58 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



surroundings of that place that he sold it for $3,000. It was a large 

 profit to be sure, but the man had the money, his wife took a fancy 

 to the shrubs, flowers and ivy- covered verandah and so he bought it. 

 A few years later somebody else saw that beautiful little place and 

 wanted it. There was no more than the original six acres of land, 

 the buildings had not been enlarged, only kept in good repair, but 

 how attractive the grounds were ; what a wealth of beauty there was 

 in trees and vines, flowers and fruit ! No, he didn't care about sell- 

 ing, but he would. The other man and his wife also took another 

 fanc}' to the beautiful surroundings ; not to the farm for it was small ; 

 not to the house for it was ordinary ; but the trees and shrubs and 

 fruit ! It would take years lo have them in any new place, and there 

 they were, beautiful and luscious, and growing more and more at- 

 tractive every 3'ear. Four thousand dollars. High do you say? 

 But they bought the place. 



Ah, my friends, what inanimate object appeals more certainly to 

 the universal heart of man, than a beautiful tree? Its very com- 

 monness ma}" be a reason why very many, and especially those who 

 have grown up in well-wooded districts, are not distinctly conscious 

 of the pleasure which they find in trees. It is like their unconsci- 

 ousness of the delight in the daily enjoyment of the atmosphere. 

 But who, least emotional of mortals though he may be, has not, at 

 some time, if indeed he has not often, felt a tree to be a precious 

 thing. The tired wayfarer, reclining by the dust}' roadside under 

 its cool, refreshing shade. What more truly humane picture than 

 that? A party of old and young of both sexes, picnicing on a sum- 

 mer's day, beneath the spreading boughs of some grand old oak ! 

 How could such a happy scene be complete without, that tree? Yon- 

 der lofty and majestic elm, the growth of a century, standing by the 

 side of some farm-house, which though ample in size, it dwarfs to a 

 cottage as it rises above it with its dome of shade, and tosses its 

 giant arms high over roof-tree and chimney top ! What an object 

 to fill one at the same time with wonder and admiration ! How it 

 starts deep and meditative thoughts even in the most careless be- 

 holder. The lordly pine or hemlock, refusing to be robbed of its 

 beauty at any season of the year, but sighing like a hundred ^olian 

 harps, with every breeze, and holding itself before us as an emblem 

 of life and immortality, to cheer us when all around is wrapped in 

 the chill white robe of winter — what object on earth, next after the 

 immortal man himself, is more beautiful or more noble? Man can- 



