82 American Horticultural Society. 



in straight lines nor singly, but in groups of varying size in the direction of 

 prevailing winds. When purchased young they cost but little, and a few 

 dollars invested in the beginning will grow in time into objects of wonder- 

 ful beauty and furnish an almost impervious protection from the wind. If 

 you ask me what to plant, I would answer: plant such trees as are known to 

 succeed in your State. In Northern Ohio the two most valuable and 

 rapid growing shelter trees are the Norway spruce and Scotch pine. In 

 places where a continuous line of trees in the form of a hedge must be used 

 I know of nothing better than the American arbor vitse, especially in places 

 where there is but little room, as its height is great in proportion to its 

 width of base. I have been much interested in reading Prof. Budd's articles 

 in the Prairie Fanner in reference to the hardiness of conifers and deciduous 

 ornamental trees in Iowa. He mentions the American white spruce and 

 Siberian silver Hr as both enabled to withstand that climate. The white 

 spruce is a noble tree — a slower grower than the Norway, but scarcely in- 

 ferior in beauty. There are some beautiful specimens of the Siberian lir in 

 Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, and I have seen a few specimens else- 

 where. It is one of the most beautiful of evergreens, and groups iinely with 

 the American hemlock, which, by the Jway, is the most beautiful of all 

 American conifers. The red pine of Northern Michigan is, for the first 

 twenty years at least, the most beautiful of any pine with which I am fa- 

 miliar, and deserves a trial in the Middle- Western States. 



Although foreign to the point in discussion, I wish to call attention to the 

 Lombardy poplar as a deciduous wind-break. It attains a great height very 

 quickly, and a double row eight feet apart makes as perfect a protection as is 

 possible to attain with any other deciduous tree occupying double the 

 amount of ground. 



Having secured protection to our home, the next point is to see that a 

 reasonable piece of grass surrounds at least two sitles of the house. Next to 

 air, water, and sunlight, the cheapest and most abundant product of the 

 north temperate zone is grass. When closely shorn and kept green with 

 timely watering it is the most pleasing of all landscape objects, and without 

 grass in perfection all attempts at landscape adornment lose greatly in value. 

 Having secured as much of grass around our home as we can keep in tirst- 

 class condition, and no more, and defined it by suitable and necessary paths, 

 we can turn our attention to ornamenting it with trees and flowers. 



We now enter upon a vast and to many a mysterious subject. It is not, 

 however, so mysterious as many imagine. There is not a country in the 

 world that possesses so many really beautiful indigenous plants and trees as 

 America. The great trouble is that many wish to get a greater portion of 

 them in one dooryard. After a few years these much-planted dooryards 

 become a tangled forest, lacking beauty and convenience, and the owners 

 vote ornamental planting to be either an unguessable riddle or a huuibug. 



We all admire the beautiful live oaks of the Exposition grounds, but how 

 much of beauty would these trees possess if huddled together in the style of 



