THE SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 405 



soil and tramp well. See that the soil is free from all stagnant and injurious 

 water. 



Fifth, Immediately after planting the trees carefully cover the ground for 

 some distance round the trees with well decomposed manure or chip yard 

 scrapings to the depth of four or six inches. This covering or mulching, as 

 it is called, is professionally to be the great secret of successful tree plantmg, and 

 especially so of evergreens. It tends to keep the ground cool and moist even 

 in the dryest time, and is much to be preferred to any amount of watering. 



Sixth, And lastly, if moisture must be applied, and something must be done 

 to save the life of the tree in a very prolonged drouth, first take away the 

 mulching and thoroughly stir the soil about the roots to some depth, and then 

 apply water in plentiful quantities, then close all up again and replace the 

 covering as before. Then quietly leave it alone to fight out the great battle of 

 life, and in nine cases out of ten, it will — our word for it — most triumphantly 

 succeed. 



COMMON THINGS. 



The Philadelphia Press, under the above title, after giving its opinion of 

 nurserymen who will talk wisely about the beauty of the rare evergreens from 

 abroad that ten chances to one will die on the hands of the purchaser, says : 



When properly grown, nothing in the whole range of ornamental evergreens 

 is superior to the hemlock and the white pine, and to recommend trees for the 

 lawn and omit them seems like a slight to old and dear friends. The rich may 

 sigh after something more " rare," and of course they can find it ; but they can 

 after all find nothing so adapted to all the needs of a lawn, for, besides being 

 naturally stately, they can be dwarfed by cutting back, grown in clumps, and 

 worked into arbors, arches or bowers, hedges or screens, or in single trees of 

 medium or magnificent size. They are "common " in a sense because they are 

 found wild in our forests, but so are all the varieties of maple which can hardly 

 be surpassed in beauty, as well as the oak, the tulip, and the chestnut. It is a 

 bad taste Avhich ignores or despises their native qualities of stateliness and 

 beauty to hanker after what is odd and awkward because it is not common. So 

 some men hanker after old and rare books merely because they are old and rare, 

 though they may be of no earthly use except to exhibit as antique curiosities 

 for the entertainment of guests. Some men would pay thousands for a copy of 

 Elliott's Indian Bible, and yet could not be induced to spend a cent for the 

 founding of a neighborhood library. These eccentricities of taste are not 

 creditable, and it is to be hoped that farmers especially will not be led astray by 

 them, and be taught to ignore the beauty which nature has lavished all around 

 them in abundant prolusion. 



EVERGREEN" SCREENS. 



In regard to the beneficial results derived from protective timber belts. Prof. 

 0. S. Sargent, Director of the Botanic Garden and Arboretum of Harvard 

 University, after quoting American and European authorities, and citing 

 instances in proof in his *' suggestions on tree planting," says; 



The influence of belts of trees, especially of spike-leaved species, on local 



