HOMESTEAD LANDSCAPES. 167 



decided improvement upon the place. Larger trees from two to 

 seven feet high and cut back to the ground are sold at slightly 

 advanced rates. These ma^^ be planted in the nursery, or in per- 

 manent locations. Thej' will throw out strong new shoots, and 

 soon surprise us by their tree-like form. 



I cannot close this paper without making some allusion to our 

 native shrubs, man}' of them rivalling those imported from more 

 favored climes. A lawn decorated with such shrubs can be made 

 exceedingly attractive, and with only the cost of transplanting. 

 Such are the common barberr}', may apple, clethra, elderberry, 

 thorn apple, the beautiful laurels, and the brilliant black alder, 

 the various viburnums and cornels, and the clematis, bitter-sweet, 

 and woodbine, so attractive for covering stone walls and fences as 

 well as our houses. Surely, with such resources at hand, no one can 

 make any excuse for living in a barren unattractive home. I 

 have transplanted many fine specimens from the roadsides ; discov- 

 ering them when in full tiower, stopping then not only long enough 

 to admire them, but to mark them, by fastening a few inches of 

 surgical bandaging material to branch or stem, and making a 

 note in mj' memorandum book, which enabled me to identify the 

 locality in the fall, after the leaves had fallen, and when they could 

 be more safely removed. 



Land in New England is cheap — lower than in many parts of 

 the West ; but it will not always remain so. The West will fill up 

 and a check will be placed upon emigration. A reaction will fol- 

 low in this as in everything else. These older states will here- 

 after sustain more than double the populations that they now do. 

 There will come a rise in land values, which in turn will impel us 

 to more thorough tillage ; and with the general advance in taste and 

 culture, which in our democratic country can never be confined to 

 one class, a corresponding impression will be stamped upon even 

 these rocky hills, making them artistically beautiful as well as 

 abundantly productive. These transformations will do much to 

 change the wandering instinct, now so prominent a characteristic 

 of our people, into that better trait called inhabitiveness or love of 

 home, which is the direct outcome of civilization, and the best 

 index of its advancement. 



