66 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Jartiatlturd Jiprtmmt. 
SHADE TREES FOR CITIES, VILLAGES AND 
COUNTRY RESIDENCES. 
The recent frosts have fairly stripped the 
deciduous trees of their foliage, leaving them 
now just in the right condition for trans¬ 
planting ; and before the ground is closed up 
by freezing we should give attention to sup¬ 
plying our streets and grounds with shade 
trees, if this is not already attended to. Per¬ 
haps the most fruitful cause of delay, is 
the difficulty experienced by these fitting of 
new grounds, in dividing what are the 
best trees for them to get. To assist such 
we append a few extracts from our own note 
book, and we may add that these notes are 
not drawn from our own observations only, 
but are in harmony with or directly modified 
by the opinions of some of the best cultiva¬ 
tors ofshade trees in our country. 
A smaller class of trees is requiVed for 
the streets of cities and compact towns than 
for parks, and for more thinly settled villages, 
and the grounds surrounding rural resi¬ 
dences, where there is abundance of room. 
For compact streets, we recommend the 
following as among the best: Oriental 
Plains, Paulownias, Catalpas, and the Silver- 
Leaf Poplar. 
The Oriental Plain is a pyramidal tree, 
with clean stem and foliage, is scarcely ex¬ 
ceeded in the rapidity of its grov\th, and has 
as yet no insect enemy. 
The Paulownia is ofvery rapid growth, has 
a large leaf, often two or more feet in diame¬ 
ter on young trees. We measured some of 
them the past season that were over two feet 
in diameter. The size of the leaves dimin¬ 
ish with the growth of the tree. These leaves 
resemble the ordinary Palm leaf fan. The 
tree is perfectly hardy, though introduced 
originally from the climate of Japan; and it 
is chiefly remarkable for the exceeding beau¬ 
ty of its flowers, which, before the leaves 
appear in the Spring, cover the trees in large 
clusters, from six to nine inches in length. 
The flowers are of a rich purple color, and 
fill the whole air around them with a fra¬ 
grance. This tree bids fair to supplant the 
Ailantus, as it grows quite as rapidly, excels 
it in many things, and is without its objec¬ 
tionable features. At this season the buds 
preserve a beautiful appearance. 
The Catalpa is more generally known, and 
need not be described. The only objection 
to this tree is that its “pods” or seed ves¬ 
sels furnish the rudiments of cigars to 
“ Young America.” 
The Abele, or Silver Leaf Poplar, grows 
as rapidly as any one of the others. The 
upper side of the leaf is of a rich dark green, 
the under side a silver white, and the con¬ 
trast of these colors produces a pleasing ef¬ 
fect upon the eye, when the leaves are set in 
motion by the wind. It is, however, only fit 
for paved streets, on account of the multi¬ 
tude of suckers it throws up from open 
ground. 
For open streets and grounds the follow¬ 
ing list comprises the most choice collection ; 
we place first in order those which we con¬ 
sider the best, all things taken into account; 
Silver-leaf Maple, Oriental Plain, English and 
American Elms, Tulip-trees, Sycamore Ma¬ 
ples, Sugar Maples, Pin Oak, Scarlet Oak, 
Burr Oak, Catalpa, Linden, Deciduous Cy¬ 
press, Liquidambar or Sweet-gum, Labur¬ 
num, Cucumber Magnolia, Kentucky Coffee- 
tree, &c. This list embraces all those re¬ 
commended for streets, except the Silver- 
leaf Poplar, which is left out for reasons 
given below. We omit the evergreens, as we 
recommend setting these in spring, unless it 
be done early in autumn. Most of the above 
trees can be obtained of first-class Nursery¬ 
men, and they may all be set in spring, but 
we prefer this season of the year, if it can 
be done before the ground becomes solid. 
The Silver-leaf Maple in its foliage some¬ 
what resembles the Silver-leaf Poplar, and 
is by many persons preferred to it. It is the 
most rapid growing of the Maples. 
The other Maples are well known as strong 
robust growing trees, with thick, dense fol¬ 
iage, holding on to late in the autmn; and 
they are among the most desirable of shade 
trees. 
The Elms are well known—the American 
for its gothic arch, and the English for its 
dense foliage. 
The Oaks are of a more slow growth, and 
are well known. The Pin Oak is the finest 
of them, on account of its pyramidal form, 
and glossy foliage. 
