486 Choice of Trees — Grouping, ^c. 
CHOICE OF TREES— GROUPING, &c., &c. 
"It has been often remarked," says D. J, Browne, in the 
Transactions of the New York State Agricultural Society, " by 
strangers, that, in sailing up the harbor of New York, they have 
been strongly impressed with the beauty of the scenery, particu- 
larly with the number and diversified forms of the trees; and that 
after landing, the whole appears like one vast garden, interspersed, 
not only with many trees indigenous to the neighboring woods, 
but with those of the most distant climes of the two worlds. In 
progressing inland, or in either direction along the seaboard, the 
same features are observable, though in a less degree in all our 
cities and larger towns. It has also been remarked, that the foreign 
trees most conspicious in the artificial scenery in America, are 
various kinds of pine trees, the Lombardy poplar, the weeping 
willow, the horse-chesnut, the European lime-tree, the ailanthus, 
and the paper mulbery. The contrast between the regular position 
and round-tufted heads of the fruit trees, and the erect branched 
summits of the ]ioplars, and between these trees and the drooping 
heads of the willow and ailanthus, as well as between those of the 
wild luxuriance of the indigenous species, strikes the beholder 
with admiration. This love or desire for rural taste and ornament, 
speaks well for our people, whether they have been the most ju- 
dicious in their choice and management, or not; and doubtless, 
the time is not far distant, when a due regard will be paid to the 
cultivation of such trees and shrubs for beautifying our parks, 
public highways, and private grounds, as will best subserve the 
purposes of health, ornament and shade." 
" In ornamenting cities, villages, or rural towns, as well as 
public highways, farms, private grounds, &c., it is a great desi- 
deratum to find a class of trees and shrubs that will rapidly attain 
the desired form and size, afford a healthful and agreeable shade, 
and are free from attacks of insects or from accidentsof any kind, 
and at the same time will tend to beautify the scenery, and ulti- 
mately prove useful for food or construction in the arts. With the 
great variety of species and varieties before us, whether in a 
wild state or under cultivation, one might be led to suppose it an 
easy matter to select from among them, all that could be desired ; 
yet, when we take all their points or qualities into account, how 
few there are free from objection. One class seemingly answer 
the desired end for the first ten or fifteen years, and then, by ex- 
uberance of growth, become too much expanded for the situations 
they occupy, and unless their beauty is destroyed by pruning, they 
grow top heavy, and are finally uprooted or shattered by the 
winds; other kinds appear to flourish with vigor for the first few 
years, assuming a variety of graceful and picturesque forms, and 
then are checked in their growth, become sickly, or stag-headed 
