ARTIFICIAL PLANTING OF TREES. 359 



Besides this, a little thought should ])e spent on the dwelling- 

 house and barn, on the cattle-yards, pigsties, and other sur- 

 roundings, to get the greatest amount of comfort from one's 

 farm. This observation is trite in the general, so prudent in 

 these particulars have good farmers become. But I make it in 

 this connection as bearing on the topic of my essay. Trees 

 make the homestead more attractive, and lielp much to its com- 

 fort. Indeed, what is more attractive to the eye, what more 

 refreshing to weary limbs, what could be more pleasant to 

 declining years, what more salubrious to young children than 

 fine shade trees, shrubbery, some little flower patch even, near 

 the dwelling ? A root of blossoming chrysanthemum, in some 

 rude wooden box even, a rosebush trained over the front door, 

 a few beautiful flowers in the borders of the sauce garden or 

 herb beds, some bright berried shrub, such as the spindle bush 

 or tree cranberry or mountain ash, planted near the wall, will 

 add much to the real pleasure, attracting, too, the birds about 

 the house and garden ; the birds, the friends of the farmer, I 

 consider these as sureties of self-respect, of refinement and cul- 

 ture within. The noble, spreading, umbrageous elm tree of a 

 century's growth overshadowing the house, old and venerable 

 as it may be, and weather-stained and even paintless as it may 

 have grown by time, is significant of some such limited pros- 

 pective wdsdom of ancestry, who planted for the comfort and 

 pleasure of those who were to come after them. I often see 

 farm houses which seem to stand out of doors, they look 

 so lonely and cheerless, and with a mean kind of air, as if they 

 had no right on the premises, but intended to quit on shortest 

 notice. The sun, too, seems to consider them as some ripening 

 vegetable production, and glares upon them with his most vivid 

 rays, as if to fit them for harvest, and to have them ready to be 

 gathered and stored away with the pumpkins and corn. And 

 in a cold wintry day, how the wind sweeps, and howls, and mut- 

 ters about them, making one feel that discomfort must be within 

 as well as without. This, to be sure, is not always the case, 

 and often hospitality may be found in such abodes. But how 

 it would warm the heart, how cheer the whole man, how much 

 more social and refined the aspect of the farm house, when 

 judicious planting about it would render really delightful the 

 scenery by beautifying the premises. If a new house were 



