242 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



He leaves directions to have the place put In the best condition^ 

 especially where the planting is to be done in the spring, i^^ariy the 

 next season he is on hand with competent help, for he wishes his wor'li 

 well done. A landscape artist has laid out his grounds in fine shape. 

 It is all planned where to put the trees, shrubs, peonies and perennials 

 — the backgrounds and the borders. It looked beautiful on that piac. 

 And there is "Country Life in America," the instructions of which he 

 follows implicitly. He has great faith in the rich soil. He has boxes 

 and boxes of the choicest trees, shrubs and evergreens, taking especial 

 pains to bring those very things in which the Avestern nurseries were 

 deficient. He goes to work with zeal, and in imagination he sees him- 

 self surrounded with the most attractive grounds in all Nebraska. He 

 insists in planting just the things ignored by western men. He has 

 a beautiful lot of azaleas, kalmias, rhododendrons and those charming 

 led-berried holies. He will show people what Christmas looks like 

 out of doors. He brought a lot of hemlocks, Irish junipers, white 

 pines, Nordmanu's firs, and these delicate retinosporas from Japan. 

 He also had a lot of bright looking Norway and white spruce, and long 

 needled Norway pines, also a beautiful lot of eastern arborvitae for 

 a hedge. There was also a choice selection of magnolias and those 

 River's purple beech that are so charming in Massachusetts. He 

 bro.ught a lot of common beech and one hundred beautiful tulip trees,, 

 as he saw none growing in the west. There were also some delicate 

 Japanese maples, with their deep crimson foliage. He brought out 

 the whole family of Deutzias which he was sure would be hardy, and 

 among them, the dainty litfle Gracilis which in bloom is like a mound 

 of snow. Elaeagnus longpipes was a great favorite and he had picked 

 a peck of their fruit froin a single bush in the east. He knew it was- 

 a shrub of merit westerners had overlooked. 



When he had everything well planted they did look fine. Those 

 purple beech, as well as the common ones, did not seem to take kindly 

 to their new conditions, but, on the whole, he is satisfied and, loolcing 

 over his work, he felt rather proud of himself. It had been a mild 

 spring with abundant rains and everthing was favorable. He was 

 teaching the natives a lesson. Those Irish junipers, so beautiful and 

 symmetrical, were starting finely. The European larches were growing 

 beautifully. The fragrant arborvitae hedge was a delight. Some of 

 the deutzias were in bloom, and even the little gracilis made a faint 

 attempt at smiling. He asked the neighbors to call and he expatiated 

 on the beauty of his trees and shrubs and said: "Now this is an 

 object lesson. What I have done you can do. I thought I would ao 

 a little horticultural missionary work out here and teach you men 

 of the possibilities in store for you." 



Joining him on the same section was Bert Johnson, who has- 

 attended the horticultural department of the university at Lincom, 

 and had worked a couple of years in a Nebraska nursery. He would 

 intimate now and then that Mr. Jones had not gotten through yet. He; 



