1 6 THE HOME ACRE. 



While this labor is going on you can begin the 

 planting of trees. To this task I would earnestly 

 ask careful attention. Your house can be buiit 

 in a summer; but it requires a good part of a cen- 

 tury to build the best trees into anything like 

 perfection. 



The usual tendency is to plant much too closely. 

 Observe well-developed trees, and see how wide a 

 space they require. There is naturally an eager 

 wish for shade as soon as possible, and a desire to 

 banish from surroundings an aspect of bareness. 

 These purposes can, it is true, often be accom- 

 plished by setting out more trees at first than 

 could mature, and by taking out one and another 

 from time to time when they begin to interfere 

 with each other's growth. One symmetrical, noble 

 tree, however, is certainly worth more than a dozen 

 distorted, misshapen specimens. If given space, 

 every kind of tree and shrub will develop its own 

 individuality; and herein lies one of their greatest 

 charms. If the oak typifies manhood, the droop- 

 ing elm is equally suggestive of feminine grace, 

 while the sugar-maple, prodigal of its rich juices, 

 tasselled bloom, and winged seeds, reminds us of 

 wholesome, cheerful natures. Even when dying, 

 its foliage takes on the earliest and richest hues 

 of autumn. 



The trees about our door become in a sense our 