The Linden, (bass-wood,) is known for. 
its symmetry of form, and the Mountain 
Ash for its beautiful red berries. 
The Deciduous Cypress has a soft feath¬ 
ery foliage, of a delightful light green, and 
very unique in its character. We yesterday 
noticed one of them in front of the residence 
of Mr. S. B. Parsons, of Flushing, L. I. The 
foliage at this season, is of a rich maroon 
color and contrasts finely with the green 
terrace near it. 
The Liquidambar, or Sweet-gum, has a 
star leaf, which assumes a beautiful red tint 
in autumn. This is one of the finest native 
trees, and is not half as well appreciated as 
it should be. 
The Laburnum is noted for the abundant 
clusters of rich yellow flowers with which 
it is clothed in June. 
The Cucumber Magnolia is a tall growing 
tree, with large leaves and symmetrical 
habit. 
The Kentucky Coffee is a handsome tree, 
its light foliage somewhat resembling the 
Locust. It produces a bean which was 
used as coffee by the early settlers. (The 
flavor of the fruit from the cultivated tree is, 
in our opinion, not equal to that of Mocha or 
Old Java.) 
A Comical Toast. —The following toast 
was given at the agricultural fair at Barnsta¬ 
ble last week : “ The Farmers of Cape Cod — 
Although they may sometimes be in doubt, 
from the peculiar nature of the soil, whether 
they are digging for clams or potatoes, they 
have always, notwithstanding, a comfortable 
assurance that they shall find the one or the 
other.” 
RAISING FRUIT PROFITABLE. 
Much has been written upon the profit¬ 
ableness of fruit culture, yet we think this 
matter is generally too much neglected and 
its importance too little appreciated. One 
reason of this is, that relatively quite too 
mu^Ji attention has been bestowed upon 
raising fancy fruits. Almost everyone who 
has written upon the subject has devoted 
himself to describing a new variety, or to 
the best means of raising a small quantity 
of a great number of fruits. Take apples, 
for example. We have in our agricultural 
and horticultural journals chapter upon 
chapter describing the hundreds of varieties, 
while little is said upon the importance of 
producing an abundant supply of some of the 
leading and long established kinds, such as 
the Greening, Spitzenburg, Baldwin, New¬ 
town Pippin, Seek-no-further, &c. If pub¬ 
lic attention has been rightly directed in this 
matter, why is it that even at this present 
time, as well as in all past seasons, there is 
and has always been a scarcity of these 
fruits in the market, even when they bring 
prices four times more than would amply 
pay for their production 1 
No one can sit down and carefully esti¬ 
mate the cost of raising apples, compared 
with the amount yielded by other products 
from the same ground and labor, without 
being convinced that no branch of industry is 
so highly remunerating as this, and yet few 
enter into it as a business. 
If we take fruit at its lowest market price, 
the ground occupied by one apple tree can 
in no way be made to yield for the same out¬ 
lay more than a fourth of the value that can 
be gathered from the tree, even if the fruit 
be used for feeding only. 
In addition to the causes of this state of 
things above mentioned, two others may be 
given. First, it has been feared that every¬ 
body else was going into the business ; and 
second, the time required to raise a bearing 
orchard has led most persons to seek for a 
more immediately remunerating business. 
To the first, it may be said that when we 
take into account the value of fruit for feed¬ 
ing stock, there can be no limit to the quan¬ 
tities that may be profitably raised for home 
consumption ; and to the second, that the 
cost of rearing an orchard is very trifling, 
before it begins to yield returns. The ground 
occupied by growing trees is not lost nor 
materially injured for other purposes; on 
the contrary, as we know by profitable ex¬ 
perience, trees will flourish quite as well on 
ground that annually produces hoed crops. 
We raised a thrifty orchard of six acres, con¬ 
taining three hundred trees, and yet every 
year gathered from the same ground large 
crops of corn and potatoes, alternately. The 
trees thrived all the belter from the constant 
cultivation of the ground around them. A 
few loads per acre of good manure was an¬ 
nually applied, and the corn and potatoes 
gave a good profit, over and above the en¬ 
tire expense of cultivation, in addition to the 
cost of plants, grafting, and the annual care 
required by the trees. At the end of eight 
years, our orchard was producing an annual 
