COUNTRY ROADS AND ROADSIDE IMPROVEMENTS. 121 



but the amount of roadway thus decorated is very small as 

 compared with that which is bare and possessed of little or 

 no beauty. Village improvement societies, Arbor-day 

 planting, planting-bees, etc., are doing much to encourage 

 and increase the good work. The expense of the trees 

 is very small, and it requires but an hour or two to 

 obtain and plant a tree, and every landowner will find a 

 few hours spent each year in thus adding to the beauty of 

 his surroundings often the most profitable hours of his life, 

 adding to the value of his property and building a monu- 

 ment that shall stand long after his face has been forgotten. 



Ornamental Shrubs and Flowering Plants along the 

 Roadsides. 



The great variety of ornamental shrubs, vines, and plants 

 that we find growing along our country roads, even when 

 growing in neglect, are very beautiful features, and with a 

 little care might be made to give as beautiful results as are 

 often obtained on the lawn. 



The planting of exotic or imported species under such 

 conditions seems out of taste and cannot be recommended. 



Grass alone under roadside trees and shrubs unless well 

 trimmed is not a very ornamental feature, but is necessary 

 to a perfect finish and setting of the trees and shrubs. 



If the land is smooth and free from stones and can be 

 plowed through to the roadway, the surface can be very 

 easily graded up and finished around the ornamental plant- 

 ing, but generally the smoothing and levelling must be done 

 by the slow process of digging off the projections and filling 

 np the depressions. 



The same smoothness that we find on the lawn is not to 



