84 WAYSIDE SHRUBBERY. 



should be occupied by the farmers' crops. Yet were it 

 not for the persistent efforts of Nature, who plants her 

 shrubs with liberal hand in neglected fields and borders, 

 they would long since have been exterminated in all 

 our old townships. It is true that they do not yield 

 any immediate profit to the farmer; but they produce 

 fruit which is a luxury to the children of the neighbor- 

 hood ; they are valuable for the shelter they afford to the 

 birds; they protect the immediate grounds from the 

 winds, even more than trees ; and they constitute the most 

 interesting embellishments of a rustic farm. 



