Ii6 OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES. 



spade. Even young trees of eight or ten years 

 growth which stool freely (such as the soft maple, 

 birch, chestnut, and locust,) when planted upon de- 

 clivities, may often be cut away entirely, with the 

 assurance that the young sprouts, within a season, 

 will more than supply their efficiency. Due care, 

 however, should be taken that such trees be cut 

 either in winter or in early spring, in order to ensure 

 free stooling, or (as we say) sprouting. The black 

 birch, which I have named, and which is a very beau- 

 tiful tree not as yet, I think, fairly appreciated by 

 our landscapists will not stool with vigor, if cut 

 after it has attained considerable size ; but the sap- 

 lings of three or four years, if cut within a foot of 

 the ground, will branch off into a rampant growth of 

 boughs, whose fine spray, even in the winter, is 

 almost equal to its glossy show of summer foliage. 



I do not know if I have made my case clear ; but 

 what I have wished has been to guard purchasers, 

 who are really in earnest, against being disturbed or 

 rebuffed by the rough aspect of such country places 

 as commend themselves in other respects. The sub- 

 jugation of roughness, or rather, the alleviation of it 

 by a thousand little daintinesses of treatment, is what 

 serves chiefly to keep alive interest in a country 

 homestead. 



I must say, for my own part, that I enjoy often 



