THE GENESEE FAEMER. 



340 



There are some country people whom we know 

 who will point with pride and pleasure to the old 

 trees which have come down to them from a former 

 generation, — never coldly calculating their cost, or 

 charging them w'ith lodging in meadow or corn 

 field, hut regarding them as friends faithfully rely- 

 ing for hospitality upon the owners of the soil, to 

 whoui they may yield a thousand fold of pleasure 

 and true profit in return. 



There is no doubt hut the demands of art and 

 manufactures, and steam travelling, and many other 

 causes, all working in the same direction, are causing 

 a rapid decimation of the trees of this country. 

 If this goes on as heretofore, any one may calcu- 

 late how soon tliis is to be a treeless land. 



We would urge the farmers of this generation, 

 ( for on them the duty depends) to counteract this 

 tendency by planting and raising and loving trees; 

 ■ — if not for jileasure^ for profit. Of the profit of 

 sucli work we are not now speaking; — but we 

 would suggest that a country-man (in its true, good 

 sense,) may indefinitely enhance his enjoyment of 

 life by studying and clierishing and protecting trees, 

 — giving them the best of his hospitality. They 

 will educate, ( that is draic him out) make him bet- 

 ter and wiser, and be sure they will improve on 

 acquaintance — country life is the best life of all, 

 and trees are the best part of it. 



We have been led to make these remarks by 

 reading a chapter of tlie last work of Euskin — 

 (Modern Painters.) He has occasion to analyze the 

 sources of beauty to be found in trees — and grow- 

 ing things. Incidentally he speaks enthusiastically 

 of country' life, and these are his remarks, which we 

 need not apologize to our readers for introducing, 

 for they are quite complimentary to those of whom 

 we are speaking. 



" Tieing thus prepared for us in all ways ami made 

 lieautiful, and good far food, and for building and 

 for instruments of our hands, this race of plants, 

 deserving boundless atfection and admiration from 

 us, become, in proportion to their obtaining it, a 

 nearly perfect test of our being in right temper of 

 mind and way of life ; so that no one can be far 

 wrong in either who loves the trees enough, and 

 every one is assuredly wrong in both, who does not 

 love them, if his life has brought them in his way. 

 It is clearly possible to do without them, for the 

 great compaiiionsliip of the sea and sky are all that 

 sailors need ; and many a noble heart has been 

 taught the best it had to learn between dark stone 

 walls. Still if human life be cast am(.>ng trees at 

 all, the love borne to them is a sure test of its pu- 

 rity. And it is a sorrowful proof of the mistaken 

 ways of the world that the " country,'''' in a simple 

 sense of a place of fields and trees has hitherto 

 been the source of reproach to its inhabitants, and 

 that the words " countryman, rustic, clown, payson, 



villager" still signify a rude and untaught person, 

 as opposed to the words " townsman" and "citizeji." 

 We accept this use of words or the evil which it 

 signifies samewhat too quietly, as if it were quite 

 natural and necessary that country peo[)le should 

 be rude and towns people gentle. Whereas I believe 

 that the result of each mode of life may, in 

 some stages of the world's progress, be the exact 

 reverse ; and that anotiier use of words may be 

 forced u[)on us by a new aspect of facts, so that we 

 may find ourselves saymg "Such and such a person 

 is very gentle and kind — he is quite rustic ; and 

 such another person is very rude and ill taught— he 

 is quite urbane." 



We do not propose to discuss the question of the 

 comparative influences which town or country life 

 may exercise upon the manners and dispositions of 

 a people or of individuals, whether one is more 

 civilizing than another; but we almost wish that 

 HusJiin had done or would do what he "had once 

 purposed, to show what kind of evidence existed 

 respecting the possible influence of country life on 

 men ; it seeming to me then likely that here and 

 there a reader would perceive this to be a grave 

 question, more than most which we contend about, 

 political or social, and might care to follow it out 

 with me earnestly. The day will assuredly come 

 when men will see that it is a grave question ; at 

 which period, also, there will arise persons able to 

 investigate it. For at present, the movements of 

 the world seem little likely to be influenced by bo- 

 tanical law ; or by any other considerations re- 

 specting trees than the probable price of timber." 



How interesting a book would be, on such a sub- 

 ject by such an author. We could wish heartily 

 that he might more frequently descend from his 

 '■'■high arf'' to subjects that all of us can understand 

 so well. 



Let then the dweller in country places be assured 

 that his day is coming. The " rural districts,'''' are 

 already making themselves felt, not only in politics 

 but in everything else as well. Cultivation in the 

 humanizing and christianizing subjects by which 

 we are surrounded is one means to attain tlie end. 

 The aphorism is familiar to us all, " a bad man 

 cannot love trees." So let us study them as one 

 means to become good. 



Hoio shall tee study themf Where beg'n? 



An experienced horticulturist in Alabama states 

 that northern peach trees do not blossom with him 

 till April, while the native peach trees blossom in 

 February. 



Grapes in California. — The Califoriiia Farmer 

 says that Sonoma County "has now planted twelve 

 hundred acres of the vine.^'' 



