152 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the most precious thing to a house is sunshine, and no tree 

 ought ever to be planted so near a house as to diminish the 

 sunshine upon that house. Plant your ti-ees, but at such a 

 distance that the house shall never be thrown into the shade. 

 The air, on the whole, will be purer around a house if there 

 are no trees close by; but, then, you must have trees at a 

 little distance to purify the air, if you want to be sure of 

 having it pure. I say no tree ought to diminish the sunshine 

 on a house. The sunshine, in our cold climate, is the most 

 valuable thinf? we have. Sometimes we jjet it in larger doses 

 than we want; but it is the most blessed thing in the world, 

 and wt3 ought never to allow the sunshine to be taken away 

 from our houses at any season of the year. From the sun's 

 rays come directly ingredients which are essential to the per- 

 fect growth of plants. Plant trees, as many as you can, — the 

 more, and the more beautiful, the better, — but not too near 

 your homes. 



There is one point that I wanted to insist upon, which I 

 forgot. In our pastures, there ought to be trees ; not single 

 trees only, but little groups of trees, so that the cattle can go 

 there in the heat of the day and cool themselves, and keei), 

 as long as they please, away from the sunshine. The sun- 

 shine is as important to them as to us ; but they are incom- 

 moded and injured as much by the excessive heat, in July and 

 August, as'we are. They ought always to be protected. The 

 best kinds of trees that you can get for that purpose are those 

 which have the most leaves. Here is one fact, gentlemen, 

 which I do not know that you will be pleased to learn, but it 

 is a fact. I have been planting trees now for the hist twenty 

 years, and over, and I have planted the best European trees 

 side bv side with American trees, of the same kinds, and 

 watched the difference. 



There is one very remarkable difference. The European 

 trees, of the same kind, have a great deal more foliage, and 

 they hold their foliage much longer. I have been watching 

 for the last forty years the elms on Boston Common. There 

 are a few European elms there, and the leaves of those 

 "English elms," as they are called, are six weeks longer on 

 the trees than the leaves of the American elms around them. 

 That is really a very important thing — to add to the shade of 



