1861. 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMER. 



267 



No man better understands the culture of the 

 soil than Mr. P., for no such suburban home has 

 been carved out of the forest belt that fring' s 

 the lake as this. There are more costly build- 

 ings, more ornate enclosures, but for gems of j 

 fori'St beauty we can safely cluillenge the West. 

 Coni.prs of the most symmetrical and vigorous 

 giowth, elms, maples, ssh, linden and other de- 

 ciduous trees presenting such a ■wealth of folisige 

 thnt we suspect that they had no relationship 

 with those of the primeval forest. Yet such is 

 the fact, for five jears since they stood under the 

 shade of the parrot tree and were torn from their 

 home and transplanted to the broad lawns that 

 they uoif so j roui ly grace. We have but to car- 

 ry the reader back halt a dozen years to show 

 hiiu this place with Us tangied bush wood and 

 forest of lofiy oak*, on the high ground, vriih 

 gi^.nt lj!;!ck walnuts, lindens, ash and water oaks 

 at the front of yonder slope, where the dripping 

 from the upper " steppe " had formed a morass 

 over whose treachcous surface it was dangerous 

 to drive. The timber was cut down and se t to 

 the city for wood, the stumps dug out, the sur- 

 face kvcied and miles of undtrdrains laid deep 

 in tiie soil. The trenc: ing spade was used with 

 no stintid hauil — waiks were laid out, trees 20 

 feet high brought from the open woodland and 

 set out. (Le choicest and largest conifers were 

 purchased without regard to cost, the lawn was 

 Sowu to blue grass and the borders set with 

 shrubs and phints, and thus five acres were de- 

 devottd to the beautiful. On the remaining 

 sevLU ttaiid the family mansion, a house for the 

 hired help, a carriage house, barn, and extensive 

 sheds, a ruag.iificeut young orchard anJ exten- 

 sive fruit and vegetable girden. All of these are 

 Well averaged and kept in the most admirable 

 order. Th.; underbrush was cut from the remain- 

 ing tea acies, the surface leveled and sown to 

 bli:e glass. In this woodland was a small slough, 

 the muck from which has been hauled to the 

 barn yard and composted with manure, with 

 which to d!y the lawn and to stimulate the or- 

 churd and the garden [n a short time theslough 

 will be a fish pond, swarming with fry for break- 

 fast, ('ail you this a farm, fram whose willing 

 surface you could clothe and educate a family 

 and lay by sufficient to set up the young peo- 

 ple in business when they leave the parent hive ? 

 we think not. It has one of the fiist eiemeots of 

 a farni — underdraining and a valuable fruit and 

 vegetable garden ; the lawn supplies <he hay and 

 the park ibe pasture, and in this respect it might 

 be called a grazing farm — for aristocratic cows. 



But Mr. P. i« a farmer, and has a fine farm a 

 short di-tance to the west, on which he has some 

 of the best stock in the State. At this point the 

 bike comts up to a bold shore some forty feet 

 high ; for the next eighty rods the grouqd is 

 very level, though gradually rising some ten feet 

 for ample drainage, then we have a rise of thirty 

 feet in the hundrad to the upptr land, along 

 which runs the railroad, and from which you can 

 look out on the broad expanse of water. 



THE ORCH.\BD 



Is set with alternate rows of standard and dwarf 

 apples, and though on land somewhat similar to 

 that of Mr. Douglass who is successful with the 

 dwarf apple, yet they have not succeeded well 

 here. The trees are remarkably vigorous, but 

 as yet show litile fruit. They are four to five 

 inches in diameter. At the sa ne time the stand- 

 ard trees set with them are yieldin good crops. 

 Among them the Duchess of Oldenburg and Kes- 

 wick Codliu are great summer favorites. We can 

 only account for this freak of the dwarf apple 

 upon the hypothesis of Mr. Douglass, as men- 

 tioned in this connection On the west the 

 grounds are proti cted by the park, and on <he 

 north by the old forest, and are partially open to 

 the south and east. The good taste ot the peo- 

 ple having saved from the axe numerous sp: ci- 

 mens of the old forest, which gives to the village 

 a rural beauty most de-irable. 



THE FI.^'CK 



Is a rustic picket, posts and scantling put up in 

 the usual way, ouly higher, as the tence is six 

 feet high. The pickets are round saplings not 

 le^s than one inch at small end nor morettiau two 

 at the large one. These are cut in summer when 

 the bark will peel, are stripp. u of the bark and 

 nailed on while green. At th it reason of the 

 year they soon become dry and hard as a bone, 

 and make a very strong and iiurabi picket. As 

 compared wi h pine or other sawed stuff they ire 

 more durable, strong, and iu better tasie for 

 grounds of this character, most e-ptcialiy about 

 the park, and we take the occasion to comuieudit 

 in pbice of the old wjrm rail fence about all wood- 

 laud pastures. 



THE BIRLS. 



In all orchards near the woodland we bear 

 doleful Complaints of the birds depied.iting on 

 fruit of all kii-ds, and Lere they ippear piriicu- 

 1 ily troublesome, the raspb rnes and currants 

 are spiiited away and the early apples are boied 



