TREES AND PLEASURE GROUNDS. 



251 



have other and more romantic stories to tell ;) 

 but to the earnest, practical, working owners 

 of the soil, — especially to those who grudge 

 a little food and a little labor, in order that 

 the trees may live contented, healthy, beauti- 

 ful and fruitful lives. We have written it 

 down here, in order that our readers, when 

 they walk around their gardens and grounds, 

 and think " the work of the season is all 

 done," may not be wholly blind and deaf to 



the fact that the trees are as capable, in their 

 way, of hunger and thirst, as the cattle in the 

 farm-yards ; and since, at the oftenest, they 

 only need feeding once a year, now is the 

 cheapest and the best time for doing it. The 

 very frosts of winter creep into the soil, loosen- 

 ed by stirring at this season, and fertilise, 

 while they crumble and decompose it. Walk 

 about, then, and listen to the sermon which 

 your hungry trees preach. 



TREES AND PLEASITRE GROUNDS IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



BY A MASSACHUSETTS SUBSCRIBER. 



" I can spend days 

 Slretch'd in ihe sliade of these fair-growing trees, 

 Waicliing tlie sunshine like a blessing fall — 

 The breeze like music wandering o'er the botlglis — 

 Each tree a natural harp — each difTerenl leaf 

 A dilTerent note, blent iii one vast thanksgiving." 



In the days of Charles the First, the 

 English «vere suddenly awakened to the ne- 

 cessity of planting trees, to recruit their ex- 

 hausted forests, by the writings and example 

 of Evelyn ; from the acorns which he plant- 

 ed, sprung the " hearts of oak," in which 

 Nelson fought and gained his splendid victo- 

 ries. We, too, after wantonly destroying our 

 woods for two centuries, begin to realise that 

 they are not inexhaustible, as year by year 

 the pine forests are gradually receding before 

 the woodman's axe, until, with the snows of 

 every winter, their camp fires are lighted 

 nearer and nearer to the head waters of the 

 great rivers of Maine, the most northerly por- 

 tion of the country. With our extensive coal 

 mines, we shall ever have a supply of fuel, or 

 else I might stop to lament for the flickering 

 wood-fires of our ancestors, whose happiness 

 was indelibly associated with the domestic 

 hearth ; and to predict that we should, by the 

 (destruction of our forests, become as frivolous 

 as the French, whose slisht attachment to 



home may perhaps be attributed to the scar- 

 city of fuel ; for how can the domestic virtues 

 flourish where wood is sold by the pound, and 

 where it is cheaper to spend the evening at 

 the opera and cafi than in one's own house ? 

 But for us, there is no such danger ; and it is 

 principally for the purposes of ornament, the 

 arts and manufactures, that the people should 

 be encouraged to plant trees. To the ad- 

 mirers of Evelyn, of whom England is justly 

 proud, I would point out men who have fol- 

 lowed his example in our western world, hold- 

 ing them up for imitation, hoping thereby to 

 induce some to take the worthy Scotchman's 

 advice, to " stick a tree ; it will ay' be grow- 

 ing while they are sleeping." 



Many urge, as a reason for neglecting to 

 plant trees, the miserable excuse that they do 

 not expect to live to receive either pleasure 

 or profit for their pains ; that here, where 

 landed property changes hands so often, they 

 have no interest in planting for posterit}'. To 

 controvert this prevalent idea, I intend to 



