174 



^1)0 Satmcv's iiXont\){^ Visitor. 



From ibe HorlicuUurist Tor November. 

 The Plautiii? Seiisou— Trees. 



The |)liinilji;{ scaduii i-: ;i; liiiiid. Our corres- 

 puiiileiicc; witli all parts of tliu coiiiilry iiiluriiis 

 lis, tliat ac no prevrous time lias tlic iiiiproveinent 

 ol' private grounds benii so active us at present. 

 New and lastcl'iii residences are (;\ery wliere lie- 

 ing built. New gardens are lieinjj laid out. New 

 orchards of large extent are rapidly lieing laid 

 out. Ill short, the liorticultur.il zeal of the coun- 

 try is not only awake — it is liriniful of energy 

 iind activity. 



I'rivate enterprise boiiij thus in a fair way to 

 take care of itself, we leel that the most obvious 

 duty is to endeavor to arouse a corresponding 

 spirit in certain rural improvements of a more 

 Iinblic nature — the planting of shade trees in the 

 streets of our rural town.s and villages. 



Pleasure and profit are certain, souncror later, 

 to awaken a large portion of our coiintryinen to 

 the advantages of improving their own private 

 grounds. But we find that it is only under two 

 conditions that many public iiiiproveinent.s are 

 carried on. The (irst is when nearly the whole 

 of the population enjoy the advantages of educa- 

 tion, as in New Kiiglaiid. 'I'lie second, is when 

 a few of the more spirited and intelligent of the 

 citizens move the rest by taking the burden in 

 the beginning upon their own sliouideis by set- 

 ting the example themselves, and by most zeal- 

 ously urging all others to iollow. 



The villages of New England, looking at their 

 sylvan charms, are as biiauliful as any in the 

 world. 'I'heir arehilecture is simple and unpre- 

 tending — often, indeed, meagre and unworthy of 

 notice. The houses are surrounded by enclosures 

 full of trees and shrubs, with space enough to 

 afl'ord comfort, and ornament enough to denote 

 taste. But the main street of the village is an 

 avenue of elms, positively delightful to behold. 

 Aluays wide, the overhaiiging boughs form an 

 aioJe more grand and bcauiiful than that of any 

 old gotliic cathedral. Not ctinteiit, indeed, with 

 one avenue, some ol' these villages have, in their 

 wide, single street, three lines of trees, Ibrming 

 a double avenue, of which any grand old palace 

 abroad may well be proud. Would that those of 

 our readers, whose souls are callous to (he lights 

 and shadows that bedeck these bewitching towns 

 and villages, would forihwith set out on a pil- 

 grimage to such places as Northampton, ripniig- 

 field, New-Haven, Pittstield, Stockbridge, Wood- 

 bury, Worcester, and the like. 



When we contrast with ihe.^e lovely resting 

 places fur the eye, embowered in avenues of 

 elins, gracefully drooping like foiintaius of wa- 

 ter, or sugar niajiles swelling and towering n|) 

 like finely formed aiiti'pie vases — some of the 

 imeared lor towns and villages in our own State, 

 (New York) we are almost forced to believe that 

 the famous common schools in New England 

 teach the testhelics of art, and that the beauty of 

 shade trees is tlir. care ofesjiecial professorships. 

 Honior and Virgil, Cicero, Alaulius and Tiilly, 

 shades of the great Greeks and Romans! our 

 cilizens have named towns alter you, but the 

 places that b(;ar your names scarcely hold leafy 

 trees enough to renew the fading laurels around 

 your heads! — while the direct descondaiils of 

 stern Puritans, who had a holy horror of things 

 ornamenlid, who croppi'd their hair, and made 

 penalties for indiilgeucus in line linen, live in 

 villages ovorshailowcd by the very spirit of rural 

 elegance! 



It is neiiher from a want of means nor a want 

 of time, or any ignorance of what is essential lo 

 the beaiily of body or of mind, that we see this 

 Megl<:ct of public becomingness. There are 

 niinibers «i' houses in all ihese villages, that 

 lioast their piano--, wliih' the last Paris liishions 

 are worn in the piiilors, and tiie freshest period- 

 ical literature of both sidts of the Allanlic, tills 

 the centre labli'S. But while the comliirt and 

 good looks of the individual are suliicieiitly 

 cared for, the comfort and good looks of the 

 town are sadly ncgleiMed. Our ediicalion here 

 stops short of New England. We are shnv lo 

 feel that the characier of the iiilialiilanis is al- 

 ways, in some degree, indicated by the appear- 

 and! of the tou n. It is, iiuliickily, no one's es- 

 pecial business to oriiaiiK.'iit the streets. No one 

 feels it a reproai!h to lii.usell', ;liat verdure and 

 heauly do not hang like curtains, over the slreei 

 in which he lives. And thus a u hide village or 

 town goes on liniii Year to vear i;> a .-ihameles.s 



state of public nudity and neglect, liecaiise no 

 one feels it his |iarlicular duty to peisiiude his 

 neighbors to join him in making the town in 

 which he lives, a gem of rural beauty, instead of 

 a sorry collcriion of uninteresting houses. 



