276 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



such simple and yet so beautiful adornments as the planting of a 

 few trees by the roadside, around the buildings, or in compar- 

 atively waste and barren places. 



Scotch larch and pitch pine will grow where a mullen would 

 not spindle fifteen inches high. Those trees, gray birch or river 

 birch, appear much more agreeable to our vision than complete 

 barrenness. The chestnut will thrive on a comparatively sterile 

 soil. The trees should be taken from the nursery or from open 

 ground, where they have been exposed to the sun a part of the 

 day at least, otherwise they will catch a sun-scald which they 

 cannot endure. They should be removed when quite small, and 

 care taken not to chafe the roots, else the operation proves a 

 failure. 



The European lime, mountain ash and native locusts are all 

 trees which thrive in some places, and would in many others if 

 the borers all had their pincers broken. So long, however, as 

 there are plenty of varieties which resist the attacks of insects 

 or their larvae, and which are perfectly hardy, we need not 

 enumerate a catalogue of those which have proved otherwise. 



The elms and sugar-maple are in our view the leading sorts 

 for street-planting and roadside shade. Lime, white ash, horse- 

 chestnut, larch, with occasionally evergreens interspersed, for 

 variety's sake, may produce a good effect in relieving the tedium 

 of monotony. We regard it as a duty of all landholders upon 

 our public highways to plant shade-trees by the roadside. Per- 

 haps, though, it would be better for towns in their corporate 

 capacity to take the matter in hand, and relieve individuals from 

 •such burdens. At any rate the subject cannot too frequently 

 ■or too strenuously be urged upon the attention of the commun- 

 ity at large. Travellers, whether pedestrians, equestrians, or in 

 vehicles of any style, or of no particular style, do not often fail 

 to appreciate the advantages to be derived from shaded thor- 

 oughfares during the heat of summer. Why, the thought of 

 driving through a village where the houses are mainly painted 

 a glaring white, in an August sun, without a green tree to 

 relieve the eye or cast its shadow, will almost produce a painful 

 sensation without the reality of a ride. 



On the other hand, we venture the assertion that no gentle- 

 man or lady, who had the slightest claim to such titles, aside 

 from panls and skirts which covered their nakedness, has 



