ORNAMENTAL TREES AND ROADS. 11 



earlier members have left us, their words, their thoughts, still 

 live in our community. 



Shade-trees, which are indispensable in their proper place, 

 are often planted too thickl}^ and too near our dwellings, es- 

 pecially in towns and villages, thus causing them to be dark 

 and unhealthy when they should be light and cheerful. The 

 larger species of evergreens are very much out of place on 

 the sunny sides of our houses ; while they would be very ap- 

 propriate and necessary as screens and wind-breaks along the 

 cold and exposed sides of our buildings. I would recommend 

 that a permanent committee on planting and locating shade- 

 trees be chosen in every town and village : the office would 

 seem almost as important as that of the architect or landscape- 

 gardener. Rows of deciduous trees planted along our road- 

 sides would add much to the beauty and fertility of our 

 farms ; and a proper alternation of the maple, ash, beech, and 

 chestnut, would produce a very pleasing and beneficial effect. 



If the roads, especially near our houses, were kept clean 

 of bushes, and instead of unsightly holes, piles of stones 

 and other rubbish, the rough places were made smooth, and 

 sown down to grass, then might our roadsides present the 

 appearance of beautiful lawns, and at the same time be made 

 profitable from the crops of grass which could every year be 

 taken from them. Formerly hogs were allowed to run at 

 large in the public roads; but modern civilization has con- 

 fined these animals to proper limits : it is to be hoped, that, at 

 no distant day, cattle and horses will be thus restrained, and 

 not allowed to trespass where they have no more legal right 

 than in your neighbor's fields and garden. 



Many of the apple-orchards of this county have of late 

 years been sadly neglected. Perhaps the trees were formerly 

 planted too thickly, and there were too many of them ; but 

 if they had received proper care, and been protected from 

 •insects, they would to-day have been a source of great profit. 

 Thirty years ago, according to a careful record kept at that 

 time by my neighbor Major Poore, there were fourteen thou- 

 sand barrels of apples raised in the town of West Newbury 

 in a single year — very largely of Roxbury Russets. Now 

 there are probably not over five thousand barrels raised in 

 the same town in a productive year. Good winter apples, 

 like the Baldwin and Russet, will always sell at fail' prices. 



