SUMMER MEETING AT CHILLICOTHE. ]3 



Do not plant in regular order, but by all means plant in clumps or groups, 

 leaving a bare spot of lawn and a clear view from the house to the road, especially 

 from the principal windows of the kitchen and sitting-room. Plant a clump of 

 evergreens here, a clump of shrubs there, a clump of one kind of deciduous trees 

 here, another kind there ; a bunch of a variety of hardy herbaceous plants in one 

 bed and a bed of roses in another. 



These, being of common varieties, cost but little and are soon planted. Bnt 

 what 1 want to warn you against is indiscriminate planting. If you have not 

 enough time and money to plant all at once, do not, I pray you, do not by any 

 means plant a tree, or bush, or rose, or shrub, just as the notion happens to take 

 you, orjust because you see that there is room between two other^trees to put it. 

 Such planting will make your yard a mixed medley, and will be a tangled mass of 

 trees, shrubs and vines in the years to come. 



If you cannot plant your yard at once, and wish to keep planting as you find 

 things which suit you, or as they are given you, plant judiciously and with system ; 

 have a plan and follow it. Have your clumps of evergreens, deciduous trees, 

 shrubs and roses, and when you do plant any of each of these, plant it in its proper 

 place with its proper kind, and in after years you will be glad. Another mistake, 

 and a very 'great one, is in thinking that there is no beauty except in a large tree 

 or trees and shrubs. Now the beauty of them is in seeing them grow and caring 

 for them until we come to love them as we do our children. Plant, then, small 

 and young trees, and plenty of them, so that the growth may gladden your eyes 

 and hearts every time you return to your homes. 



Does your heart go out in love to your home and your children when away 

 from them? do you love to have them about you, on your back, maybe loving and 

 caressing you ? Well, if so, you can realize how much a true lover of trees and 

 plants thinks of the ornamentals of his yard. These trees and shrubs will grow 

 In your affections and the affections of your children until they come to love every 

 tree and shrub in your yard. Don't you believe it ? Well, just try and cut down 

 a half dozen of them because they are too thick or are spoiling one another, and 

 have your wife and children, as I have had, pitch onto you, and scold and beg for 

 the lives of the trees, because you are cutting down their friends. 



I well remember an instance where a large old white oak had been for years, 

 and the American ivy covered it to a height of sixty feet ( where it had been 

 sawed off), until it was one solid column of green in summer and scarlet in autumn, 

 how every one in the whole country admired the beautiful column, until it seemed 

 as if it were a part of the beauty of our village. One day a heavy storm came, 

 and it was laid flat on the ground. The people in passing could not be kept out of 

 the yard, but would come in and express their sympathy for the old tree, as for a 

 lost friend. Pardon the digression. 1 am anxious to show that the best invest- 

 ment we can make is to plant a few trees in our yards and let them grow with our 

 children, and our love with them. In my own home, I think more of my trees 

 than I do of my house, and 1 have a good one too. 



TO TLANT CHEAPLY. 



Plant a clump of elm, a clump of sugar maple, a clump of soft maple, a clump 

 of white pine, a clump of Norway spruce, a clump of red cedar, a clump of shrubs. 

 Althea, Weigelia, snow-ball, a clump of lilacs, a clump of spirea, a bed of roses, 

 hybrids and June, a bed of peonias, phlox and hardy perennials, and, if you can 

 afford it, abed of house plants. These, put out in proper places, so as not to 

 interfere with the view from the house, will, with very little expense, give a very 



