VALUE OF TREES, 
103 
more valuable, because it requires half a life-time to obtain them, 
while the lawn may be perfected in two or three years. 
The comparative value of trees and shrubs depends much on 
the extent of the ground and the taste of the occupants. If the lot 
is small, and the family has a decided appreciation of the varied 
characteristics of different shrubs, they will have much more pleas- 
ure from a fine collection of them than from the few trees which 
their lot could accommodate. But if the occupants are not par- 
ticularly appreciative of the varied beauties of smaller vegetation, 
then a few trees and a good lawn only, will be more appropriate for 
their home. Larger lots can have both, but the foregoing con- 
sideration may govern the preponderance of one or the other. 
When once the planting fever is awakened, too many of both are 
likely to be planted^ and grounds will be stuffed rather than 
beautified. 
One full grown oak, elm, maple, chestnut, beech, or sycamore 
will cover with its branches nearly a quarter of an acre. Allow- 
ing seventy feet square for the spread of each tree (all the above 
varieties being occasionally much larger), nine such trees would 
completely cover an acre. But as we plant for ourselves, instead 
of for our children, it will be sufficient in most suburban planting 
to allow for half-grown, rather than full-grown trees. Grounds, 
however, which are blessed with grand old trees should have them 
cherished lovingly — they are treasures' that money cannot buy — 
and should be guarded with jealous care against the admission of 
little evergreens and nursery trees, which new planters are apt to 
huddle under and around them, to the entire destruction of the 
• broad stretches of lawn which large trees require in order to reveal 
the changing beauty of their shadows. Where such trees exist, if 
you would make the most of the ground, lavish your care in 
enriching the soil over their vast roots, and perfecting the lawn 
around them ; and then arrange for shrubs and flowers away from 
their mid-day shadows. Even fine old fruit trees, if standing well 
apart on a lawn, will often give a dignity and a comfortable home- 
look to a place that is wanting in places which are surrounded only 
with new plantings. 
But it is an unfortunate fact that nine-tenths of all the town and 
