House and Garden 
dendrons, azaleas, andromedas, etc., are 
usually transplanted with balls of earth 
and do not need much pruning, but 
where it is needful it won’t hurt them. 
The annual pruning is a most important 
part of the care of shrubbery, and the 
point most difficult to give instruction on 
by written directions. It is an art which 
must be learned by practice and observa¬ 
tion. The general rule to trim early 
bloomers as soon as they are through 
flowering, and midsummer or late 
bloomers in winter, contains a sugges¬ 
tion, but the indiscriminate cutting back 
of every shrub every year is a great mis¬ 
take. When a shrub seems weak and 
needs strengthening, cut out declining 
shoots and apply manure around it. 
When one is too vigorous and rampant, 
remove or shorten superfluous shoots to 
reduce to symmetry, with as little mutila¬ 
tion as possible. When one has become 
overgrown and dilapidated in appear¬ 
ance, cut back a part, or perhaps all of its 
unsightly stems severely—probably at 
the ground—and allow new shoots to 
restore the beauty and vigor of youth. 
The only way to learn the art of trim¬ 
ming shrubbery is by observation and 
practice and the exercise of gumption. 
A safe, general rule is that, whenever you 
see a twig or branch which needs re¬ 
moving, cut it oft' on sight, regardless of 
time of year or other conditions; and 
when you don’t see anything that needs 
removal, don’t prune it, regardless of 
rule or custom; and for a negative rule, 
never shear a shrub with a hedge shears. 
The shearing of lawn shrubs into bald 
pates, suggestive of convicts or sheared 
sheep, displays ignorance of plants and 
depravity of taste. To the last general 
rule 1 make exception for topiary garden¬ 
ing, but the creation and care of topiary 
gardens and of formal specimens is a 
special art for which all of the above sug¬ 
gestions would have to be modified. 
If my feeble sentences may be sug¬ 
gestive of useful afterthoughts in your 
minds and m mine, they will have ac¬ 
complished all that I can hope for them. 
THE LAST OF THE QUINTAINS 
/V CURIOUS clause, taking one 
right back to the Middle Ages, 
appears in the title deeds of a house 
which was recently sold in the village of 
Offham, m Kent. Scheduled as part of 
the messuages, lands, hereditaments, 
and premises,” is the village quintain, 
III. 
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