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houseliold cares, yet finding time for rearing a tulip bed, for tend- 

 ing a flower patch, or pruning the shrubbery of a few choice roses 

 or the like. And it may be set down as a truism, that uniformly 

 the most industriously employed are the very ones who have at 

 their command the most time for Avhatever improves or benefits 

 themselves or others. What flowers and shrubs are to the women, 

 the trees are to the men. Trees are but flowers of a larger 

 growth, and which pay back larger dividends of profits. A fine 

 avenue, such as any one might justly be proud of, will soon grow ; 

 a few years may make great changes and greater improvements 

 in looks, comfort and utility even. I can recall some splendid 

 elms which have made an otherwise unpleasant site one of the 

 most cosy and pleasant places in the village ; and a line of elms, 

 ashes, &c., which really make celebrated a sandy public road, 

 otherwise avoided if possible, but now sought for its beauty in the 

 drive or ride. Many were the thoughtless jeers at the expense of 

 those who undertook the thankless labor of love and " good will to 

 man ;" but now double the thanks to the memory of those who, 

 dead, yet speak in their deeds. 



A great many folks, and it is not confined to the farming occu- 

 pation, value a tree if it can be compelled to bear something 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 impossibility, they regard such pleasures as in- 

 cumbrances, 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 stomach ; indeed, with- 

 out them we could not w^ell 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 ani- 

 mal instincts, these prudent and careful considerations would be 

 more commendable ; but we are " living souls," and the soul of 

 man and his truest spirit exhibit themselves most correctly in 

 rising above grosser thoughts. And as such Avas 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 pic- 

 turesque character, do actually bear fruit without grafting or bud- 

 ding ; and if we 7nust have the useful with the ornamental, 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 Avould 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 



