of fragrant lilac flowers at the extremities of its branches, well known in the latitudes to which it is suited. Increased freely by seeds or layers.

21. SASSAFRAS, Laurus sassafras. A sweet, aromatic, and pretty tree, worthy of a place wherever ornamental shrubs are planted. Increased by layers, offshoots, or root cuttings. It can be obtained from the woods.

22. THORN, Crataegus, coccinea, pleno, Double Scarlet Hawthorn. A very delicate and pretty deep pink or scarlet flowering thorn. Increased by grafting on the common Hawthorn.

23. TULIP-TREE, Whitewood, Liriodendron tulipifera. One of the noblest and most beautiful of flowering trees, often covering itself with its green and orange blossoms. When not crowded its head forms a handsome cone, but in the woods it sometimes runs a clean column eighty feet high. Increased by hill-layers or by seeds, which seldom vegetate until the second year.

24. WILLOW, Weeping, &c., Salix Babylonica, &c. The Weeping Willow, the Golden Twigged, and the Golden Flowering Willows, and other varieties, are quite ornamental. The Osier Willows form an article of commerce. In Belgium they are sometimes so planted as to be mowed from year to year.

REMOVING ORNAMENTAL TREES, EVERGREENS, &c. Ornamental or forest trees or shrubs and evergreens very often fail to live when removed, and still oftener only just live and linger along, making but feeble growth for years. To prevent this, and secure vigor as well as life after removal, some preparation is desirable. In all well-managed nurseries this preparation is given by repeatedly transplanting trees of this class, shortening their roots from time to time, so as to limit the growth of single strong roots, and increase and concentrate fibrous ones around the collar and the short main roots proceeding from it. If we do not form a nursery, but take trees from the woods and swamps, we may meet the difficulty either by removing them in the winter with large masses of frozen earth, or by cutting clean around the trees we intend to remove two or three years before transplanting them, cutting off the

horizontal roots at such a distance as may seem judicious, and, if we find but few of these, proceed farther and open the trench, so that the downward roots may be partially or wholly cut off. Repeat and perfect the operation in the following year or years, and, if it has been skillfully performed, your tree may be removed without difficulty in the fall or spring of the third or fourth year.

If the subsoil be such that you know the roots do not go far down, as is common in swamp trees, the root-cutting may be effected by a single deep cut with a spade around the tree as directed for root-pruning, page 255.

In preparing trees for transplanting by cutting round them, or in their actual removal, it will be found a good general rule to make the diameter of the ball of earth in the proportion of one foot to one inch diameter in the stem of the tree at a foot above the collar.

In removing trees, other than evergreens, from the woods, it is of great practical importance to prune them closely at the time of transplanting, cutting away from their heads from one third to one half the weight, carefully shortening and opening them. All the climbing shrubs so transferred will be benefited by being cut down to the ground, so that the growth of the plant may be entirely new. The same is true of most varieties of bush shrubs, particularly the Azaleas, Wild Roses, and the Laurel (Kalmia), which, though an evergreen, is in this respect an exception to its class.

This process is not to be rigidly applied to those plants which we select for the sake of their stems already formed, but it will be found good for most kinds and individuals from the woods, and very often, also, nursery plants, particularly if they have been over-forced, or are transplanted when in leaf and wilt upon your hands, or from any cause are weakened before being reset. It also relieves from the necessity of seeking for handsome plants, as they will grow naturally, and therefore prettily, when, having sufficient room, they grow anew.

Evergreens appear to suffer and exhaust with the winter. Early spring is the season of their peculiar weakness, and if removed carelessly or harshly then, there is little hope of them.

They should, therefore, always either be removed in the winter, with the frozen earth about them, or be so prepared as that their fibres will hold and carry with them sufficient earth to seIt will also be found better, in general, to defer their removal until late in spring, say to the last of April or May, and sometimes even to June, or still later.

cure success.

CHAPTER XXII.

Brief Notes on Farm Crops, with Table of Quantities of Seed required per Acre.-Crop estimated by its Money Value, and by its Capacity to support Animal Life.-Table of average Product of various Farm Crops, and of their chemical Constituents.-Remarks explanatory of the Table.

BRIEF NOTES ON FARM CROPS.

QUANTITY OF SEED.

THE quantity of seed which it may be desirable or expedient to sow upon an acre varies materially with the particular kind, the state of the land, or the period of the season at which it is sown. The relative size of the seeds, say the number they will count to the peck, with the mode of plant-growth, as branching or otherwise, allowing a little for increased risk of Joss in small seeds, generally determines the first point.

Of the grains, buckwheat is usually sown thinnest, and needs to be varied only as on poor or rich land; but, contrary to the general rule with other grain, it should be sown thicker on rich land than poor, for the reason that it will otherwise branch considerably, and be difficult to cradle without loss; while, being more thinly sown on poor land, it will still yield as much as the soil is capable of producing. Winter grain sown early, or at least seasonably, may be sown thinner on rich land than on poor, because on the former it will grow and branch vigorously, and it is plain that one bushel of seed, giving two ears from a plant, is equal to two bushels giving only one ear; but on poor land the plant will not branch much, and it is therefore desirable to increase somewhat the quantity of seed sown. Very late-sown winter grain, and all spring-sown grains, often lack opportunity to branch and strengthen before they are driven up to seed by the prompt warmth of the opening spring, and on this account they should be sown more thickly than might otherwise be necessary, due allowance, however, being still made for the different condition of the land on which they may be sown.

In respect to grasses, there is an advantage in thick sowing; this is not found in a materially increased burden of grass in favorable circumstances, but in the promptitude with which the young plants preoccupy the whole ground and prevent the growth of weeds, which, in thin sowing, would be apt to dispute possession. In this view of the matter, the fact that half the young grass-plants are afterward smothered by those which take the lead in growth is entirely unimportant.

From what has been said above, the following table will be understood as embodying suggestions rather than rules in reference to this subject. For manner of sowing, see page 82.

For seeding down grass-plot or lawn, a mixture of grass seeds should be used, say equal parts by weight of Red-top and Blue Grass, adding White Clover in the proportion of one sixth of the whole, and half as much Sweet Vernal Grass as Clover. If the land be wet, Timothy may be substituted for the Blue Grass in part or wholly. The grass upon a plot or lawn should never be suffered to go to seed, but should be regularly and closely mowed when from four to six inches high, or even while still shorter.

TABLE OF QUANTITIES OF SEEDS, ETC., REQUIRED TO SOW OR PLANT AN ACRE.