TREES, IN TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 



395 



In some parts of Germany, the govern- 

 ment makes it a duty for every landholder 

 to plant trees in the highways, before his 

 property ; and in a few towns that we have 

 heard of, no young bachelor can take a wife 

 till he has planted a tree. We have not a 

 word to say against either of these regula- 

 tions. But Americans, it must be confessed, 

 do not like to be over-governed, or compel- 

 ed into doing even beautiful things. We 

 therefore recommend, as an example to all 

 country towns, that most praise-worthy and 

 successful mode of achieving this result, 

 adopted by the citizens of Northampton, 

 Massachusetts. 



This, as we learn, is no less than an Or- 

 namental Tree Society. An association, 

 whose business and pleasure it is to turn dusty 

 lanes and bald highways into alleys and ave- 

 nues of coolness and verdure. Making a 

 " wilderness blossom like the rose," is 

 scarcely more of a rural miracle than may 

 be wrought by this simple means. It is 

 quite incredible how much spirit such a so- 

 ciety, composed at first, of a few really zeal- 

 lous arboriculturists, may beget in a coun- 

 try neighborhood. Some men there are, in 

 every such place, who are too much oc- 

 cupied, with what they consider more im- 

 portant matters, ever to plant a single tree, 

 unsolicited. But these are readily acted upon 

 by a society, who work for " the public 

 good," and who move an individual of this 

 kind, much as a town meeting moves him, 

 by the greater weight of numbers. Others 

 there are, who can only be led into tasteful 

 improvement, by the principle of imitation, 

 and who consequently will not begin to 

 plant trees, till it is the fashion to do so. 

 And again, others who grudge the trifling 

 cost of putting out a shade tree, but who will 

 be shamed into it, by the example of every 

 neighbor around them — neighbors who have 



been stimulated into action by the zeal of 

 the society. And last of all, as we have 

 learned, there is here and there, an instance 

 of some slovenly and dogged farmer, who 

 positively refuses to take the trouble to 

 plant a single twig by the road-side. Such 

 an individual, the society commiserate, and 

 beg him to let them plant the trees in front 

 of his estate, at their own cost ! 



In this way, little by little, the Ornament- 

 al Tree Society accomplishes its ends. In a 

 few years it has the satisfaction of seeing 

 its village the pride of the citizens — for 

 even those who were the most tardy to 

 catch the planting fever, are at last — such 

 is the silent and irresistible influence of 

 sylvan beauty — the loudest champions of 

 green trees — and the delight of all travellers, 

 who treasure it up in their hearts, as one 

 does a picture drawn by poets, and colored 

 by the light of some divine genius. 



We heartily commend, therefore, this 

 plan of Social Planting Reform, to every 

 desolate, leafless, and repulsive town and 

 village in the country. There can scarcely 

 be one, where there are not three persons of 

 taste and spirit enough to organize such a 

 society ; and once fairly in operation, its 

 members will never cease to congratulate 

 themselves on the beauty and comfort they 

 have produced. Every tree which they 

 plant, and which grows up in after years 

 into a giant trunk and grand canopy of foli- 

 age, will be a better monument (though it 

 may bear no lying inscription) than many an 

 unmeaning obelisk of marble or granite. 



Let us add a few words respecting the 

 best trees for adorning the streets of rural 

 towns and villages. With the great num- 

 ber and variety of fine trees which flour- 

 ish in this country, there is abundant rea- 

 son for asking, " where shall we choose ?" 

 And although we must not allow ourselves 



