IO8 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS., ETC. 



not to let some one spoil what's been planted for 

 me, without money and without price." Among 

 his treasures is a plum tree hedge, not of much value 

 for plums, but useful around his henyard. 



I found him rather too conservative about cut- 

 ting, so that there was a tendency to thicket growth 

 in his groves, and even around his house. His love 

 for trees and vines, and all the artist touches of 

 nature, goes down to the minutest twig, and it hurts 

 him not to save every tree. Each bush gets to be 

 dear to him. I am afraid that this temperament is 

 not quite the thing for a farmer, unless he can have 

 a large area and keep his thickets at a little distance 

 from his house. It is a duty to cut liberally and 

 judiciously, as well as to plant freely and wisely. 

 There are hundreds of places where the ax is needed 

 more than the spade. The art of cutting is the fine 

 art of horticulture finer than that o-f planting. 

 Physical nature is never complete without a man in 

 it to trim and guide. Yet between the two, that is, 

 wild nature and an untrained man, give me the 

 former. What this man, my neighbor, had learned 

 was to do exactly what a man is designed for, to take 

 advantage of what nature does, to aid her and not 

 to thwart her in the accomplishment of her best work. 

 He could see along nature's lines. 



I sincerely believe the worst thing about our 

 country homes is imitation, the desire to plant what 

 others plant, to do what others do, and in general 

 to have what others have. For really, there are 

 rarely two spots of land that allow of just the same 

 treatment, nor are there two building spots where 

 exactly similar houses ought to be put up. A house 



