146 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FARM 
it has the advantage of them, and can suppress them with its 
shade. By the roadside and in the fence-row, where the 
farmer keeps the trees cut down, yet does not plow, there they 
find their best openings. And, indeed, it were better for the 
farmer to raise ‘‘brush’’ in his roadside than to kill the brush 
and raise weeds there to contaminate his fields; better to 
cover the bare and barren slope with soil-conserving shrub- 
bery than to have its soil slipping away into the streams; 
better to fill the border of his lawn with these plants that are 
beautiful in foliage and flower and fruit, than to be forever 
mowing the whole of it. 
Fic. 58. Diagram of buds and leaf scars; a, in black-berried elder; 6, in ninebark; 
¢, in red osier dogwood and d, in witch-hazel. 
The thing to do with the ‘‘brush”’ is first of all to study it a 
little, and find out what it is good for. If only by its shelter 
it provides nesting sites and keeps some useful and beautiful 
song-birds about the place, it may still be worth while. It 
may also provide food for the birds, if proper shrubs be 
chosen (see page 201). And if rightly used—if used in such 
ways and placesasnature’s plantings suggest—it adds much of 
interest and value to any property, in the beauty and grace of 
its flowers and foliage. 
