THE MISSION OF THE CONIFERS. II 



trian Pine has a color so deep that it is a vivid green bordering 

 on blue. The Scotch Pine is much lighter. The Concoldr is 

 simply radiant In its blending of silver and emerald. Here you 

 have the long glazed needles of the Ponderosa and the charm- 

 ing foliage of the Sub-Alpina. The Scopulorum looks as if 

 sprayed with the moo'nlight, while the sturdy Brown Cedar Is 

 solid green. Many of the spruces of our northern Minnesota 

 and Black Hills forests have a silvery sheen which often is 

 very clearly pronounced. So you take all these trees and there 

 are now at least fifteen varieties which do well on our prairies, 

 and you have material out of which a garden of glorious beauty 

 can be ma<3e and the kindly sentinels which keep guard around 

 you will not stand there in shabby and ragged garments but 

 they will be attired in uniforms flt to grace the palaces of 

 kings. 



The Formal Planting of Conifers. — ^We love the informal- 

 ity of Nature as she sows the seeds broadcast and they come 

 up in groves and forests. And yet, when art aids Nature and 

 we have the long, straight rows, the effect is fine. Tou can 

 plant as Nature does and mix themi all together or you can use 

 the straight rows which, for convenience of cultivating, will be 

 far preferable. At the home of T. C. Thurlow in West New- 

 bury, Mass., there is a formal plantation of Norway Spruce — 

 the rows about eight feet apart each way. The trees growing 

 so thickly have trimmed themselves as they do in the native 

 forests. The bodies are like pillars in a grand cathedral. Above, 

 the branches have woven a canopy of green, so dense as to 

 shut out the sun. Was there ever a more delightful place? 

 What ii resort for children in the heat of summer — playhouses 

 scattered all around and plenty of seats and carpets of needles 

 on which they can frolic and tumble. How the joy of child- 

 hood is enhanced by such a. delightful retreat, and what a 

 contrast to the wind-swept and sun-scorched pleilns of the 

 treeless west ! 



Isaac Pollard of Nehawka, Nebr., has an evergreen forest 

 of marvelous beauty. It is wonderful how so m(uch attractive- 

 ness can spring up out of the dull earth. There we saw a 

 clump of Douglas Spruce in its perfection and stately rows of 

 White and Austrian Pines with here and there the Silver Pun- 

 gens fiashing in the sun. What one man has done, another nan 

 do. J. Stirling Morton has a famous formal grove of White Pines. 

 His home is near the Missouri river where they could thrive. 

 A hundred miles west they would have failed, but the Austrian 

 would have succeeded admirably. Prof. Green, at St. Anthony 

 Park, Minn., has given fine examples of formal planting. What 

 a place for a nooning when a man is tired! Those rows are 

 as straight as a line can draw them. The stems are like rows 

 of posts sustaining a roof of green. The sun is shut out and 

 the cool breeze, laden with the aroma of the pines, wanders 

 through, fanning you into drowsiness. What an ideal place for 



