180 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. % 



shall have bushels of fair and fine pears and apples, where you now 

 have pecks of spotted and deformed fruit." 



Such is the sermon which the " tongues in trees " preach to those 

 who listen to them at this season of the year. We do not mean to 

 poets, or lovers of nature (for to them, they have other and more 

 romantic stories to tell) ; but to the earnest, practical, working 

 owners of the soil, especially to those who grudge a little food and 

 a little labor, in order that the trees may live contented, healthy, 

 beautiful, and fruitful lives. "We have written it down here, in 

 order that our readers, when they walk round their gardens and 

 grounds, and think " the work of the season is all done," may not 

 be wholly blind and deaf to the fact that the trees are as capable, 

 in their way, of hunger and thirst, as the cattle in the farm-yards ; 

 and since, at the oftenest, they only need feeding once a year, now 

 is the cheapest and the best time for doing it. The very frosts of 

 winter creep into the soil, loosened by stirring at this season, and 

 fertilize, while they crumble and decompose it. Walk about, then, 

 and listen to the sermon which your hungry trees preach. 



