

FARMEKS' HOUSES. 271 



SO mucli need the plane and saw to make beauty. The greatest breach of good taste 

 in a house yard on the farm, is stinginess of size — adopting as a choice in the country 

 what is only a necessity in the city. Half an acre, or even an acre, no fanner should 

 grudge for his yard; especially as no part of tbe farm can be made to pay better. 

 The writer has found that two acres that he has mostly planted with forest and 

 evergreen trees, made a better return of grass than twice the number of acres of 

 meadow elsewhere. As breadth and magnitude, rather than elaborate decoration, 

 belong to the farm, a horizontal fence is most appropriate to the yard. Picket fences, 

 so common in front of farm houses, should never occupy that position. A horizontal 

 ten foot rail, made of some hard wood free from knots, to connect the posts, makes a 

 cheap, strong fence, obstructs the vision as little as any, and looks well. 



A few words as to the selection of trees. I assume before making any list of orna- 

 mental trees for the decoration of the grounds of a well-to-do farmer, that he is not 

 restricted in room. There is no necessity for crowding his trees too closely, as nine- 

 tenths of lot owners in villages are sure to do; but, selecting his trees judiciously, 

 he may give each its proportionate and necessary area, so that its distinguishing 

 beauties shall be best brought out. Let the farmer devote two acres — at least one — 

 to trees and lawn. On two acres he may get all our native forest trees, a complete 

 collection of hardy evergreens, and besides, a good variety of the best pears and 

 cherries. The pear and the cherry are the only fruit trees fit for the yard. From 

 them, varieties may be selected combining the greatest excellence of fruit and all the 

 beauties of form and thrift. The peach and the apple do not sufficiently combine 

 beauty and utility to admit their presence nearer than the orchard. 



It need not be objected that the portion of the ground devoted to forest trees is to 

 yield its sole profit in the grass which may grow beneath them. Why not have your 

 hickory nuts grown at home, instead of spending time and legs in roaming the woods 

 or your neighbor's fields for them ? And there is as much diff'erence between such 

 nuts as you might have by a proper choice, and the average of wood-grown nuts, as 

 would amply compensate for the pains. How few trees equaling the Chestnut as a 

 lawn tree, and how good the nuts ! I saw young Chestnut trees last summer in th-e 

 nursery of a friend, whose crop of fruit quite astonished me. The seed from which 

 they sprung was planted at the same time with nursery apple trees growing near 

 them. The latter had not commenced bearing. The Black Walnut, too, grows 

 rapidly in the proper soil, and produces one of the best of nuts. 



From the large variety of evergreens to be found in the nurseries, fifteen kinds will 

 embrace all the well-tried — all that are certain to withstand the irregularity of 

 northern winters without protection. Foremost among them, all things considered, 

 may be placed the Norway Spruce, Hemlock, and Black Spruce. They are all beauti- 

 ful specimens of tree architecture, and complete types of the two kinds of character 

 in evergreens. Quite too little has been, said in praise of the Black Spruce, o wing- 

 partly to the fact that it has been little cultivated as yet. Its growth and size are 

 about equal to the Norway Spruce; but it has a much denser foliage, and, with the (v 

 Norwav, the same association of color is attained as verdigris and French green aftbrd. y^ 



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