306 TREES, 



take a wife till he has planted a tree. We have not a word to say 

 against either of these regulations. But Americans, it must be con- 

 fessed, do not like to be over-governed, or compelled into doing even 

 beautiful things. We therefore recommend, as an example to all 

 country towns, that most praiseworthy and successful mode of achiev- 

 ing this result adopted by the citizens of Northampton, Massachu- 

 setts. 



This, as we learn, is no less than an Ornamental Tree Society. 

 An association, whose business and pleasure it is to turn dusty lanes 

 and bald highways into alleys and avenues of coolness and verdure. 

 Making a " wilderness blossom like the rose," is scarcely more of a 

 rural miracle than may be wrought by this simple means. It is 

 quite incredible how much spirit such a society, composed at first 

 of a few really zealous arboriculturists, may beget in a country 

 neighborhood. Some men there are, in every such place, who are 

 too much occupied with what they consider more important mat- 

 ters, ever to plant a single tree, unsolicited. But these are readily 

 acted upon by a society, who work for " the public good," and who 

 move an individual of this kind much as a town meeting moves 

 him, by the greater weight of numbers. Others there are, who can 

 only be led into tasteful improvement, by the principle of imitation, 

 and who consequently will not begin to plant trees, till it is the fash- 

 ion to do so. And again, others who grudge the trifling cost of 

 putting out a shade-tree, but who will be shamed into it by the ex- 

 ample of every neighbor around them neighbors who have been 

 stimulated into action by the zeal of the society. And last of all, as 

 we have learned, there is here and there an instance of some slovenly 

 and dogged farmer, who positively refuses to take the trouble to 

 plant a single twig by the road-side. Such an individual, the soci- 

 ety commiserate, and beg him to let them plant the trees in front 

 of his estate at their own cost ! 



In this way, little by little, the Ornamental Tree Society accom- 

 plishes its ends. In a few years it has the satisfaction of seeing its 

 village the pride of the citizens for even those who were the most 

 tardy to catch the planting fever, are at last such is the silent and 

 irresistible influence of sylvan beauty the loudest champions of 

 green trees and the delight of all travellers, who treasure it up in 



