366 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



First, however, let us consider where it is desirable to plant anything, and try 

 to avoid the error of planting too much. As the size and form of gardens 

 vary almost infinitely, we can offer no more than some general hints. 



There ars some spots in a garden where nothing should be planted anyway — 

 that is, no large growing tree or shrub, especially if evergreen. One is, close to 

 the house, where it will in time shade the windows and prevent the drying and 

 healthful action of the sun; and another is close to the edge of a walk or drive, 

 where the branches soon encroach on the gravel and must be cut back. One 

 great mistake in our otherwise beautiful cemetery is this fault of planting for 

 present effect only, and the avenues are lined with evergreens which are trim- 

 med up ten or twelve feet, robbing the bare, ugly trunks of their beautiful and 

 natural covering. And, by the way, why do we think it necessary to the beauty 

 of a tree to trim the branches off for a greater or less distance above the 

 ground. Of course the reason is obvious in the case of a tree standing at the 

 side of a street, but when out on a lawn where there is full chance for its com- 

 plete development is the tree at all "improved" to remove anything that 

 nature has placed there? I suppose we trim them up often because it seems 

 like the natural way for trees to grow, and of course where trees are crowded 

 together in the forest they do lose their lower limbs from a lack of sunlight to 

 keep them growing; but even here the outskirts of the forest are clothed down 

 to the ground with their leafy coverings, and in the case of a tree growing un- 

 molested in an open field the whole trunk from the ground to the top bears 

 branches. One of the most beautiful trees I ever saw was a scarlet oak grow- 

 ing in sucli a situation, the branches sweeping the turf on all sides and form- 

 ing a hemisphere of lovely green. One such tree as this would occupy con- 

 siderable space on a lawn, and hence the necessity of knowing the habit of 

 growth of what we plant, since what would be very appropriate in one situa- 

 tion might not be the thing at all in another. In laying out the garden and 

 fixing upon the situation for shrubbery, it is a good plan to make a plat of the 

 ground, putting in the location of the building and then draw the outline of 

 the necessary planting to accomplish the desired results. If an object is to be 

 hidden, it can be most effectively and completely screened by a large tree or 

 shrub, immediately in front of it, but it may be hid from one point of view, as 

 a, window of the house, by a smaller object near the window. Evergreens, of 

 course, make the best screens for all the year round, the arbor- vita? being well 

 adapted for small objects, as it grows dense and can be trimmed into a flat, 

 thin hedge, and occupy little space. Vines trained over trellises are also good, 

 and the grape has the advantage of furnishing fruit as well as screening the 

 offending eyesore. It will also absorb and convert into innocuous vegetable 

 matter quite a large quantity of the waste water which must be disposed of 

 from every household and which is often thrown out upon the ground to poison 

 the air and the water. For screens to act as windbreaks and for plants for use 

 as ornaments chiefly, quite another class is needed. 



THE COMMERCIAL VALUE OF THE GARDEN. 



It is, perhaps, a little out of the regular plan for these papers to speak of any- 

 thing but the immediate pleasure and profit to be had from an actual and per- 

 sonal attention to one's own garden — the pleasure of planning it and planting 

 it; of working and walking within its bounds; of seeing its attractions and 

 showing one's friends its beauties, and the large profit to be found in improved 

 " health at the end of the hoe-handle." But there is another profit which 



