PRACTICAL AESTHETICS. 341 
more of your native plants, look through the files of the Minnesota Horti- 
culturist for the several admirable papers relating to them. 
In making plans for the house surroundings, do not forget to consider 
the views over the farm. Every practical man well knows that thickets of 
shrubs and many fine trees cannot be retained to a great extent in farm fields 
without making these fields less valuable for farming purposes. There are 
usually places, however, on every farm, in swampy places, along stream sides, 
on steep or barren slopes on ledges, in narrow strips of land along the 
roadside, at the junction of fields, that can never be made of much value 
for farming purposes. Almost every reasonable man will see that it is 
more desirable to retain the trees and shrubs on such land, for it adds to 
the beauty of the landscape without detracting from the value of the farm. 
It is often a measure of economy, too, to have the steep slopes covered 
with a thick native growth in order to prevent them from gullying and to 
prevent the expenditure of useless labor in keeping them in order. A 
thicket of trees and shrubs, if let alone, will take care of itself and require 
no especial attention. If it be sufficiently extensive, it will also be practica- 
ble to secure from the growth upon it pieces of timber that are required for 
the repair of various farming implements, or for firewood, without destroy- 
ing the few fine trees or the groups of fine trees, that would be reserved 
as interesting objects in the landscape. Other men, having appreciation 
of the beauty of fine trees, will be willing to sacrifice a small piece of tilla- 
ble ground for the sake of preserving now and then a specimen to add to 
the attractiveness of the fields and meadows. 
You say such places harbor weeds and vermin. As a matter of fact 
there are few harmful weeds in such places, and they can be weeded out 
without much trouble, and as for vermin, if your Minnesota boys are not 
able to exterminate them for an inducement or for fun, then I am sadly mis- 
led as to their make-up. 
If you own extensive tracts of wild land from which you derive no in- 
come, especially land having particularly attraetive landscape features, do 
not forget that you may confer a favor upon posterity, and build for your- 
self a more lasting monument than can be made of marble, by making a 
gift of such land to your town as a public reservation, where your fellow 
citizens, who are not blessed with broad acres, can roam at will with that 
secure feeling of possession that they can never feel when they are en 
croaching upon another man’s land, however amiable that man may be. 
To Stop Late Growth.—A tree bearing a heavy crop of fruit is not likely 
to make a late growth. Trees one or two years planted are more likely to 
make a late growth, and to be unripe when winter sets in, than the older 
and larger trees. Such trees should have a cover crop sown about August 
1. For this purpose many sow oats. Mr. Morrow, of Michigan, is in the 
habit of sowing oats, the growth of which shades the ground, assists in 
catching a little snow in winter time and lessens the freezing and thawing, 
The following spring, when cultivated in, they add needed humus to the 
soil. Nurserymen sow oats in young nursery stock for the same purpose. 
A leading small fruit grower of Wisconsin sows oats among his raspberries 
and blackberries, to assist in ripening them early in the season. 
