One of our nurserymen recently complained to the writer, of those people who continually wrote to his firm for advice. " Please send me -, and at the same time tell me how to treat them," is a sample of numerous requests. The profit on the whole transaction might be but a dollar or two. Only for the request, the order would be turned over to the proper clerk, and the proprietor could turn his attention to profitable work. But a clerk cannot answer such a letter. The proprietor must do it himself if it is done at all. He is a little nettled at the demand on his time which really renders the order valueless; but he remembers the business maxim that civility always pays in the end, and with the mental wish that the old fellow had sent his query to the Editor of the Gardeners' Monthly instead of imposing on him, he sits down to his half-hour task, and as the letter goes into the post box, blandly smiles as he thinks of the many golden pieces his sacrifice of all profit will next year bring.

Next spring the well remembered handwriting comes. Eagerly the envelope is torn apart, but in dismay he reads : " Not one of those - came to anything. As I followed exactly your instructions it proves the - were good for nothing, so I shall expect you to make them good to me without cost." He was at a loss to know whether he lost more by civility than he would by letting the customer go on the just-as-he-like plan. We cannot tell him; but this we do know, from experience in these chapters, that it is almost useless to teach a man gardening by rule or note, when he has not common sense to go along with the instruction. Not long since a gentleman wrote, " my gardener, to whom I showed your 'Seasonable Hints,' says what you say about planting trees has been the cause of his great failure last year. He had not the year before been very successful in the trees I purchased. He pressed the earth in very carefully about the roots, but fully one-third died. I bought a hundred extra-fine evergreens of a nurseryman, and paid an extra price for some that had been several times transplanted. They had roots like moss. I never saw such a mass of fibres.

I gave him your magazine and showed him where you said, hammer the earth in as tightly about the roots as you would a post; unless the earth is packed in tightly so that every root can touch the soil, the root might as well not be there. He replied that it was, in his expression,' tarnal nonsense,guess he knowed how to plant a tree.' But remembering his failure the year before, I insisted; but sure enough, over half died, and the balance lived but a sickly life through the whole summer." It so happened in the course of his travels the writer of this happened near to the residence of the writer of the letter, and had one of the trees taken carefully out. Sure enough the earth had been rammed in hard enough over the roots. But it was over the roots and that was all. There was none in and about the roots. The very matted condition of the roots was against the earth getting in and about them. The pounded earth had formed an arch over the mass of roots and not a particle of earth was through them. Not one in a hundred of the fibres were in contact with the earth, and of course they all dried up.

If the trees had a few prong-like roots the mere pounding would have been enough to get the earth tightly about them; but when a tree has a mass of fibres, the man with a little sense lifts the tree gently up and down, so that the loose light earth may fall into every crevice, even assisting it with his fingers or a fine stick; and then, after he has the earth surely in and around every root, he pounds it down as firmly as possible, in order that the earth may be tightly about the roots. The fact is, the advice we gave was not followed, and it is generally so in the cases to which we have referred. We do not know that we can give a more seasonable hint than this in planting trees: The first and essential point is, to get plenty of roots, and then to see that the earth is not only put into every crevice among the mass but that it be pressed and hammered in as tightly as possible.

Wherever any part of a tree does not grow freely, pruning of such weak growth, at this season, will induce it to push more freely next year. All scars made by pruning off large branches, should be painted or tarred over, to keep out the rain. Many fine trees become hollow, or fall into premature decay, from the rain penetrating through old saw cuts made in pruning. Also the branches should be cut close to the trunk, so that no dead stumps shall be produced on the tree, and bark will readily, grow over. Many persons cut off branches of trees in midsummer, in order that the returning sap may speedily clothe the wound with new bark; but the loss of much foliage in summer injures the tree, and besides, painting the scar removes all danger of rotting at the wound.

Some judgment is required in pruning flowering shrubs, roses, etc., although it is usual to act as if it were one of the most common place operations. One of the most clumsy of the hands is commonly set to work with a pair of shears, and he goes through the whole place, clipping off everything indiscriminately. Distinction should be made between those flowering shrubs that make a vigorous growth, and those which grow weakly; and between those which flower on the old wood of last year, and those which flower on the new growth of next season, as the effect of pruning is to force a strong and vigorous growth. Those specimens that already grow too strong to flower well, should be only lightly pruned; and, in the same individual, the weakest shoots should be cut in more severely than the stronger ones. Some things like the Mock Oranges, Lilacs and others, flower on the wood of last year - to prune these much now, therefore, destroys the flowering; while such as Altheas, which flower on the young wood, cannot be too severely cut in, looking to that object alone.