Athens itself. And yet in 
these very towns it has been unmistakably proved that the 
habit of intoxication and all the accompanying vices aro 
greater than elsewhere. Fine buildings, monuments, sta¬ 
tues, and paintings, have been plentiful enough in Paris for 
generations, but the houses inhabited by the people scarcely 
admit of description for filth and squalor. But the present 
Government is working wonders every day in removing 
