RALPH LYON 



530 West 27th Street 

 New Yobk 



January 15, 1925. 



Lear Mr. Dearie: 



Mrs. Lyon and I want to thank you for your kind letter of con- 

 gratulation. Our little Joan is doing very nicely now, but she was 

 sick with pneumonia v/hen a week old, which accounts for the delay in 

 sending the card. 



Tim and Betty are very well and have grown so large that you 

 would hardly know them, For the past two Summers Tim has gone to a 

 boys' camp at Weld, Me., and Betty to a girls' camp at Center Love 11, 

 Me. That is the reason you have not seen us at Shelburn, although 

 we did stop two years ago late one afternoon and saw young Mr. Phil- 

 brook. We hoped to remain for a few days but every room was taken 

 so we hurried on to the Havine House. 



Tim always has your humming bird picture hanging in his room. 



Many, many times Brs . Lyon and I have spoken of you and wished 

 that we could express to you personally our appreciation of all you 

 did to interest us in the northern woods, and by the time you finish 

 this letter I am sure that you will feel that you have two most en- 

 thusiastic pupils. 



We returned from Shelburne in 1921 to our new house at 83 Booth 

 Avenue, Englewood, II. J. Although our lot is but 75 by 1G5 feet, the 

 first thing to secure was trees. 



We had read the advertisements of Hicks Nurseries, Westbury, 

 Long Island, II. Y. , who specialize in evergreen trees, so went down to 

 Westbury and met young Mr. Hicks. 



At the time white-pine could not be sent into Hew Jersey on ac- 

 count of a quarantine, so I asked Mr. Hicks about red-pine. We had 

 admired these trees at Shelburne , especially the specimens on Profess- 

 or Emerton's lawn. It seemed that red-pine were hobbies of Mr. Hicks 

 and he took me all over his nursery and showed me acres of wonderful 

 evergreens. It ended by my ordering seven five-foot red-pine and a 

 few ornamental evergreens. 



When the trees were delivered, I found that Mr. Hicks, because 

 of my interest, had sent me seven beautiful red-fine over eight feet 

 tall. 



Again, a year ago, the lot to the V/est of our house was sold and 

 a grove of old apple trees cut down, to make way for a house. I again 

 visited Mr. Hicks and he sold me some Jack pine, twenty feet tall that 

 with a few hemlock make a wonderful wall of green along the narrow strip 

 to the West of our house. 



From Hicks Nursery I learned the use of rotted leaves and wood in 

 order to make the soil acid for evergreens. I believe however, that 

 these play an even more important part in holding moisture in the soil 

 during the dry spells we have when we will be without rain for a month 

 or more at a time . 



In the last three years we have brought home about three hundred 

 bags of rotted wood and leaves from the woods. We live near the Pal- 

 isades and there are swamps where the oak leaves collect in the Pall 

 and remain under water until the dryest part of Summer when the swamps 

 are dry and the leaves well rotted and light to carry. 



