ARTIFICIAL PLANTING OF TREES. 865 



them to rise to greater height, for in a few years there will be 

 a fine crop, fitted for making posts and rails for the pains. The 

 red cedar bears this lopping and pruning so well, that it can 

 become used to the shears under hedge culture, and can be cut 

 into any requisite shape. One of the most picturesque little 

 spots I ever saw, was composed of a rocky ledge, out of which 

 and rising above the wild growth of smaller trees, a sour gum 

 {Ni/ssa miiUiflora) shot out into the air, equally beautiful and 

 attractive in winter, when its straggling and flattened branches 

 were grotesque and unique, as in summer, when its dark green 

 foliage was lovely, or in autumn, when crimsoned by incipient 

 decay. Some amateur may chance give more money to pur- 

 chase its surroundings for a dwelling-house, than the entire 

 price of the farm without this pretty knoll would amount to 

 under other circumstances. 



The hop hornbeam, also called ieverwood and ironwood 

 ( Ostrya Virginica) thrives upon the scanty soil of such spots — 

 a tree a thousand fold better for use than bare rocks and sun- 

 burnt ledges. 



For quick growing, ornamental and useful trees, the maples 

 stand conspicuous. But the sugar maples, Acer saccharinum 

 and Acer dasi/carpum, the most sweetly and pleasantly useful, 

 require good soils, and such ^s it is considered are better em- 

 ployed in other ways. And yet it may be a question whether 

 for iitility or for ornament, land by the sides of fields bordering 

 on public roads could be better used than in the culture and 

 care of these trees. The Chinese sorghum will never do away 

 with the sugar maples, as a producer of the sweets of life, nor 

 do I believe that in the long run, that grass will be preferred to 

 the tree, especially while it is problematical whether cane sugar 

 can be produced from it. 



The well-known value of the willows (^Salix spp.') for secur- 

 ing pieces of roads over swampy and miry places, while they 

 also afford agreeable shades, renders this group of beautiful 

 trees more worthy the attention of the farmer. I have often 

 wondered on seeing patches of perfectly worthless lands on 

 farms, why a few hours' or days' labor had not been expended 

 to redeem them. Hollows consigned to the blackbirds and 

 frogs, could be made to produce some sorts of willows, and by 

 degrees, to afford, by their tops, occasional fuel for many years. 

 47 



