DECIDUOUS TREES. 
427 
Fig. 139 is a portrait of a 
Fig. 139. 
sound trunks three feet in diameter, 
remarkable apple tree growing in a 
low pasture-field on the flats of 
Mamaroneck, N. Y., but little above 
the level of high tide. Its top is 
sixty feet in diameter, and thirty feet 
high. The vignettes of Chapters VIII 
and XVI, and the cut at the end of 
Chapter II, illustrate some of the home-pictures to which apple 
trees contribute a principal charm. 
In its early growth the apple tree has only the beauty of thrift 
and blossoms. It is then too round and even, in the ramification 
of its branches, to have much play of light and shade in the breaks 
of its foliage. Only the old trees develop noble horizontal branches 
and massive shadows ; and it is for such that we ask the most lov¬ 
ing protection. From the time the tree is out of bloom till the 
fruit begins to color, it is certainly inferior to some of the maples, the 
horse-chestnut, the hickories, and many other trees, in wealth of 
verdure, variety of outline, and contrast of light and shade. But 
then what a crown it bears a few months later, of golden or ruddy 
fruit, beautiful as blossoms! The apple tree need never be dis¬ 
carded from the decorated grounds of any one who will keep his 
lawn closely shaven, and clean of falling fruit. Without such care 
the wind-falls and worm-falls of fruit will soon breed corruption in 
the grass, and new crops of insects to attack the fruit the following 
season. The beauty and usefulness of a' thrifty old tree is well 
worth this care. 
Notwithstanding we place so high, a value on old apple trees for 
home-grounds, we would not, on quite small grounds, plant them 
for ornament; since it is only after the tree has been growing from 
twenty to forty years that it assumes its most pleasing expression. 
Other trees will develop beauty much more rapidly. For fruit, ex¬ 
cept on large lots, the cherry, the pear, the grape, and the different 
berry shrubs yield far more value, in proportion to the room they 
occupy. Apples are always cheaper to buy than the smaller fruits, 
and the trees take up so much room, that we would only plant 
them on lots where the ground devoted to orchard is a half acre or 
