FOREST TREES. 161 
or less land of this description, which might be profit- 
ably devoted to growing Pine, Larch, or Spruce 
timber. Such plantations would add greatly to the 
value of any farm, and ensure it a more ready sale in 
case the proprietor should wish to dispose of it. 
With few exccptions, the Conifers are not valuable 
for use until they have attained a considerable size. 
Such is the case with the Pines, the Hemlock, and in 
a less degree, the Spruces. Few who plant them can 
expect to realize the full profit of the enterprise. 
Probably forty or fifty years would elapse before they 
would be large enough to be manufactured into lum- 
ber. Still, the advantages derived from shelter, and 
the use of the small trees thinned from the planta- 
tion, would not be trifling. 
As has previously been asserted, evergreens make 
the best screens for shelter, affording efficient protec- 
tion at the season when it is most needed. The 
advantages of such shelter for dwellings and out- 
houses have been already set forth. Nor should the 
ornamental character of evergreens be unnoticed. 
Planted with proper regard to arrangement, in belts, 
clumps, or singly around a habitation, they give 
cheerfulness to the landscape when all other trees 
are leafless, and constitute a means of beauty and 
adornment which no person of taste can fail to 
appreciate. On the other hand, for nearly half the 
year few dwellings of civilized men appear more deso- 
Jate and uninviting than many on the open prairies 
of the West, that have for years been occupied with- 
out an attempt to plant an evergreen, or ornamental 
14* 
