STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. II3 



There are certain principles which govern the planting of 

 these trees and shrubs which I shall mention later. I cannot 

 dwell upon that here, but simply this — plant in groups or in 

 clumps, ordinarily, rather than a single plant here and a single 

 plant there and a single plant yonder. Make a solid border, 

 just as we have done around the base of this building. No mat- 

 ter if the plants are not all of one kind. So much the better. 

 Make irregular outlines, instead of making straight rows like 

 rows of tombstones. Get plants, if, possible, which bloom at 

 different seasons of the year. Get plants which give highly col- 

 ored fruits part of the year, like high bush cranberry, other 

 plants which give rich foliage in the fall, like our common high 

 bush blueberry and like the staghorn sumach. In other words, 

 make of your home grounds, a picture, the house being the cen- 

 tral part of the picture and this irregular border of shrubbery 

 and trees the framework for that picture. And above all, in 

 the foreground have a beautiful, clean, smooth lawn. In these 

 days, when you can get a first-class lawn mower for not more 

 than $3.50, there is no excuse for not having a good, clean, 

 smooth lawn. Don't mow the front yard for hay and then let 

 it grow up to weeds the rest of the year. Thank fortune, many 

 of our best farms at the present time are now farm homes, are 

 kept just as well as our city homes. 



Now there are just two or three principles I wish to speak of. 

 The first is — Don't attempt too much. Don't crowd the whole 

 yard full of individual plants. There are lawns with a flower 

 bed here, and a rose bush there, and a honeysuckle there and a 

 golden glow yonder— all made up into a crazy quilt. Bv all 

 means avoid that. See a picture, not a single bush or a col- 

 lection of bushes. Have the people exclaim as they go by your 

 place "Isn't that a beautiful place?" but not "See that lilac 

 bush!" or "Isn't that a pretty rose bush?" Let them see the 

 w^iole thing and not a patchwork. 



Now, as I have said, don't discard native plants because they 

 are common. Some of you were with me this morning when we 

 saw one clump of the common stag horn sumach. There is 

 another clump, to which I would like to have called your atten- 

 tion, which we did not pass. There are a good many of those 

 clumps around on the grounds because that is a favorite shrub 

 for ornamental planting. Dig it up, make a good rich bed. set 



