234 RURAL ARCHITECTURE. 



tance of embellishing the streets of towns and villages, and to 

 induce everybody to plant trees in front of his own premises. 



While we are writing this, we have received the printed report 

 of one of these associations, The Rockingham Farmers' Club, of 

 Exeter, New Hampshire. The whole report is so much to the point, 

 that we republish it entire in our Domestic Notices of the month ; 

 but there is so much earnest enthusiasm in the first paragraph of 

 the report, and it is so entirely apposite to our present remarks, that 

 we must also introduce it here : 



" Why are not the streets of all our villages shaded and adorned 

 with trees ? Why are so many of our dwellings still unprotected 

 from the burning heat of summer, and the ' pelting of the pitiless 

 storms' of winter ? Is it because in New England hearts, hurried 

 and pressed as they are by care and business, there is no just appre- 

 ciation of the importance of the subject ? Or is it that failure in 

 the attempt, which almost every man has made, once in his life, in 

 this way to ornament his home, has led many to the belief that 

 there is some mystery, passing the comprehension of common men, 

 about this matter of transplanting trees ? The answer may be 

 found, we apprehend, partly in each of the reasons suggested. Ask 

 your neighbor why he has not more trees about his home, and he 

 will tell you that they are of no great use, and, besides, that it is 

 very difficult to make them grow ; that he has tried it once or 

 twice, and they have all died. Now these, the common reasons, 

 are both ill-founded. It is of use for every man to surround him- 

 self with objects of interest, to cultivate a taste for the beautiful in 

 all things, and especially in the works of nature. It is of use for 

 every family to have a home, a pleasant, happy home, hallowed by 

 purifying influences. It is of use, that every child should be edu- 

 cated, not only in sciences, and arts, and dead languages, but that 

 his affections and his taste should be developed and refined ; that 

 the book of nature should be laid open to him ; and that he should 

 learn to read her language in the flower and the leaf, written every- 

 where, in the valley and on the hill-side, and hear it in the songs of 

 birds, and the murmuring of the forest. If you would keep pure 

 the heart of your child, and make his youth innocent and happy, 

 surround him with objects of interest and beauty at home. If you 



