Mr Sang gives directions for kiln-drying fir cones previous to thrashing out, or extracting the seeds. We have before adverted to this, and would {178} particularly reprehend the practice. It is difficult to determine how far early fruitfulness and consequent infirmity of constitution, diminutiveness of size at maturity, and early decay, may originate from kiln-drying the cones; but, from the same process of drying in a less degree having been ascertained to induce early seed-bearing in the case of other seeds, we may infer almost to certainty, that the coniferæ of this country, not naturally planted, are very materially injured by this practice. It is of small consequence, in reference to the tree itself, at what season deciduous trees are planted, provided they be naked of leaf, and the ground not too dry, as they are not liable to lose much by desiccation or evaporation by the bark alone, before the roots strike anew in spring, and draw freely from the soil; and the skin of the bulb, although the small rootlets be broken, sucks up moisture from the damp soil to repair the loss by superior evaporation: but evergreens—firs, hollies, laurels, yews, sometimes suffer by removal at a time when the roots do not immediately strike, as in winter, owing to the torpor from cold. We have often seen their juices exhausted, and their leaves entirely withered, by a continuation of dry northerly winds, the manifest cause of which {179} was the great superficial exposure of the leaves evaporating faster than the fractured torpid roots afforded supply. Therefore, although winter planting seldom fails, yet it is perhaps better to seize the exact time in spring, immediately before the roots commence to strike anew, before there is any new top-growth, and while the soil and air remain somewhat moist and cold, that the evaporation may not be too great. In this climate, April is a good season for removing evergreens to the field, although, to throw the work from the busy season, it is often practised in the nursery in September, when their annual growths are completed, and while there is yet warmth to enable the roots to strike anew; this, however, is only advisable where the soil for their reception is in the most favourable state, friable, and inclining to moist, or when there is great indication of rain, and the air near the dew point. Of course they require to be planted as soon as extracted. In winter or spring, when it happens that evergreens must lie in the _shough_, the most protected situation, where the air is moist and still, ought to be chosen, and the earth carefully closed to their roots, which is best done by watering, if rain be not expected; the stems and branches should also lie as close to the ground as possible. {180} There is appended to this valuable Planter’s Calendar a treatise on the Formation and Management of Osier Plantations. As this will not bear compression well, we refer our reader to the volume itself.