104 



FLORA AND SYLVA. 



THE GARDEN BEAUTIFUL. 



HOME LANDSCAPE AND HOME WOODS. 

 EVERGREEN WOODS. 



One main object of these papers is to show that in a country place, if we are 

 to make the best of things we must consider the wood as well as the garden, 

 and bring them into happy connection with each other: this is 



Where to plant. r . r r y 



necessary for the enjoyment of even half the beauty of the trees 

 we may grow. The next thing to consider in our evergreen wood is where to 

 plant, and this will differ a good deal according to the ground and district. 

 The lines of direction for shelter are all-important, not only for the garden 

 and the house, but also for crops. For the country house it is often desirable 

 to have a sheltered retreat in all weathers, and there is nothing that will give 

 us this so well as the evergreen wood, which may be free from labours of all 

 kinds after planting — unlike most underwoods, which are the scene of much 

 labour and delay. Where, as so often happens, the house is on high ground 

 with open land to the north or the east, we shall have one of the most tempting 

 situations to plant a hardy Pine wood in, not merely for the sake of its effect, 

 but also for the shelter it will give us from the north and east. I have planted 

 such a wood and raised it in ten years to dignity and beauty. Such a simple 

 Pine wood with rides cut through it is far better for effect, shelter, and the 

 growth of trees than the labelled and sticky " Pinetum," which gives neither 

 timber, shelter, nor beauty. In many districts we see iron-bound clumps dotted 

 over beautiful ground, and worse than useless for effect ; also skinny belts not 

 deep enough to keep out the wind. As the common ways of planting are so 

 hopeless, what others have we ? Well, this is a question of district, of whether 

 the land is valuable or not and whether it is rich plain or rough upland. Large 

 areas of land have been broken up in all parts of Britain when prices were good 

 which ought never to have been broken up at all, and which are not fit for 

 anything but timber. Think of ploughing with four horses in clay land and 

 expecting to get anything back. The same field which would break a man 

 growing corn at the present prices would give a steady profit if well planted. 

 It is well, therefore, to plant cold and poor fields, no matter what their 

 shape, and from the first year that we plant them we shall have some use- 

 ful covert. It is not only fields poor from coldness of soil on the clay that 

 are not worth cultivating, because some light lands would be much better if 

 planted. 



Very often, in diversified country where the land is not valuable, the old 

 way of very small fields for the stock has become almost useless 



Small fields. r i 1 r r t r i i i • i 



tor the present needs or farming. It there are rabbits about, 

 anything grown in the field is eaten up. Trees begin to spread in, and there is 



