MISPLACED HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, ETC. 



pluck a flower, and in its bosom we see many a 

 charming insect busy at its appointed labor. 

 We pick up a fallen leaf, and if nothing is 

 visible on it, there is probably the trace of 

 an insect larva hidden in its tissues and await- 

 ing development. Our very Mother Earth is 

 formed of the debris of life. Begin our study 

 where we please, we shall never come to an 

 end our curiosity will never slacken. Get a micro- 

 scope. If you cannot borrow, boldly buy one. Few 

 purchases will yield you so much pleasure. Soon 

 contempt for anything in nature will give place to 

 reverence. Soon you will discover that you do not 

 live an independent life. You are dependent on the 

 air, the earth, the sunlight, the flowers, the plants, 

 the animals, and created things, directly or indi- 

 rectly. Nor is the moral dependence less than the 

 physical. We cannot isolate ourselves if we would." 

 Perhaps you think these passages from Mr. 

 Lewes out of place in a book on hedges, trees and 

 windbreaks. But I assure you that you will never 

 be a good horticulturist until you get at the spirit 

 as well as the form of things until you have put 

 yourself into relation to the All Life, that expresses 

 itself in infinite, varied forms. No, you cannot even 

 plant a hedge wisely without a sort of natural rev- 

 erence, and an honest sympathy with all of nature 

 about you. 



I care not how men trace their ancestry, 

 To ape or Adam; let them please their whim; 

 But I in June am midway to believe 

 A tree among my far progenitors; 



