Planting Willows and Pines 



of the street, farther up the former stream, 

 were not on our hill to form a feature in 

 our landscape-gardening, marked as they 

 are with the scratches which show the 

 grinding of some primeval glacier. 



Over the rough foundation of our hill a character 

 thin soil has formed itself ; fairly deep on - fthe sotl ' 

 the level top where the plain begins, but 

 constantly washed off down the sides into 

 the swale below. It seems hardly possi- 

 ble that trees can ever have grown here, 

 nor are there the smallest traces of any in 

 or upon the soil ; but here we resolved 

 that trees should grow; and again the 

 farmers mocked at such a wild idea, and 

 looked forward with sombre satisfaction 

 to our discomfiture. 



But how to set about it ? 



To plow the surface, unless we could A harmless 

 yoke a goat to the plow, seemed impossi- 

 ble, since we had just seen a man and 

 a horse and a dump-cart roll together, in 

 a confused but unharmed heap, from the 

 top to the bottom, on account of an incau- 

 tious step off the level. Even if we could 

 have plowed the ungrateful soil, of what 

 use would it have been, since there was 

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