252 Remai^ks on the Art of 



provided many such bulwarks, and hundreds of pleasant vil- 

 lages are built under their protection. 



Imagine every large hill in the country, whose summit is 

 bleak or barren, to be covered with wood, from the top, half 

 way down to its base. How many homes would be rendered 

 more comfortable during the cold of our winters, by the pro- 

 tection of these forests and groves ! Every village that is 

 surrounded by wooded hills is warmer than the same would 

 be without this protection. As my object is to treat the 

 subject chiefly as a matter of taste, I should consider how 

 trees may be planted so as to beautify the country in the 

 highest degree. Fortunately taste and utility may be found 

 hand in hand, in these operations, not in the least interfering 

 with one another. The covering of all the barren hill-tops 

 with woods is the most direct method of improving the 

 beauty of the landscape, as well as that of increasing the 

 agricultural value of the soil. A level plain, covered with 

 grass, is a beautiful object, especially when partly surrounded 

 with wooded eminences. Imagine the opposite of this, and 

 how dull and gloomy does the scene appear ! A series of 

 naked hills, especially of a barren and rocky description, al- 

 ways presents a gloomy and desolate appearance. Witness 

 the greater part of the scenery on each side of the turnpike 

 road between Boston and Salem. If we stand on the summit 

 of a naked hill, and look down on a plain covered with wood, 

 the eye derives but little satisfaction from the view. Forests 

 are not associated with the idea of plenty and good hus- 

 bandry, when they occupy that portion of the land that 

 should be devoted to tillage. But let the same hills be cov- 

 ered with wood, and let the spectator from their heights, 

 through some favorable openings, look down on well-tilled 

 plains, chiefly divested of woods, and devoted to tillage and 

 pasture, — and with what a glow of satisfaction does he con- 

 template this scene of fertility, from his pleasant arbor on 

 the hills ! 



It is a beautiful sight to behold herds of cattle grazing on 

 the hills. But if these herds were seen on the lower parts of 

 f;he slopes, under protection of the wpods that crown their 



