In the formation of artificial game coverts, when not only shelter and protection for game are required, but ornamental effect as well, the judicious grouping of the different shrubs should never be lost sight of, more especially when the coverts are within the park or policy grounds, and visible from drives and roads. Formality and stiffness are so often the characteristics of the present style of shrub planting, that in many cases our woodlands seem utterly destitute of that variety of outline and contrast of light and shade so essential to picturesque beauty. In planting evergreen shrubs for the two-fold purpose of covert and ornament, the best method is to plant each variety in separate groups or clumps. No hard and fast lines can be laid down as to the distribution or number of plants to be used in the clumps, which, to a great extent, must depend on the size and shape of the ground as well as taste of the operator. The clumps should, however, be placed at irregular distances apart, be irregular in size and outline, and with from forty or fifty to one hundred plants in each—bearing in mind that game of all kinds delight in small patches of shrubs with abundance of open space around each, but detest in a most marked manner continuous masses or jungles of underwood. In selecting sites for the various groups, be careful to choose the most open positions, avoiding as much as possible planting immediately under the spread of trees; and, if practicable, so arrange that in viewing the wood from any point, the eye may not pass along a straight bare unplanted space, but become arrested by the various clumps in passing to the farther side. Having arranged the positions of the various clumps, the pits should be opened of a size, and at a distance apart suitable for the plants intended to be used, taking care that they are sufficiently large to avoid cramping or bending of the roots, which in all cases should be spread out to their full extent. In making the pits, it is well to thoroughly loosen the soil in the bottom and sides with a pick, so as to give the tender rootlets a free course when starting into growth in spring. Should the soil be found of inferior quality, a few loads of leaf-mould, road-scrapings or loam from an adjoining field will be found to work wonders in the way of giving the plants a start, and also in producing a strong, healthy growth. Drainage should also have been attended to previous to opening the pits, and all stagnant water or superfluous moisture removed by the formation of open ditches.