92 HOW TO PLAN THE HOME GROUNDS 



in case of close planting, experience has proved that, as 

 scarcely any one systematically thins out plantations so 

 as to allow the remaining trees and shrubs to properly 

 develop their normal character, it is a good idea under 

 the circumstances to take a conservative course, and 

 plant at distances that will allow the trees and shrubs to 

 develop properly for a number of years without injuring 

 each other, and at the same time to keep them near 

 enough together to look well even when they have at- 

 tained a moderate size. 



It is difficult to fix the exact distance apart that trees 

 and shrubs should stand, because the growth of trees 

 and shrubs, even in the case of the same species, varies 

 to a remarkable degree, as all close observers will remem- 

 ber ; but we should say, in a general way, that large trees, 

 like elms and maples, should stand forty to fifty feet 

 apart, and shrubs like dogwood and snowballs, six to 

 eight feet apart. This will allow a fine exhibition of the 

 characteristic beauty of the plant, before the time comes 

 when the thinning-out process must commence, if the value 

 of the trees and shrubs is to be saved from nearly uni- 

 form deformity and decay. The effect of close planting 

 is almost invariably in actual, as distinguished from theo- 

 retical, practise, to crowd more or less of the plants be- 

 fore the pressure of the overgrowth is relieved by cut- 

 ting out or transplanting. 



It has the tendency to simplify the problem of plant- 

 ing, and the accompanying thinning-out process, if large 

 masses of one kind of shrubs or trees are used, with per- 

 haps on the outskirts a slight sprinkling here and there 

 of other kinds, to prevent a sense of monotony ; for in 

 that case it becomes a simple thing to select a number of 

 plants for removal from a quantity of the same kind. It 



