372 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 111:8— Nov., 1915 



Already it possessed half a dozen great forest trees — two clumps 

 of basswood on the declivity, a stalwart white ash further down 

 whose roots luxuriated upon the water-table some yards below the 

 surface, a great black cherry on the edge of the blue clay, and a 

 crimson maple and a pair of white elms rising like Etruscan vases 

 in the hollow. And here — while the grass plot by the river was 

 fenced off as a calf pasture, and the rest of the field became an 

 orchard stocked with La Fameuse, St. Lawrence, Pomme Girs and 

 Montreal Beauty — on this broken ground, sacred from profit, a 

 grove should grow up in Nature's wildness for knowledge and 

 delight. 



The spot was not without historic interest. Four miles down 

 the river had been foueht the Battle of Chateauguay, the last 

 encounter between British and American arms. On the river 

 front of this farm was one of the fords across which part of the 

 American force had withdrawn. In the intervale in this field the 

 Indian bands who had fought beside De Salaberry had bivouacked 

 the night after the battle. Half a mile further on where a creek 

 runs into the Chateauguay there were still to be seen five grave- 

 mounds side by side, which local tradition said were those of five 

 American soldiers, one of them already wounded, who were here 

 overtaken by their pursuers. Evidently they had missed the trail 

 across this field to the ford — possibly because the four unwounded 

 men were carrying their comrade. Probably when they came to 

 the point with water on either hand they turned to await the foe 

 and fell. 



When the farm was bought there were three boys in the house- 

 hold, then in their first and fourth and eighth years. For them 

 and for their sisters, the building up ot the tree-garden through 

 many years proved a constant course in nature-study. Their 

 mother loved flowers as their father loved the trees, and in the 

 summer evenings friends from the village walked out to the farm 

 to admire her garden, always to return with armfuls of bloom. 

 Under such influences the children could not but grow up to know 

 anri love nature. 



As the tree-garden was gradually formed they learned that each 

 species thrives only in its own habitat, and learned as well why no 

 sugar maples were planted in the hollow. That was reserved — so 

 far as maples went, for the crimson and the silver maples. Moun- 

 tain maples were planted on the crest of the hill and striped maples 



