GETTING JC^JINTED WITH THE TREES 



town, inhabited by the quaint folk known as 

 Pennsylvania Germans. All along the line of 

 the railroad traversing this valley may be seen 

 these distorted willows decorating the prim 

 front yards, and they are not so offensive when 

 used with other shrubs and trees. In this one 

 instance, however, the tree agent evidently 

 found a customer who was persuaded that if 

 one Kilmarnock willow was a good thing to 

 have, a dozen of them was twelve times better ; 

 wherefore his dooryard is grotesquely adorned 

 with that many flourishing weepers, giving an 

 aspect that is anything but decorous or solemn. 

 Some time the vigilance of the citizen will be 

 relaxed, it may be hoped; he will neglect to 

 cut away the recurring shoots of the parent 

 trees, and they will escape and destroy the 

 weeping form which provides so much sarcastic 

 hilarity for the passers-by. 



The willow, with its blood relation, the 

 poplar, is often "pollarded," or trimmed for 

 wood, and its abundant vigor enables it to 

 recover from this process of violent abbrevia- 

 tion more satisfactorily than do most trees. The 

 result is usually a disproportionately large stem 



114 



