WAY-SIDE HINTS. 139 



full and rounded development, or crowding his 

 spruces, and his Deodars, and Scotch pines, so that in 

 a few years there is But a thicket of close-growing 

 boles offering no shelter from the wind, and graded 

 by no forecast of the relative measure of growth. 

 Or if, by accident, the planting be judicious, there 

 follows none of that resolute trimming and bold use 

 of the axe, under which only a protective group of 

 trees can be made to maintain its rounded symmetry 

 and its artistic agreement with the landscape. 



Indeed, we are as yet only beginning to learn 

 what the real worth of screening banks of foliage are 

 to fruit, to gardens, and even to grain-fields. It is 

 doubtful if it be not the last lesson but certainly not 

 the least important which is learned in ornamental 

 or economic arboriculture. 



Village Greens. 



IF I enter a little quiet plea for the old-fashioned 

 Village Greens, I hope I shall not be decried by 

 the reformers. Village Greens are not quotable at 

 the " Board." Our friend of the Avenue cannot dash 

 through them with his equipage. There are no 

 patches of choice exotics upon the village green 

 possibly not even a serpentine path ; no fountain, I 

 am sure, that shows the spasmodic gush of the city 



