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ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTLVE CATALOGUE. 
ORNAMENTAL DEPARTMENT. 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
A people of intelligence like ours, who by industry and rapid growth of the country, are accumu¬ 
lating wealth, desire to use the good that a kind Providence has placed in their hands, as a means to the 
refinement of themselves and their families, ^.nd viewing it from our stand-point, there is no greater 
refining influence in nature than that imparted in the cultivation of the beautiful’, in tree, shrub and 
flower. The hearts of the children are more closely bound to the sweet and pure ties of home, if that 
home is surrounded by trees and shrubbery afid well kept flower beds. Contrast such a home with the 
one where the bare walls and the barren yard invite the searching rays of the Summer sun to scorch and 
almost blind, and the bleak winds of Winter to shriek and howl about the house, with no friendly trees 
to raise their arms in mute protection. We have asked of you the contrast and shall await your decision. 
We have scarcely begun to realize the commercial value of such an investment to our homes. We 
know a keen, sagacious business man in one of our large cities, who has operated for years past in the 
following manner. He buys a tract of land in the suburbs of the city, cuts it into liberal sized building 
ots, drives stakes for a house, and immediately plants the ground with fruit and ornamental trees, shrubs 
and hedges. He then employs a good man to take care of them, and does not offer the lots for sale for 
two or three years, well knowing that when the purchaser goes to look at the property, he finds that when 
his house is built, he has, instead of a naked house on a bare spot a neat and beautiful home, with its 
growing trees and plants, which would have taken him vears to get around him. Many of our most active 
business men are also men of taste, and would be glad to improve and beautify their grounds, but they 
are so occupied* with business that they have neither the time or disposttion to find out what they want- 
or to lay out their grounds. Some competent man can generally be found to aid in the matter. 
Wind-breaks of trees, more especially if they are evergreen, make the dwelling house warmer, give 
comfort to its inmates, diminishing to no inconsiderable extent the consumption of fuel ; they make the 
out-building warmer for stock by night, and the yard by day, not only making the dumb animals com¬ 
fortable by thereby saving a large amount of food. 
HOW TO PLA3STT. 
Flower gardens and graveled walks are beautiful and expensive, and require constant labor to keep 
them in order. Grass and trees are always charming, and need but litttle care. In the laying out and 
planting of ground, have regard to economy of labor. Let there be as few walks as possible ; cut your 
flower beds (not many) in the turf, and don’t make the lawn a checker-board of trees and shrubs. Mass 
them in boundary lines or in groups, leaving a broad expanse of green for the eye to rest on, and the 
mower to sweep freely over. If an unpleasant obi'ect is in sight, conceal it by planting free-growing 
trees ; if there is a pretty view, leave an opening. While it is not well to have large trees near the house, 
there should be at least one by the sunny corner for Summer shade. Plant flowering shrubs and the 
smaller evergreen in circles or ovals, and twice as they should stand when fully grown. This will make 
a show at once, and in two years or more you can take out one-half, leaving the rest to fill out the space, 
and obtaining a supply of finely rooted plants to set somewhere else. Keep the shrubs and trees culti¬ 
vated or mulched the first two seasons, and them let the turf grdw about them. Mow the grass fre¬ 
quently, and top-dress with fine manure every Fall and Winter. 
Straggling growers, like the Forsythia and Pyrus Japonica, should be repeatedly pinched back or 
clipped during the growing season, to produce a close, compact form, Weigelas and Deutzias should be 
pruned like currants, leaving the strong young wood to flower. Altheas, and some of the Spireas which 
bloom on the new shoots, may be pruned back each year to the old wood. A very beautiful hedge can be 
made by intermingling different Flowering Shrubs, and clipping, or allowing them to grow naturally. 
