The matter of when to plant is often a puzzling question to the amateur; and to give one answer which will apply to all species and localities is obviously impossible. Spring is commonly considered the best season, for the reason that plants set out at that time have abundant opportunity to become well established in the ground before the following winter. The planting-season may extend from the earliest time at which the ground is free from frost until, perhaps, the first of June. The later period, however, requires the use of plants that have been kept dormant, as it is ordinarily unsafe to move them after they have leaved out to any extent. Their becoming established is a matter of renewing root-growth that has been disturbed by transplanting, and this fact has led the author to the belief that early fall planting may be employed equally advantageously. It has been his experience that root-growth continues after the leaves have performed their functions and have commenced to drop off. Transplanted at this semi-dormant period, the plant becomes sufficiently well established to endure the ensuing winter, and is in a position to take advantage of the earliest spring warmth, and to make vigorous growth the following summer. This fall planting-season lasts (in the vicinity of New York and Boston) from about the first week of September until the ground is frozen.

When transplanted in the fall, trees and plants of a more tender nature should be protected against drying winds and severe cold. This protection should usually not be applied until after the ground is frozen to a depth of two or three inches. Individual trees and shrubs may be wrapped with straw, burlap, or evergreen boughs; and it is well to first strengthen the plant with a strong pole inserted firmly in the ground. Groups of Rhododendrons or deciduous shrubs of questionable hardiness may be protected by inserting evergreen boughs thickly among them; these should be somewhat taller than the plants themselves. Herbaceous perennials may be given a light mulch with hay, straw, leaves or coarse, strawy manure; but they must not be covered until after the ground is frozen at least two inches deep, and the mulch must not be so thick and heavy as to hold excessive moisture and rot the plants.

After the ground has been prepared by digging to a depth of eight to twelve inches, working in plenty of well-rotted stable manure, and grading carefully, individual holes should be dug for the trees, shrubs or plants. These must be large enough to allow the roots to be spread naturally, and deep enough to set the plant somewhat deeper than before transplanting. Perennials should be about an inch, shrubs two or three inches, and trees three or four inches deeper. Good loam, free from lumps and coarse manure, should be worked in among the roots, and carefully compacted. Individual trees, particularly such as are planted on lawns and avenues, may be benefited by leaving around them a circle of two or three feet, kept open by cultivation, until they become well established. Care must be taken, however, that no basin be left to gather water and allow ice to form about the trunk in winter.

It is difficult to state a definite rule for the spacing of plants, as the distance varies according to the species and the effect desired. In general, it may be said that where a dense growth is desired, as in borders and screens, shrubs which attain a height of from six to eight feet should be set from three to three and a half feet apart; those growing from two to four feet high should be set from two and a half to three feet apart. Herbaceous perennials should be spaced about as follows. Plants attaining a height of four to eight inches, and not trailing, eight inches apart; those growing twelve to eighteen inches high, one foot apart; coarse plants, growing two feet high and over, one and a half to two feet apart. These distances, however, are dependent upon the bushiness or spread of the plants; hollyhocks, for instance, which grow more than five feet tall, should be planted as near together as one foot, to obtain a good effect.

Deciduous trees and shrubs should be given a severe cutting-back or pruning when transplanted.

More or less roots are always bruised and broken during transplanting, and all such should be trimmed off with pruning-shears or a sharp knife, as the bark cannot heal over a rough wound. In order to insure a strong and healthy growth, as well as to cause the plant to become bushy or attain any desired shape, it is well to cut off from each branch one-third to one-half of the previous summer's growth. Fruit-trees respond especially to free pruning at the time of transplanting.

The matter of when and how to prune established shrubs and trees depends upon their habits and the purpose for which the operation is performed. Shrubs that bloom early in the spring form their flower-buds during the preceding summer, and they should therefore not be pruned until immediately after flowering, if their flowering is to be preserved. Late-blooming shrubs flower on wood of the same season's growth, and should be pruned while dormant, in late winter or very early spring. One-third the previous season's growth may be removed. Shrubs planted in masses should be pruned regularly to induce a dense growth, and to prevent individual plants from becoming too tall, with unsightly, open branches.

The shearing or trimming of hedges in cold climates, should never be done later than July first, as late cutting allows a tender new growth, which does not have time to ripen properly and consequently is liable to winter-kill. The shearing of individual shrubs to form flat-topped, globe, pyramidal, or other unnatural-shaped specimens should, as a general rule, be avoided.

Fruit-trees require pruning to check too vigorous growth, and, as is the case with ornamental trees, to keep them symmetrical. The removal of a portion of the new growth concentrates the nourishment supplied by the roots in the remaining branches, and, if the tree is of bearing age, influences the production of larger, better fruit. Too severe pruning, however, induces the growth of new wood, at the expense of fruit. All cuts must be made cleanly with a sharp knife or pruning-shears, leaving no projecting stubs of branches. If a large branch is removed, it is well to cover the exposed wood with a lead paint of good quality, to prevent the entrance of decay. If the wood is kept sound and healthy, the bark will gradually grow over the wound, finally closing it completely.