488 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



out of geometric flower-beds is common enough, and constitutes, with level 

 grading, the bulk of the art as seen around villages and cities ; but unfortu- 

 nately, little or no attention is given to background relief or the relative posi- 

 tion of of trees and shrubs. 



It is a great pity that more attention is not paid to this matter, as some of 

 the most beautiful effects can be produced with very little expense — generally 

 with the same materials used in indiscriminate planting — which will give an 

 individuality to the place, difficult or impossible to attain with ordinary hit- 

 and-miss planting. As a general thing, a man buys a cut-leaved birch, a 

 weigelia, or hydrangea, not because he has a place peculiarly adapted to any of 

 them, but because his neighbor has one; because it looks pretty in the agent's 

 plate-book; or because it is included in somebody's list of trees and shrubs 

 suitable for suburban grounds. 



In re-arranging old grounds very marked effects can often be produced by 

 using the older plantings for a background to the new. In many places beau- 

 tiful old evergreens stand in positions where they can be made to serve as back- 

 ground from three or four directions for some tree with marked character- 

 istics. If the side next the street is available, a white dogwood, a hawthorn, 

 •or Siberian crab may be planted in range; from some other vantage point a 

 purple beech or white birch may be brought in line ; while from the house side 

 it may serve as a background to a Comus sanguinea, or a snowball. 



The many ways in which evergreens can be utilized as backgrounds make 

 them particularly valuable. The American arbor vita? makes a high, close, 

 screen, taking but little room at the base, and while it may be made to hide a 

 barn-yard in the rear, its front side may bring out in stroug relief any bright 

 or beautiful object, from a peony, or group of double hollyhocks, up to a 

 syringa or a pear tree. If the evergreens that are scattered in unmeaning pro- 

 fusion on many front lawns could be gathered in irregular groups at the rear 

 and sides of the house, leaving irregular nooks for the placing of showy shrubs 

 and flower-beds, the general effect would be greatly improved, while at the same 

 time the care of the lawn would be simplified and cheapened. 



Evergreens. — The following essay was prepared by Prof. Jarvis Satterlee 



for Capitol Grange and the editor of the Portfolio expected to epitomize it 



but concluded there was nothing in it poor enough to throw away: 



Many people have an idea that it is a difficult operation to plant evergreens. 

 I suppose this idea comes from the fact that three-fourths of all the evergreens 

 obtained from nurserymen and tree peddlers fail to live. Yet, if rightly 

 managed, nearly all can be made to grow as readily as any other tree. I will 

 try to give a few plain hints in regard to their management. An evergreen 

 may be compared to a certain extent to a deciduous tree in full leaf. We all 

 know the difficulty of transplanting a tree or shrub when fully leaved out. 

 In transplanting deciduous trees they are set when the sap is at rest or only 

 slightly moving. The pores of the roots and branches are closed and evapora- 

 tion of moisture from the tree is slow. In this condition the roots will stand 

 exposure to the sun and wind for several hours without much damage. Not 

 so with an evergreen. There is more or less circulation all the time when the 

 tree is not severely frozen, and the surface of the roots appear to be in con- 

 dition to maintain this circulation. So this precaution must always be ob- 

 served, never expose the roots of an evergreen to the sun or wind. A few 

 minutes of sunshine on the naked roots of an evergreen is almost certain 



