156 American Horticultural Society. 



road is irregular or is very winding, then one, or, still better, two or three 

 rows of trees along the line lends much beauty to the drive. But one straight 

 line of trees along a straight road is too much of a sameness, and especially 

 so if the land is very level. 



Such planting adds very much to the beauty of our country homes, and 

 its tendency is to build up and elevate the tone and character of our people. 

 A roadside planted in groups gives a very pleasing effect to the traveler. 

 .\nd then you :ill know that trees do so much bettor when growing together 

 than in single rows. A road with a clump of elms here, a clump of maple 

 there, one of white ash, one of pine, one of larch, one of sycamore, one of 

 spruce and one of cedar will give such a delightful sense of relief to the 

 passer-by, that he invariably falls in love with the surroundings. 



I wish that I might arrange a plan of planting and have a cut made, 

 with the number and varieties of each kind of tree, which would be of some 

 assistance to those who would learn ; but it is with this matter as with many 

 others with which the liorticnlturist has to deal. He is a teacher and a 

 preacher to every one whom he meets, both by example and precept. I be- 

 lieve that he is the most liberal-minded of all onr public men, and is able 

 and willing to give advice without money and without price, and yet the 

 people will not always follow. 



I have given directions for the most simple manner of improvement for 

 our country homes, because in my own practical work I have found such 

 advice to be most generally followed, and have never yet failed when tidking 

 to a farmer in convincing him of the real money vrdue oi such an investment, 

 and have invariably had him follow it. 



A word or two about forming our laAvns and I am through. I have 

 always had the farmer plow up the whole yard in the fall, level and harrow 

 well, as he would for a flower bed. Sow wheat and then timothy and then 

 blue grass, two bushels per acre, and in the spring two bushels more per 

 a("re. I do this that we may at once get a green yard, and then when the 

 wheat is cut we will still have a green surface, and that long before the blue 

 grass forms a sod. By the second or third year the blue grass runs out the 

 timothy, and we get a good sod by mowing only two or three times a year, 

 which is about as much as I find the farmer willing to do. 



Do not undorstiind that this plan of forming a lawn or planting trees 

 can be apj)licable to our towns or cities, or even many of our larger farmers, 

 but it is the only practical way of improvement of our country homes, and 

 we may be sure if thus once started the love for it will grow and grow until 

 it has found something better. 



Every one who visited San Rafael will remember with delight the long 

 winding road up to the top of the hill where we got the view of the ocean 

 and bay, and there on the top what a delightful view lay before us in the 

 V Uley, and how judiciously the planting had been done in clumjis and clus- 

 ters all over the whole hill. Hon. W. T. Coleman planted better than he 

 knew when that was done, and the 375,000 trees which he planted have been 



