Alexandria Gazette

Miscellaneous.

TREES AND SHRUBBERY.—This is the season chosen for transplanting trees and shrubbery. It is apparent that there is a commendable and increasing desire to adorn gardens, court yards and lawns, in the vicinity of the city, with ornamental trees and beautiful flowering shrubbery.

As many of our citizens, who wish to ornament their grounds in this way, have had but little experience, I would say a few words upon the subject and give some rules which, if followed, would lead to fewer disappointments, and have a tendency to encourage still greater efforts in this delightful employment.

Large quantities of fruit and ornamental trees, and shrubbery, are offered for sale at auction, at this season, including frequently extensive assortments which have been imported from France and England. A large proportion of all the trees sold at auction have been so long out of the ground, and so much exposed, that there is but little chance for them to live. I noticed a few days since, a large lot of handsome ornamental trees lying in Broad street, in front of an auction store, with the roots entirely bare and exposed to the drying wind and sun; these trees had evidently been cultivated with care, but for want of proper care after they were taken from the ground not one in four will live.

Let the following rules be observed by those who wish their trees to live and grow, for trees will frequently live which have been so much injured in transplanting that their growth will be so slow as to be hardly perceptible for years.

Let the ground where trees are to be planted be prepared before the trees are taken up. Go directly to the nursery, or send a competent gardener, and attend to the digging up of the trees; this is the more important as at this season all go or send for trees at once, and the nursery men are under the necessity of employing common laborers, who are wholly ignorant of the proper method of taking trees from the ground.

As soon as the tree is taken up, let the roots be covered, and the tree be placed in the shade; then have them removed with care and put into the ground as soon as possible. Keep constantly in mind that a dry March or April wind is as injurious to the delicate fibrous roots as the sun.

Let a large hole be dug, not deep, to receive the roots, and have plenty of fine rich garden mould placed carefully about the roots; if the ground is dry, put in a few pails of water.

If the tree has a large top give it sufficient support to keep it steady, but do not adopt the common error of cutting off the top, except so much as may be necessary to give it a handsome shape.

If the season is dry, large trees should be watered occasionally the first Summer.

To those who live in the country and wish to plant out trees in their lawns, I would say, select generally what are termed forest trees, but not to be taken from the forests. It is only trees from open pastures which have been exposed to the sun and wind while growing, that are suitable for transplanting.

When you find a handsome elm or maple, with a good top, do not reject it because it is large. I have planted dozens of trees from six to ten inches in diameter, and thirty to forty feet high; but such trees, and indeed forest trees generally, should be transplanted in the fall and be well supported by good props. By adopting these rules trees of that size will live and grow, nine out of ten, and one such tree is worth twenty of the size usually planted.

W.