improvements as these never fall to yield a profitable return in tlie increased value of 

 land. We could point out farms in many parts of the country that have actually been, 

 doubled in their market value by tasteful and judicious though inconsiderable expendi- 

 ture. Men seeking a habitation in the country, whether to engage in profitable agri- 

 culture or to enjoy retirement, turn their backs upon treeless districts. Indeed, without 

 an afliuence of trees and woods, no landscape can please or attract people to it. Down- 

 ixG says, in his Landscape Oardening : 



" Among all the materials at our disposal for the embellishment of country residences, 

 none are at once so highly ornamental, so indispensable, and so easily managed, as t^ees or 

 wood. We introduce them in every part of the landscape, — in the foreground as well as 

 in the distance, on the tops of the hills and in the depths of the valleys. They are, indeed, 

 like the drapery which covers a somewhat ungainly figure, and while it conceals its defects, 

 communicates to it new interest and expression, 



"A tree, undoubtedly, is one of the most beautiful objects in nature. Au-y and delicate 

 in its youth, luxuriant and majestic in its prime, venerable and picturesque in its old age, it 

 constitutes in its various forms, sizes and developments, the greatest charm and beauty of 

 the earth in all countries. The most varied outline of surface, the finest combination of 

 picturesque materials, the stateliest country house would be comparatively tame and spir- 

 itless, without the inimitable accompaniment of foliage. Let those who have passed their 

 whole lives in a richly wooded country, — whose daily visions are deep, leafy glens, forest 

 clad hills, and plains luxuriantly shaded, — transport themselves for a moment to the desert, 

 where but a few stunted bushes raise their heads above the earth, or those wild steppes 

 where the eye wanders in vain for some "leafy garniture," — where the sun strikes down 

 with parching heat, or the wind sweeps over with unbroken fury, and they may, perhaps, 

 estimate by contrast, their beauty and value." 



Will our country friends read this carefully, and learn from it to appreciate their 

 Avoodlands, and hereafter think not of laying the axe to their roots, but rather how 

 they may best preserve and improve them. If they fail to do this, most likely they 

 will live to regret it ; and if they do not, their successors surely wll. 



But there are other arguments in favor of preserving our trees and woods, beside 

 that of butifpng the landscape ; if there were not, we should have less hope for them 

 than we have. 



No man who has ever lived in the coimtry, need be told what an influence is exer- 

 cised upon the chmate by scattered groups of forest trees. Any one who has traveled 

 across an open prairie in cold, blustering, winter weather, and then through a well- 

 wooded region, can not have failed to discover the difterence. The most disagreeable 

 feature, both to man and beast, in our northern climate, is cold, cutting winds ; and 

 where their fury is unbroken, as in treeless or prairie regions, no living thing can resist 

 them. The most hardy of our domestic animals will seek shelter, if within their reach, 

 and, like drowning men, who seize the most frail support, they may often be seen clus- 

 tering around a solitary tree, a fence corner, or wherever they can discover even the 

 appearance of shelter. Men might learn from this, if not from their own feelings, how 

 grateful is the shade and shelter of trees, and how important it is to preserve and culti- 

 vate them. 



Is it not well known that the climate of all those portions of the country once well 

 Avooded but now in a great measure cleared, is greatly changed for the worse. In 

 Central New York, Peaches were grown successfully for the first twenty years or so 



