Planting Trees on a Lawn 



Impatient as we are to achieve miracles 

 of growth, we might forget how much our 

 little trees are doing were it not for a pho- 

 tograph taken in 1888, which shows them 

 scudding under bare poles, that makes 

 their present height quite imposing by 

 contrast. 



In the five years which we claimed of 

 our critics in the beginning, we are now 

 sure that all air of newness will have gone 

 from the knoll, which, even in the second 

 summer, astonished the passers-by, who 

 were most of them unused to the results 

 that can be attained by unremitting exer- 

 tions. 



Against these trees we have no charges Trials with 

 to make of either stubbornness or ingrati- 

 tude ; given the conditions, the results are 

 all, and more than all, we had a right to 

 expect. The only ones that have not been 

 what we could wish are the Hemlocks, 

 which object strenuously to the dry, windy 

 situation, and only live under protest. In 

 vain do we plant nursery trees with good 

 roots ; they dwindle and pine, and refuse 

 to profit by their advantages. Out of over 

 forty trees planted on the lawn and its 

 119 