It is the frecpieiit apology of intelligent per- 

 sons who live in such places, and are more alive 

 to this glaring defect than the majority, that it is 

 impossible for iheni to do any thing alone, and 

 their neighbors care nolhing about il. 



One of the finest refutations of tins kind of 

 delusion, e.vists in New Haven. All over the 

 Union, this town is known as the ' City of Elms.' 

 The stranger always pauses, and bears tribute lo 

 the taste of its inhabitants, while he walks be- 

 neath the grateful shade of its lofty rows of trees. 

 Yet a large |>art of the finest of these trees were 

 planted, and the whole of the spirit which they 

 have inspired, was awakened by one person — 

 Mr. Hillhonse. He lived long enough to see fair 

 and lolty .aisles of verdure, where before, were 

 only rows of brick or wooilen houses ; and, we 

 doubt not, he enjoyed a purer satisfaction, than 

 many great compierors who have died with the 

 hmiors of cajituring kingdoms, and demolishing 

 a hundred cities. 



Let no person, therefore, delay planting shade 

 trees hirn.«elf, or persuading his neighliors to do 

 the same. Wherever a village conttiiiis half a 

 dozen men zealous in this excellent work of 

 adorning the country at large, let them form a 

 society and make proselytes of those who are 

 slow to be moved otherwise. 



A public spirited man in Boston does a great 

 service to the community, and earns the thanks 

 of Ills countrymen, by giving fifty tliunsand dol- 

 lars to endow a professorship in a college; let 

 the public spirited man of the more humble vil- 

 lage in the interior, also establish his claim to 

 pul)lic gratitude, by planting, filly trees annually, 

 along its public streets, in (piarlers where there 

 is the least ability or the least taste lo be awak- 

 ened in this way, or where the poverty of the 

 houses most needs something to hide them, and 

 give an aspect of shelter and beauty. Hundreds 

 of public meetings are called, oy subjects not 

 half so important to the weltiire of the place as 

 this, whose object wouUI be to direct the atten- 

 tion of all the householders lo the nakedness of 

 their estates, in the eyes of those who msot love 

 our country, and would see her rural towns and 

 village homes made as attractive and iileasant as 

 they are f"ree and prosperous. 



We pointed out, in a former article, the prin- 

 ciple that should guide those who are about to 

 select trees for streets of rural towns — that ol' 

 choosing that tree which the soil of the place 

 will bring to the highest perli^ction. There are 

 two trees, however, which are so eminently adapt- 

 ed lo this purpose in the norihern Stales, that 

 tliey may be universally employed. These are 

 the .'imcrkan H'eeping Elm, and the Silver Majile. 

 They have, to recmiimend tlieni, in the first place, 

 great rapidity of growth ; in the seconil place, 

 the graceful forms which they assume : in the 

 third place, abuudance of line foliage; and last- 

 ly, the capacity of adapting theuiselvi/s to almost 

 every soil where trees will thrive at all. 



These two trees have broad and spreading 

 heads, fit for wide streets and avenues. That 

 line tree, the Dutch Elm, of (jxcetjdingly rapid 

 growth and thick, dark green foliage, makes a 

 narrower and more upright head thiin our native 

 smt, and, as well as the sugar maple may be 

 planted in streets and avenues where there is but 

 liille room for the ex|)unsion of wide spreading 

 tops. 



No town, where any of these trees are exten- 

 sively planted, can be otherwise than agreeable 

 to the eye, wli.ifver may be its silualion, or thi? 

 style of its dwi.'llings. To villages pretlily built, 

 they will give a character of positivi! beauty that 

 will bolli add to the value of property, and in- 

 crease the comfort and patriolisui of the iiiliabi- 

 tanls. 



Improveineiits ol' a I'eriniiiieut Character. 



