ARTIFICIAL PLANTING OF TREES. 361 



occupation, value a tree if it can be compelled to bear some- 

 thing to eat. They would graft their elms with pears, their 

 larches with apples, and their chance shade trees with plums 

 and peaches. But failing in this impossibity, they regard such 

 pleasures as encumbrances, and would be glad to have them 

 away at shortest notice, preferring a poor cider apple tree to a 

 splendid button-wood or elegant horse-chestnut. I allow that 

 the mouth and the palate are valuable organs, and so is the stom- 

 ach ; indeed, without them we could not well exist under the 

 present arrangements of life. But we should never forget that 

 " man cannot live by bread alone," and that the mind, heart, 

 and the higher natures claim our heed also. Were we created 

 with more decidedly animal instincts, those prudent and careful 

 considerations would be more commendable ; but we are " liv- 

 ing souls," and the soul of man and his truest spirit exhibit 

 themselves most correctly in rising above grosser thoughts. 

 And as such was intended in the Creative plan, what would it 

 profit to " gain the whole world and lose the soul ? " 



Some sorts of forest trees and of a highly ornamental and 

 picturesque character, do actually bear fruit without grafting 

 or budding ; and if we must have the useful with the orna- 

 mental, there are the walnuts and shagbarks, and chestnuts and 

 beeches, and wild cherries, all tempting to boys and to birds 

 alike, and all ornamental too. And then the nuts would afford 

 abundant treats for the one and the cherries for the other ; and 

 without both, in their relative places, the farm cannot get along. 

 We can as little spare the birds as the boys, and the truest 

 interest is to preserve these little and industrious insect devour- 

 ers, which keep in check hosts of enemies to the farm. 



And while speaking of shaded avenues to the approach of the 

 farm, I recall one planted with the yellow locust tree (^Rohinia 

 psendacacia.') This tree is highly commended in Emerson's 

 Report on the Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts. In this 

 instance the trees were planted along the county road, just out- 

 side the field-walls on either side ; and by thinning and prun- 

 ing, they had risen to the height of forty or more feet ; and in 

 a hot summer's day, scarcely any thing could exceed them in 

 real comfort of shade, beauty and cheerfulness. This tree, too, 

 has been found decidedly advantageous to plant in clumps or 

 belts, or in artificially formed woods, to renovate the soil, as 



