SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 379 



plete development of its normal or natural habit. But trees, ^ve know, always 

 branch low under the most favorable conditions ; therefore we are safe in re- 

 taining the low-branched form on the lawn. Other considerations, likewise, 

 favor this treatment. The stem is thus protected from injury (cracking, 

 etc.,) from the sun and wind, and the uninteresting naked stems or trunks, 

 often masked imperfectly with shrubbery, are thus done away with entirely. 

 One of the most perfect specimens of any tree I ever saw was a Norway maple 

 planted on an open lawn, where its contour from ground to sannnit was one 

 grand swell or sphere of rich green foliage. 



Surely, in view of such facts, we need not adhere to the old method of train- 

 ing all trees into a naked stem devoid of foliage. There is no lawn tree that 

 is improved by such treatment, and only the exigencies of sidewalk or road can 

 excuse such barbarous treatment of our noblest trees. 



(Sam'l Parsons, Jr. 



JUDICIOUS PLANTING. 



Shade trees are often planted too near to our dwellings, and too thickly, so 

 as to make the house dark and damp and cheerless. Large evergreens are 

 very much out of place on the sunny side of a house, while they form an 

 appropriate screen and wind-break along the cold and exposed sides of our 

 buildings. Set out trees — it is a duty — but set them out judiciously. 



TREE PROTECTIOX. 



Not protection of trees, but protection by trees, is what we mean, and to one 

 who stands behind a thick Norway spruce and is perfectly shielded from these 

 searching March winds, we need use no argument. It is a very easy thing to 

 grow a shelter-belt of evergreens for a barn, a house or a garden. The trees 

 can be purchased for a mere trifle, and planted out this spring. Five years of 

 growth will make large trees of them and the protection rendered is a wonder- 

 ful acquisition. A correspondent of the Prairie Farmer speaks thus 

 encouragingly of the practice: 



If the farmer has a barn, and a fence around it, let him plant, outside of 

 that fence, a row of evergreens, closely together, so that nothing can injure 

 them, and in a few years he will have such protection from the storms for his 

 stock that no monev could induce him to remove the trees. We know this to 

 be a fact, and we further know that where such a *• wind-breaker " exists, no 

 shivering stock is to be found. Of course we would not iuive these trees all 

 around the barn, but just at those parts where storms are most prevalent, 

 and where farmers have no barns, or protection by buildings, and wish to have 

 protection in some way, let them select some suitable field, and hedge it in 

 with tlie same kind of trees, in the same way they would their barnyards; 

 they v/ill meet with success, as every person who has tried the experiment 

 knows. Let these wind-breakers be planted during the coming summer, and 

 in a few years no farmer will complain of having no protection for his stock. 

 Farmers, wherever we are, let us look to our interests and reap the benefits of 

 these wind-breakers in protecting the animals from the cold winds of winter. — 



S. Q. Lent. 



