178 LANDSCAPE-GARDENING 



vary the sky-line and make it interesting and 

 beautiful. The woods the'mselves are charming 

 at all seasons of the year. The beauty of the 

 country usually includes that of many farms, and 

 the various wood-lots belonging to different owners 

 frame in the distant views to be seen from any house. 

 Study the effect of areas of woods from car windows 

 and think how monotonous would be the appearance 

 of the country if these woods were removed. Note 

 at the edge of a pasture a single great elm or a group 

 of oaks underneath whose branches cows are resting 

 during the heat of a summer day, a picture of com- 

 fort and utility as well as beauty. 



That farmer is most fortunate who has a bit of 

 original forest on his land ; an area that has never 

 been cleared and contains a variety of growth. Com- 

 pare such an area in New York or Ohio with a prairie 

 tree-claim where the tree plantation is made up en- 

 tirely of soft maples or box elders. In the former, 

 there will be sugar maples, beeches, oaks, sycamores, 

 black walnuts, butternuts, lindens, ashes, tulip trees, 

 hickories, elms, hawthorns, crab-apples, red-buds, 

 dogwoods, sassafras and many others, a combination 

 that gives interest to life, while the latter area covered 

 with one short-lived tree has a deadly monotony. 