As soon as the late harvests are secured, fiir- 

 uiers should be attentive to improveuieiits of a 

 lasting kind. Ilocks may be dug and walls may 

 as well be laid now as ai any season. It is not 

 well that able firmers should dismiss all their 

 hands as soon as the ilays grow short. Wages 

 oiay be diminished, but hiborcrs should have 

 ivork f'urnished ihcui through the vear. What 



are they to live on and keep their families on if 

 they are not lunployed through the winter. 



The threshing of the grain may nearly all be 

 done after the oiitdoru- work is finished, and af- 

 ter the ground is hard frozen. But il is not good 

 hnsbaiidry to sufl'er grain to lie through the win- 

 ter in the sheaf. The rats and the mice should be 

 watched, and all the threshing should be done 

 in the early part of winter. 



Wood for the whole year should of course be 

 cut and hauled, and all the limber that is to be 

 used on the farm, or to be sold, can be hauled lo 

 greater ailvantage on a snow path than on 

 wheel.s. The cutting and splitting at the door is 

 |;ro|)er winter vvtuk, and all this sliould be done 

 while ihe snow is on and while the plough must 

 be at rest. 



Fences are to be made, or repaired annually ; 

 and all llie wood material nitiy iie cut, split, mor- 

 tised, &c. ready to be set as soon as the frost is 

 out of the ground. The broken tools too may 

 all be repaired in the shop, or in the kitchen cor- 

 ner, out of the way of the cook. Hoe handles, 

 rake teeth, axe bandies, and various other small 

 iriallers may be attended to in winter rather than 

 at the lime svhen the tools are wanted for use. 



All the firm tools should be ke()t in a tool 

 house, and hung up or distributed where they 

 may be found at once when wauled. The hands 

 should all be called lo look at them till they 

 learn the place of each ; and when a new hand 

 is employed his first business should be to learn 

 where the tools are kept, iind that all must be re- 

 turned at night, if not at noon, to their proper 

 places. 



This arrangement saves a great amount of I'l- 

 bor ill the course of the year ; and much fretting 

 and scolding may be dispensed with when such 

 a system is pursued. All farmers know that ten 

 limes as much is lost in liimling for tool.<, as 

 would be lost in going a few steps at night, to 

 put llieiii all in place. 



In the winter season yokes may be made; and 

 any farmer who has a good axe and a shave and 

 auger may as well make his own yokes as to hire 

 them inatle. Steers' yokes particularly are very 

 soon made, for there needs not much curving in 

 small yokes, and very crooked ones arc not suit- 

 able for steers. 



Steers and colts can be broken and madp handy 

 in the winter belter than at any other season. — 

 Leisure is needed to train llieni well. Colts 

 shouhl be halter broken when they are quite 

 young. This is done by putting a halter on and 

 letting them know there is something stronger 

 than they are. They should then be trained to 

 go by the side of the mother when she is in har- 

 ness. They may be tied to the shaft of the wa- 

 gon or the chaise and go to mill or to meelings. 

 Colts trained in this way will never be afraid of 

 the wagon or the chaise behind them; even 

 lliongh the bridle breaks and the blind.'rs come 

 ofi'. 



Tlie bo_\s must be kept ut school through the 

 wiiiteg nioiiths. Let not farmers' boys be led to 

 think they are not to be eilncaled as well as boys 

 who go into stores and other places of business. 

 Li.'t the boys be scholars ihrougli the winter 

 monih.s, and let people who have families be 

 eiuployeil during the same time lo do the hard- 

 est jobs that are lo be done in winter. 



Other work may be done in winter if far- 

 mers choose to have other business than farm- 

 ing on their bauds. In many counties in iMassa- 

 chiisetts the shoe business is carried on lo a 



great extent by farmers in the winter season 



'I'lie trade of making coarse shoes, or brogiuis 

 is soon learned ; anil young farmers will lie in 

 heller tune for spring work after making shoes 

 through the Hiiiierihan after a winter of idle- 

 ness and dissipaliuu. 



,\ day lost is more than ihc loss of a day's wa- 

 ges — fi>r the ex|ieiises of the lost day are lo bo 

 reckoned and aihled to the first loss. Yet young 

 men are advised not to confine themselves in 

 winter lo labor so closely as to have no spare time 

 for reading. No man need to work so many 

 hours Ihat he cannot devote one or two to read- 

 ing in each winter evening. W. B. 

 Oct. 30, \S\7.—H,illoirclt Cu'tivalor. 



Rbward of Indcstry. — A letter writer, de- 

 scribing ibe mill of Messrs. Pollock fi. lialha- 

 wiiy, of South .^dams, (Berkshire,) sajs: 



Air. Pollock, till! senior in the firm, himself 



