REPORT OF GREENE COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 147 



grouping of evergreens is in planting too many of them in front yards, 

 and in planting them too close to one another. 



A few fine specimens well cared for grown at great distances apart, 

 produce a much finer effect than where they are crowded as we often 

 see thera in front yards. The greater number of them should be 

 planted well back to I he rear of the yard or lawn, and it is of the 

 greatest importance to have the lower growing varieties in the front, 

 and the taller ones in the extreme back ground, and they should in 

 almost all cases stand very much thicker in the back ground than in 

 the front. This rule is just as applicable to deciduous trees as to ever- 

 greens, except where it is desirable to have a thick shade. There 

 should in all spacious grounds be planted fine specimen trees, more 

 for ornament than for shade alone. Ornament should be the prime 

 object, and shade the incident. Evergreens should in nearly all cases 

 be planted in spring or early summer. Deciduous trees of most kinds 

 should, if possible, be planted in the autumn or early winter in soft 

 damp weather. 



There are many other worthy and beautiful trees which are hardy 

 and well adapted to the lawn, the street, the park and the boulevard, 

 and which all, or most of them, are indigenous to our soil and latitude. 

 But even a passing notice of them would enlarge this essay into pro- 

 portions too great for the object in view and for the occasion for which 

 it is written. It is sometimes desirable for special purposes to secure 

 and plant trees which do not grow to large dimensions. There are 

 many small narrow door yards which would look better with those 

 semi-dwarf trees than with larger ones. Conspicuous among these is 

 the Horse Chestnut, the Chincapin, the Service or Sarvice and the 

 Sassafras; also the Cornus or Dogwood, the American Wild Crab and 

 certain specimens of the Hawthorn. 



But all those grand and beautiful trees above enumerated are de- 

 ciduous, and when winter comes and breathes upon them its frigid and 

 icy breath, the beautiful foliage that rejoiced and fluttered in the soft 

 summer breezes, and trembled and pulsated as it were in sympathy 

 and harmony, and perfect rythm and unison, with that beautiful 

 anthem of nature which has been flowing in sweet and uninterrupted 

 numbers, since the dawn of creation. 



The foliage once so beautiful withers and dies, and drifts and 

 scatters, and falls to mother earth, and forms a protection to the ten- 

 der herbs and roots which would otherwise perish. Thus the death of 

 the leaves subserve to protect and perpetuate vegetable life. And thus 

 we see the unerring working, of an unerring providence. The funeral 

 dirge of summer comes to us with an appalling plaintive wail as it 



