MY FARM OF EDGEWOOD 



hill, where there were stubborn rocks which 

 forbade removal, I have set little coppices of 

 native evergreens, which, without detracting 

 in any appreciable degree from the grazing 

 surface, will, as they grow, have charming ef- 

 fect, and offer such modicum of shade as all 

 exposed pasture lands need. One who looked 

 only to simple farm results, would certainly 

 never have planted the little coppices, or hedged 

 them, as I have done, against injury. But it 

 appears to me that judicious management of 

 land in the neighborhood of large towns, should 

 not ignore wholly, the conservation of those 

 picturesque effects, which at no very remote 

 time, may come to have a marketable value, 

 greater even than the productive capacity of 

 the soil. 



I have even had the hardihood to leave upon 

 certain particularly intractable spots of the hill 

 land, groups of myrtles, briers, scrubby oaks, 

 wild grapes, and birches, to tangle themselves 

 together as they will, in a wanton savagery of 

 growth. Such a copse makes a round perch 

 or two of wilderness about the sprawling wreck 

 of an old cellar and chimney, which have tra- 

 ditional smack of former Indian occupancy; 

 and the site gives color to the tradition; — for 

 you look from it southeasterly over three 



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