SECRETAEY'S PORTFOLIO. 375 



I dislike as a usual thing to see evergreens formally sheared. I prefer to take 

 off limbs a little irregularly, generally cutting back to a crotch. This trim- 

 ming Avill keep the tree thick or dense, a point admired in all evergreens by 

 most people. 



The white pine, especially where it grows ra})idly, is as much improved as 

 any evergreen by pruning. Sparc the lower limbs most to the ground ; cut 

 most towards the top. Cut a few limbs in summer and soo how the voung 

 buds form for the next year. — Prof. W. J, JJcal. 



RED PAINT IK HORTICULTURE. 



Red paint may be made very useful in a small way, especially in making 

 conspicuous such small articles as are liable to be lost. The handles of 

 trowels, weeding forks, pruning knives, and all such small implements, if 

 painted bright red may be very readily found when dropped in the grass or 

 otherwise mislaid. But flower tubs, hanging baskets, and many other things, 

 which should be as inconspicuous as possible, are now very often painted the 

 most positive and staring red, which makes them appear obtrusive and to 

 force themselves upon the attention, while the plants they hold, and to which 

 they should be secondary, are rendered less noticeable. — American Agricul- 

 turist, 



COUNTRY EXJ0Y31ENT. 



A late writer says "farm life is prosaic." It need not be. There are infi- 

 nite resources for intellectual enjoyment within reach of the country resident. 

 He has always a broad landscape and a sky with ever-varying clouds before 

 him. Beautiful trees with their masses of rich foliage; curiously formed 

 plants in profusion at his feet ; the constant work of the great laboratory of 

 nature for his examination; flowers, minerals, insects; the melody of morn 

 at his rising; the ^'glorious splendor of the sunset clouds" at evening; and 

 every operation during the day, in the germination of seeds and the growth of 

 crops on the farm or in the garden, are all ready for his study in the physi- 

 ology of organic growth. The comparative cheapness of his land allows him 

 to plant a small landscape garden at little expense. A room set apart in the 

 house for a museum, in which he or his children may deposit their collections 

 of dried plants, and of minerals, and of insects, and study the transforma- 

 tions of sluggish worms to glittering butterflies, — these and a thousand other 

 resources for study are always before him, to occupy the few leisure minutes 

 or hours he may have to spare. For a growing family, what can be more 

 delightful than an occasional holiday ramble through woods or on the banks 

 of streams, the collections of wild flowers, or the pencil sketches of old twisted 

 trees, of mirrored streams, W'ild rocks, or blue hills? This is certainly less 

 prosaic than the cramped visions of brick walls and stone pavements of cities. 



J. J. TuOilAS. 



