£0 Tree Culture. 



with a three-fold cord, not easily bioken, to the scene of their earliest and 

 purest enjoyments. It is truly surprising how much of what is us'iallv 

 designated a love/or home, may be resolved by a little reflection into a 

 love/or trees. Recur to the pages of those who have written on this sub- 

 ject, and it will be fouud almost invariably, that this sentiment is descri- 

 bed in connection with some aged and venerated tree — some sheaf topped 

 elm, perchance, stooping, like a guardian angel, over the homestead ; or, 

 perchance, a generous apple or pear tree, with an equally generous grape 

 vine hugging its trunk, and surmounting its branches, like a boa-constric- 

 tor ; or some giant sugar-maple which has been tapped so often in spring 

 that it looks like a huge round cartridge box ; or some gnarled oak, be- 

 neath which the c'ivls gathered acorns for their baby cups and saucers; 

 or some yellow-limbed willow near the brook, in whose ample boughs the 

 boys built their cuddies, when they returned from school in the long days 

 of summer. Such a tree there once was in old Connecticut, and wheu it 

 was felled, years ago, its fall sent a bitter pang, not yet forgotten, to one 

 boy's heart. It parted a tie whicli, had the tree been spared, would hav-« 

 bound him closer lo the home of his childhood. 



Ifthenitis desired that children should love their home, that tliey 

 should think of it often and with pleasure, when they grow up to be men 

 and women ; when they are separated from it by many leagues : when 

 they are steeped lo the lip in worldly cares ; when their fathers and mo- 

 thers are locked in the dreamless slumber of the grave. Those fathew 

 and mothers should take pains to make homo beautil'ul and attractive; 

 should plant trees about it, and thus woo the biids of the forest thither- 

 ward. An unsightly house, on a bare spot, exposed to sun, and wind 

 and rain, will be remembered with some unpleasant mixture. "Home is 

 still home, tho' never so homely," says the proveib, and it says truly, if 

 the house had only a tree to stand sentinel over it. A mud-built liutis a 

 picturesque object, if it rest in the shadow of a graceful elm. But with- 

 out some such companion, you may call it a habitation, a dwelling, a tene- 

 ment, or what suits you, if you will only leave unperverted the social 

 word " Home." 



Attachment to home is one of the elements of i>atriotism. As trees 

 Btrengtlien this aitachmont, it follows that (Ijey strengthen the sentiment 

 of patriotism. Here I find my closing argument in favor of tree-planting. 

 It is productive of a civil good. It aids in the rearing of good citizens, 

 honest voters, incorrupt freemen. 



I have said my thoughts. Let me briefly recapitulate. The planting 

 of trees, if I have uttered the truth, is a profitable investment of capital. 



