VALUE OF TREES. 103 



more valuable, because it requires half a life-time to obtain them, 

 while the lawn may be perfected in two or three years. 



The comparative value of trees and shrubs depends much on 

 the extent of the ground and the taste of the occupants. If the lot 

 is small, and the family has a decided appreciation of the varied 

 characteristics of different shrubs, they will have much more pleas- 

 ure from a fine collection of them than from the few trees which 

 their lot could accommodate. But if the occupants are not par- 

 ticularly appreciative of the varied beauties of smaller vegetation, 

 then a few trees and a good lawn only, will be more appropriate for 

 their home. Larger lots can have both, but the foregoing con- 

 sideration may govern the preponderance of one or the other. 

 When once the planting fever is awakened, /oo many of both are 

 likely to be planted, and grounds will be stuffed rather than 

 beautified. 



One full grown oak, elm, maple, chestnut, beech, or sycamore 

 will cover with its branches nearly a quarter of an acre. Allow- 

 ing seventy feet square for the spread of each tree (all the above 

 varieties being occasionally much larger), nine such trees would 

 completely cover an acre. But as we plant for ourselves, instead 

 of for our children, it will be sufficient in most suburban planting 

 to allow for half-grown, rather than full-grown trees. Grounds, 

 however, which are blessed with grand old trees should have them 

 cherished lovingly — they are treasures that money cannot buy — 

 and should be guarded with jealous care against the admission of 

 little evergreens and nursery trees, which new planters are apt to 

 huddle under and around them, to the entire destruction of the 

 broad stretches of lawn which large trees require in order to reveal 

 the changing beauty of their shadows. Where such trees exist, if 

 you would make the most of the ground, lavish your care in 

 enriching the soil over their vast roots, and perfecting the lawn 

 around them ; and then arrange for shrubs and flowers away from 

 their mid-day shadows. Even fine old fruit trees, if standing well 

 apart on a lawn, will often give a dignity and a comfortable home- 

 look to a place that is wanting in places which are surrounded only 

 with new plantings. 



But it is an unfortunate fact that nine-tenths of all the town and 



