STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. lOJ 



horticulturists has said that the yard is the outdoor parlor of the 

 home. So I may not seem so discourteous as at first. You are 

 indeed blessed if you have near your home some old elm trees. 

 You are blessed if you have near your home trees of any sort. 

 If you have not, one of the first things that you will want to do 

 will be to plant trees. A man who plants a tree is a public 

 benefactor. Stephen Girard, the founder of Girard College, 

 said : " If I knew that I were to die tomorrow, yet today would 

 T plant a tree." We have different tastes. It is perhaps well 

 for quick growing to plant maples. Let me urge you to plant 

 the horse-chestnut because of its beautiful foliage ; and then 

 wdien it is in blossom it is a beautiful bouquet. There is perhaps 

 some liquor that comes frorii it. That can easily be taken care 

 of. And then for another reason, it is a tree that pleases the 

 children. I remember a fev/ years ago taking some of my pupils 

 into the yard of a friend who had had a horse-chestnut tree for 

 a number of years, and showing them the little horseshoe that is 

 formed out where each twig jpins, and much to my astonish- 

 ment my friend had never noticed the hundreds of little horse- 

 shoes that there were all over the horse-chestnut tree. That I 

 think is w^here it derives its name. Perhaps some of you may 

 have the horse-chestnut tree and possibly may not have noticed 

 It, but it is a very pretty and perfect horseshoe with every nail 

 set in its place regularly. The horseshoes are of different sizes. 

 This is one thing that helps please the children besides giving 

 the beautiful shade. I perhaps may differ in this respect from 

 others but I would not have near my home many evergreens. 

 The pines are beautiful if w^e do not get them too near our 

 houses, but there is enough sombreness that comes into our lives 

 without bringing the dampness and shade too near us. A strip 

 of clean green grass in front of the house looks to me more 

 beautiful than anything else. It seems a little strange that in 

 even the planting and sowing of our lawns the National colors 

 can come in. I have read that the best seed to mix for lawns 

 is the redtop, the Kentucky blue grass, mixed if the lawn is 

 sandy with the white clover seed, which you see gives us the 

 red. white and blue. It struck me as a little peculiar. 



Many of us like shrubs and bushes about our house. If we 

 have them let us choose them with an eye to getting some that 

 shall not be unsightly when they have gone out of bloom. And 

 it is very pretty to put them in groups so that when one shrub 



