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311 



the first cost of this is usually prohibitive. 

 Perhaps the house will shelter the north 

 Mile and a wood the west. If you can 

 afford to move large evergreens so as to 



get shelter immediately you may perhaps 

 solve your problem with a dozen white 

 pines 8 feet high and 5 to 8 feet wide for 

 about S140. If you are willing to wait 

 three years you would better buy a dozen 

 pines 5 feet high for $20. You will be 

 tempted to buy the cheapest and quickest- 

 growing evergreens, which are usually the 

 Scotch and Austrian pines or the Norway 

 spruce. These were once planted by the 

 million for windbreaks but at thirty years 

 they get thin and ragged and then become 

 eyesores. Pay more and plant the longest- 

 lived evergreens native to your region, e. g. 

 above Cape Cod, the white spruce; in the 

 latitude of New York, white pine or 

 hemlock. These usually grow rapidly 

 enough. If not, perhaps you can mingle 

 with them some tall-growing deciduous 

 trees, for a dozen red or sugar maples 8 

 feet high will cost only S6 or $7. If these 

 hints are insufficient send to Washington 

 for "Windbreaks," by C. G. Bates, which 

 is Bulletin 86 of the Forest Service. Or 

 consult Bailey's "Principles of Fruit 

 Growing." 



EVERGREENS TO SURROUND GARDENS 



The ideal garden has good views. Even 

 if you have eight-foot walls you can see 

 over them from the middle of the garden 

 and it is pleasant to see a beautiful house, 

 a church steeple, or some fine trees. If 

 you plant a single row of evergreens on 

 two sides of your garden you will spoil 

 the view, because straight lines of one 

 kind of tree make a hard, artificial, mono- 

 tonous sky-line. Therefore, groves, groups 

 and shelter belts are more artistic than rows. 

 And if you blend the evergreen and decid- 

 uous elements, each will set off the beauty 

 of the other, and you will have more 

 variety the year round. 



The noblest tree that can be seen from 

 a garden is, in the opinion of the Old World, 

 a majestic cedar of Lebanon — the most 

 famous example of longevity in the world. 

 But each region may well prefer the best 

 tree of its own. In the East the noblest 

 evergreen may be white pine, hemlock, 

 white spruce, or red pine. In the Pied- 

 mont section it may be Carolina hemlock. 

 Among the Western mountains it may be 

 Douglas or Engelmann's spruce, or the 

 concolor fir. These are longer-lived and 

 more dignified than the showy evergreens, 

 such as Colorado spruce. And, if you 

 wish, for variety's sake, a few foreign trees 

 of proved merit, choose them from an 

 allied climate, not a hostile one. For 

 instance, let Easterners choose evergreens 

 from the Caucasus, Japan and China, e. g. 

 Oriental spruce, Nordmann's fir, etc., not 

 the silver fir. Scotch pine and other trees 

 of Europe. 



Fortunate are those who may view a 

 natural wood from their garden, for this 

 is perhaps the ideal. Some, however, 

 would say that the richest sight is a collec- 



What a site for a garden! Red cedar for a windbreak, to frame vistas, and to act as a background for 



flowers. At Oyster Bay. Long Island 



tion of evergreen trees in a great variety 

 of colors, outline, and texture. Nothing 

 is more picturesque than old evergreens, 

 nothing is more symmetrical than young 

 evergreens. And it is pleasant to have 

 both types of beauty. Few realize the 

 value of old evergreens. I know a certain 

 white pine for which the nurseryman asks 

 $500. This is 47 ft. high, has a spread of 

 33 ft., and will save somebody half a 

 century of waiting. For $100 you can get 

 a 20 ft. white pine, white spruce or Nord- 

 mann fir, which means a saving of about 25 

 years. A good many Americans are now 

 willing to pay $100 for a fine tree to be seen 

 from the garden, and the twenty-foot 

 specimens above mentioned are better bar- 

 gains than a Norway spruce at S40 or a 

 Scotch pine at $20. 



EVERGREENS FOR HEDGES 



Most beginners believe that the ideal 

 enclosure for a garden is an evergreen hedge 

 about eight feet high. In my opinion a 

 brick or stone wall is more efficient, per- 

 manent, artistic, and in the long run 

 economical. For, hedges get bare at the 

 base and it is difficult to patch them; they 

 do not keep out thieves and animals as 

 well; they finally sicken from being cut 

 back to an arbitrary line; they rob the 

 garden and increase the cost of feeding, 

 watering and trimming, and finally they 

 present a relatively uniform background for 

 flowers, whereas a wall covered with ivy, 

 climbing euonymus, trained fruits and 

 vines has greater variety of surface. 



However, there is no arguing against 

 heart's desire, and most Americans who 



have visited England have set their hearts 

 on a yew hedge, because of its dark polished 

 leaves and its air of venerability, which is 

 largely due to the rich modelling of its 

 foliage masses. European yew does not 

 thrive in New England, and our nearest 

 substitute is the Japanese yew (Taxus cus- 

 pidata). But any yew involves a longer 

 wait than most Americans are willing to 

 endure and the common substitute for it 

 is hemlock, which has leaves of similar form 

 and texture. In Canada, arborvitae is 

 considered the best evergreen hedge, but 

 only because it is hardier, for the winter 

 color of hemlock is much livelier. 



If you are inclined to be irreverent about 

 old things may I ask how you would value 

 a hemlock hedge forty years old? Suppose 

 you had a perfect one 8 ft. high, 8 ft. thick 

 and 160 ft. long. You might ask S2240 

 for it, or $14 per lineal ft. delivered and 

 guaranteed, provided it is as good as the 

 hedge I know. This hedge has been root- 

 pruned many times, and is divided into 

 numbered sections. There is no hole in the 

 base where a cat may get through and the 

 top has been trimmed to a point so as to 

 shed the snow. Some day a millionaire 

 will come along and buy that old hedge to 

 give the mellowness of forty years' growth 

 to his new T garden. 



Personally I should prefer to wait for 

 Japanese yew, because of the richer texture 

 and modeling, and because the slower a 

 plant grows the more centuries it will live. 

 I have all the time in the world and the 

 older I get the less I hurry. I am never 

 impatient any more because slow-growing 

 evergreens are so small, since there is no 



