114 



ing house, than the entire price of the farm without this pretty 

 knoll would amount to under other circumstances. 



The hop hornbeam, also called leverAvood 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 dasycarpimi^ the most sweetly and pleasantly useful, 

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

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

 utility 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, es- 

 pecially while it is problematical whether cane sugar can be pro- 

 duced from it. 



The well-known value of the willows (^Salix spp.^ for securing 

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

 afford agreeable shades, renders this groupe 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 3'ears. The willows grow so easily, 

 that pieces of the branches cut into stakes and driven into the 

 mud, readily root and grow into fine trees. Rows of these rudely 

 prepared cuttings, planted over the surface of such places, would 

 surely be more comely than wild bushes and noisome weeds. The 

 osier willow or golden willow (^Salix vitelluia) is a beautiful tree 

 in summer, spring or even winter, and is worthy of note. I have 

 seen this tree planted near out-houses with signal effect. The 

 weeping willow (^Salix Bahylonica') grows rapidly and large, and 

 is very ornamental, and grows from any one of its twigs planted 

 out in the spring time. There is a kind of dark green Aviilow, 

 a shrub Avith rich, smooth, shining leaves, as beautiful as a foreign 

 plant, which grows easily, and very ornamental ; and the basket- 

 osier Avillows are easily raised near ditches and boundary division 

 lines of swamps, known as the Salix viminalis. The common 

 willow tree (^Salix alba) grows very large. Two immense trees 

 of this species, about fifty years old, I lately saAV in a wet place 

 in the rear of an old farm house, in the branches of which were 

 permanent seats, and room ample to spread a table for some 

 exercise of reading among the shady tops, or even to furnish a 

 tea-drinking on pleasant occasions. These twin trees were plant- 

 ed by an humble domestic, whose memory is associated with these, 



