A LABRADOR SPRING 



case of the spruces, I am endeavouring to hasten 

 the process of familiarity by planting one of 

 each species within a few yards of my country 

 house, so that I can watch them grow and be- 

 come intimate with every stage in their prog- 

 ress. With the same idea I have planted what 

 I have fondly called my forest where I have 

 devoted an acre of land to New England trees 

 only, no foreign intruders are allowed. Here 

 some fifty different species and many individuals 

 are growing up. Only a few years ago one had 

 to take care not to step on the forest in the 

 grass, and my forest was the joke of my friends, 

 but now the trees are rapidly extending above 

 my head, and the birds of the air delight to 

 lodge in their branches, for after all the birds 

 are at the bottom of this scheme, but inci- 

 dentally I am learning much of trees. Until 

 one is perfectly familiar with the general 

 habit, the intangible family air of the different 

 species, it is a good plan to learn some special 

 field marks. The long cones of the white 

 spruce are of course distinctive. In the red 

 and black spruces the cones look much alike, but 

 in one species the cones generally fall off every 

 year, in the other they persist for years. I have 

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