J. Jay Smith: If we could only properly recollect in the right time what has been written on some subjects, as, for instance, on horticulture, we should not have to run over volumes to have a question settled just when we are about to apply it to practice; the matter is so great, shall I say diluted, that hints are forgotten; all previous experience is overlooked, and how often we find writers stating only a few experiments of their own limited practice.

"Facts and few words," are my motto. If you think my remarks deserving a corner in your invaluable journal, I shall venture to attempt a resume of old and new notions on the subjects of planting and pruning, from the time of Laquin-tinye, Duhamel, Scobold, Ac, down to our present time, and I shall try to state by my own experience what seems to me most applicable to this climate and latitude.

It is a settled fact that the habits of some fruit trees, and many other plants, are different here from what they are in Europe; some, which do well on the old continent, will not succeed here. For instance, the common Erica, which spontaneously covers the barren and waste grounds in Scotland, Belgium, and Germany, ana all the north, cannot live here. The European grapes cannot succeed in the open air even on our southern walls. The gooseberry, so much prized abroad, is here an inferior fruity with a thick skin, and is often unproductive; marked differences prevail even among the species best adapted to both climates, as, for instance, the apple, pear, and cherry. The raspberries, which stand the English winters with perfect impunity, must be protected here during our keen winter blasts. The chestnut, which proves so hardy here as to brave 10 and 15° below zero, is a poor tree in Northern France and Belgium, always blighted by frost or other causes, and dying piecemeal after a limited existence.

Some fruits, as the peach, the currant, and the strawberry, are superior in America, or fully equal to the best varieties in the most favored zones of Europe, and if it were not for that unconquerable curculio, plums, apricots, and nectarines would prove as luscious and delicate as on any spot of our globe.

Hence the necessity of applying different rules to the treatment of the same species of fruits, as well in planting as the further management of the tree. It is well known that a tree, freshly taken from the nursery and exposed for some hours to the influence of a fine autumn day, is materially injured, owing, perhaps, to the absorbent action of our atmosphere; while in Europe, in a more damp medium, the same tree can be left exposed for days to all influences, frost excepted, with comparative impunity.

The long and forever controverted question, "When shall we plant?" naturally takes its place in the outset of these remarks.

And first, let it be well understood, that the first condition required to replant a tree with success, is that it be taken up with proper care. All mashed, broken, or stripped roots are injurious when left, and ought to be cut with a sharp knife; the epiderm or bark of the root seems not to heal up so readily as the bark of the tree; hence the necessity of leaving nothing but sound roots with a clean section or cutting, if cut at all, at the end; very small fibres or roots are of no use, according to Van Mons, when the tree has not been freshly taken up, and after a long transportation; they are soon deprived of all vitality, and are drawbacks instead of useful agents.

Now, when shall we plant, supposing we have the choice and everything at hand? Much depends on the weather, and the condition of the soil. It is always better to have a comparatively dry soil and fine weather, except in the case of plants with wiry roots, such as those of the hemlocks, etc. etc I have been in the habit for years of preparing the holes as early as possible, either in late summer or early fall. I have two objects in view. First, the sods or detritus, mixed with the soil which is put in the holes after the bad subsoil, rock, ore, or stiff clay has been removed, have time to undergo a fermentation, injurious to the roots, when it takes place directly after planting; and, secondly, my heap of reserved good soil next to the holes, is mellow and best fitted to fall between the roots, and fill up all the intervening spaces by gently shaking the tree when it is well covered with fine soil The shaking must be quick and short, not lifting the tree more than two inches; cover well, and let the fall rains do their work; the tree is safe so far.

As for the proper time to plant I have found by experience that the best is the last days of October, or the first part of November, for those who have only a limited number of trees to place. It is true that we can remove trees as soon as the leaves show the first signs of decay, and often very successfully. It is also true that those taken up the first week in October, when properly root-pared and pruned, send out small rootlets, or at least make a fine seam on the edge of every clean wound, of course ready to start, and showing a protracted vitality carried through the trying process; but I always found that provoking the sap in that manner, and so early, and taking up and pruning always does, more or less, gives rise to a new process of vegetation out of season, and interferes with the general laws of the organism of the tree. This vegetation, when checked gradually only, enfeebles the tree; but if stopped suddenly by a keen frost of 16° or 17° or 20°, almost always injures the bark and inner wood in an irreparable way; the same thing as with the buddings starting in August, a fact well known by every nurseryman.

On the other hand, if we plant too late in autumn, the soil is not often well fitted and in good mellow condition; the roots having no active vitality left, do not surround themselves with that non-conducting medium which is well known to exist around the living and sound root, to preserve it from the injurious and lasting winter soaking. Now, as far as my own experience goes, if I had only a very few trees to plant, and particularly if I had these close at hand, I should let them stand in the nursery till the winter is fairly over, and as soon as the sap is about to start, say in this climate in March or early in April, I should take them up carefully, pare and prune moderately, and plant them at once. The healing process would take place immediately, and the tree would have gone through the winter trials surrounded by all the protections which Nature makes for it when left undisturbed. The objection is, naturally, that we can scarcely get choice trees in the nurseries in March; that the season is very short and uncertain, and the soil often very wet.