250 



COUNTRY PLACES IN AUTUMN. 



imaginations. With two or three "hands," 

 a pair of horses or oxen, a " stone boat," or 

 low sled, and some ropes or " tackle," the 

 removal of trees twenty -five feet high, and six 

 or eight inches in the diameter of the stem, is 

 a very simple and easy process. A little 

 practice will enable a couple of men to do it 

 most perfectly and efficiently; and if only 

 free-growing trees, like Elms, Maples, Lin- 

 dens, or Horse Chestnuts, are chosen, there is 

 no more doubt of success than in planting a 

 currant bush. Two or three points we may, 

 however, repeat, for the benefit of the novice, 

 viz., to prepare the soil thoroughly, by dig- 

 ging a large hole, trenching it 2^ feet deep, 

 and filling it with rich soil ; to take up the 

 tree with a good mass of roots, enclosed in a 

 ball of frozen earth ;* and to reduce the eyids 

 of the limbs, evenly, all over the top, in order 

 to lessen the demand for sustenance, made on 

 the roots the first summer after removal. 



This is not only the season to plant very 

 hardy trees ; it is also the time to feed those 

 which are already established, and are living 

 on too scanty an income. And how many 

 trees are there upon lawns and in gardens — 

 shade trees and fruit trees — that are literally 

 so foor that they are starling to death ! 

 Perhaps they have once been luxuriant and 

 thrifty, and have borne the finest fruit and 

 blossoms, so that their owners have smiled, 

 and said pleasant words in their praise, as 

 they passed beneath their boughs. Then they 

 had a good subsistence ; the native strength 

 of the soil passed into their limbs, and made 

 them stretch out and expand with all the 

 vigor of a young Hercules. Now, alas, they 

 are mossy and deerepid — the leaves small — 

 the blossoms or fruit indifi"erent. And yet 

 they are not old. Nay, they are quite in the 



* This is easily done by digpiiisr a Irench all round. leavin!» 

 a ball about four or five feet in diameter ; undermining it well, 

 and leaving it to freeze for one or two nisrhls. Then turn tlie 

 tree down, place the uplifted side of the ball upon the '" stone 

 boat;" right the trunk, and set the whole ball firmly upon the 

 sled, and tlien the liorses will drag it easily to its new position. 



prime of life. If they could speak to their 

 master or mistress, they would say — " first of 

 all, give us something to eat. Here are we, 

 tied hand and foot, to one spot, where we 

 have been feeding this dozen or twenty years, 

 until we are actually reduced to our last mor- 

 sel. What the gardener has occasionally 

 given us, in his scanty top-dressing of manure, 

 has been as a mere crust thrown out to a 

 famished man. If you wish us to salute you 

 next year with a glorious drapery of green 

 leaves — the deepest, richest green, and start 

 into new forius of luxuriant growth — -feed us. 

 Dig a trench around us, at the extremity of 

 our roots, throw away all the old worn out 

 soil you find there, and replace it with some 

 fresh soil from the lower corner of some rich 

 meadow, where it has lain fallow for years, 

 growing richer every day. Mingle this with 

 some manure, some chopped sods — anything 

 that can allay our thirst and satisfy our 

 hunger for three or four years to come, and 

 see what a new leaf — yes, what volumes of 

 new leaves, we will turn over for you next 

 year. We are fruit trees, perhaps, and you 

 wish us to bear fair and excellent fruit. Then 

 you must also feed us. The soil is thin, and 

 contains little that we can digest ; or it is 

 old, and " sour" for the want of being aired. 

 Remove all the earth for several yards about 

 U.S, baring some of our roots — and perhaps 

 shortening a few. Trench the ground, when 

 our new roots will ramble, next year, 20 inches 

 deep. Mingle the top and bottom soil, re- 

 jecting the worst parts of it, and making the 

 void good — very good — by manure, ashes, 

 and decaying leaves. Then you shall have 

 bushels of fair and fine pears and apples, 

 where you now have pecks of spotted and de- 

 formed fruit." 



Such is the sermon which the " tongues in 

 trees" preach to those who listen to them at 

 this season of the year. We do not mean to 

 poets, or lovers of nature, (for to them, they 



