154 American Horticultural Society. 



distance from each road, will give any farmer all the room he will need for 

 the front yard. 



Do not plant in regular order, but by all means plant in clumps or 

 groups, leaving a bare spot of lawn and a cle.ir \]ov/ from the house to the 

 road, especially from the principal windows of the kitchen and sitting room. 

 Plant a clump of evergreens here, a clump of shrubs there, a clump of 

 one kind of deciduous trees here, another kintl there; a bunch of a variety 

 of hardy herbaceous plants in one bed and a beil of roses in another. 



These being of common varieties cost but little and are soon planted. 

 But what I want to warn you against is indiscriminate planting. If you 

 have not enough time and money to plant all at once do not, I pray you, do 

 not by any means plant a tree, or bush, or rose, or shrub, just a-s the notion 

 happens to take you, or just because you see that tliere is room between two 

 other trees to jnit it. Such planting will make your yard a mixed medley, 

 and will be a tangled mass of trees, shrubs and vines in the years to come. 



If you can not plant your yard at once, and wish lo keep planting a.s 

 you find things which suit you, or as they are given you, plant judiciou.-^ly 

 and with system; have a plan and follow it. Have your clumps of ever- 

 greens, deciduous trees, shrubs and roses, and when you do plant any of 

 each of these, plant it in its proper place with its proper kind, and in after 

 years you will be glad. Another mistake, and a very great one, is in think- 

 ing that there is no beauty except in a large tree or trees and shrub.*. 

 Now, the beauty of them is in seeing them grow and caring for them until 

 we come to love them as we do our children. Plant then, small and young 

 trees, and plenty of them, so that the growth may gladlen your eyes and 

 hearts every time yon return to your homes. 



Does your heart go out in love to your home and your children when 

 away from them ; do you love to have them about you, on your back, 

 maybe, loving and caressing you ? Well, if so, you can realize how much a 

 true lover of the trees and plants thinks of the ornamentals of his yard. 

 These trees and shrubs will grow in your affections and the afTections of 

 your children until they come to love every tree and shrub in your yard. 

 Don't you believe it? Well, just try and cut down a half-dozen of them be- 

 cause they are too thick or are spoiling one another, and have your wife 

 and children, as I have had, pitch onto you and scold and beg for the lives 

 of the trees, because you are cutting down their friends. 



I well remember an instance where a large, old white oak had been 

 for years, and the American ivy covered it to a bight of sixty feet (where it 

 had been sawed oiX) until it was one solid colunni of green in summer and 

 scarlet in autumn ; how every one in the whole country admired the beau- 

 tifid column, until it seemed as if it were a part of the beauty of our village. 

 One day a heavy storm came and it was laid flat on the ground. The people 

 in passing could not be kept out of the yard, but would come in and express 

 their symjwUhy for the old tree, as for a lost friend. Pardon the digression. 

 I am anxious to show that the best investment we can make is to plant a few 



