neighborhood some variety is a success; go for that variety, and don't be disappointed if every other fails when that succeeds.

I am more and more convinced that we are yet in the A. B. C. department of Wisconsin horticulture. It seems a wonder that we ever unanimously agreed on five varieties of apples for general cultivation, and that that list remained so long undisturbed. Now our list of five for hardiness do not all appear in the list foregoing, although it embraces forty-one kinds. The field is open for new varieties, and they are coming, probably "three hundred thousand more;" every one will be a failure somewhere. How full the world is of humbugs and teeming full, the horticultural department. To choose, sift, try, reject, condemn, and last of all, to recommend, and that too with great caution and a sparing hand, is one of the duties of this knowing association.

I have no doubt but the bright side of fruit-growing with the assurance of success is before you, ready for publication. It is well. We need all the stimulants (except the bottle, we've had a little too much of that already) on fruit-growing we can get; nor would I discourage the feeblest effort of some shiftless land-owner who plants without fence, trusting to the annual pruning by stock and the June grass protection. I would almost encourage such a one by selling him the trees on time, yet I would like to see a careful selection of varieties, that under favorable circumstances success might be reasonably certain. If the ground is not too dry or the frost too deep, or the drought too long, or the blight too bad, or the spring too early, or the frosts too late, or the blighting east winds in blossom-time too severe, or the winters too open, or the winters too hard, or the summers too hot, or the borers get in, or the canker-worm gets up, or the codling-moth too thick, or the thieves too plenty, or the winds too hard, or the frosts too early, or the markets too full, or something else turns up that cannot be avoided, then we may all get rich at this apple-business.

We have hope in some of the new kinds. Will they be like the Fameuse among apples, or the Wilson among strawberries, adapted to all? Will they be in every man's list for profit twenty years hence? It is sometimes encouraging to know that we are no worse off than our neighbors. Ex-President Stickney wrote me in September, on his return from an eastern tour, that no where east had he seen so fine a show of apples as in the lake shore counties of

our State. And while B. B. Olds, of Rock county, raises his thousands of bushels annually, with a proper selection of kinds and favorable location, apple-growing in Wisconsin need not be an uphill business. We have reason to take courage, and the future of this society may be wonderful; after all our wanderings up and down the horticultural stream, mid the snags, quicksands, and rocks that have so often upset our bark, we may glide safely into deep water, and though we may not realize our golden dreams, “future generations may rise up and call us blessed" for benefits conferred on them.

TREES AND FOLIAGE IN LANDSCAPE.

BY CHARLES S. ABBOTT, SUMPTER.

The Greek Islander, on being shown the vale of Tempe, and being asked if it was not most beautiful, replied: "Yes, it is beautiful, but the sea; where is it?" And born among the hills and mountains of the White Mountain region, when shown broad prairies and treeless plains, I feel a different want, and am ready to cry, "The forest covered hills, where are they?" And, doubtless, as the sea, beside and upon which their childhood and youth had been spent, was so much beloved by the Greeks, with their quick and ardent sympathy with nature in all her manifestations, so that the ten thousand, when they caught sight of the distant Euxine, forgot both the toils of their long march, and the dangers and hardships of their terrible retreat, and mindful only that they beheld the blue waters again, though still far from home and rest, sent up a shout, "Thalatta, Thalatta," the sea, the sea; so many a native of wooded regions, even if he had found a home and wealth upon the western plains, has pined for a sight of the evergreen-clad hills; for the solemn wail of the wind among the pines; for all the tokens by which the fair groves and the deep forests address the senses and whisper to the soul.

It may be said, with a good show of reason, that economic forestry, the details of tree-planting, tree-culture, and the cutting and use of timber, do not properly come within the scope of horticultural discussion; but, I fancy, no one will deny that the planting

and tending of trees, whether singly, in lines, clumps, or groves, as well as the care of self-planted and native trees, and the cutting and clearing off of trees and woods, considered as an element of landscape making, comes properly within the purview of a horticultural essay. At the same time, I must insist that, usually or almost invariably, an eye should be had to practical use of some kind, either in planting, preserving, or cutting away a tree or shrub. And it is wonderful how constantly an intelligent economy and a true and correct taste will coincide and work into each other's hands in the location of trees and woods. But it is lamentable, as well as strange, to see how often usefulness is defeated and taste offended in their arrangement. To cite a single instance: We often see numerous trees and shrubs crowded directly before a farmhouse, where a single tree to shade the porch would be enough, and leave room for a pretty piece of smooth turf, while each side and the space behind the house are adorned with old rail piles, weeds, and nettles, leaving the house and the ground around it which is most used by the inmates exposed to the full sweep of bleak winds, and certain unsightly out-buildings, and the approaches to them fully open, not only to the wintry blasts and drifts, but to public view from the road on each side and several neighboring farms. What would be thought of an individual who should adopt a similar rule in clothing, and exposing different parts of his own person?

Now, I am not going to lay down rules or give any specific directions for planting around dwellings, nor, indeed, anywhere else, for circumstances and surroundings will vary each case more or less; rules in this case are like rules in behavior-they may as well be simmered down to these: use common sense and good taste, which means much the same as good judgment, and, in reference to what I was just saying, I may add, let others see you at your best, and hide your weak points, both in your home and in your manners. But what I set out to do was to hint at some general ideas on the subject indicated at the head of this paper, and here let me say, if any man is disposed to sneer at or despise the idea of making beauty a consideration (always in connection with use) in planting, preserving, and cutting down, I am sorry for him, and sorry for his neighbors, for I am as sure as I am of anything that the man who has a true sense of the beautiful in natural scenery, and a pro

per estimate of the value and importance of that sense, will, other things being equal, be a far better ditch-digger or navey, than one who is destitute of such sense and such estimate, to say nothing of his value in the relations of friend, neighbor, citizen, etc.

Haying already alluded to planting around dwellings in connection with the assertion that use and beauty would be found usually to agree in the planting of trees and shrubbery in a landscape, let us see what the effect of the two different modes hinted at, will be as elements of scenery. As farm buildings are generally distributed in this region, the landscape will need the frontage of most of them to be tolerably well displayed for the best effect, except in the case of great sweeps of open, level country, where great numbers of prominent buildings would not harmonize with the vastness which is the leading sentiment of such a picture. Here then the farmsteads need to be well wrapped in foliage, only giving a hint by a roof or a gable here, or a glimpse of white among the trees there, of their presence. And on such open stretches, comfort equally demands more planting all around the dwelling. But in an undulating or hilly country, such as most of this State, with groves and woodlands properly distributed, but a few farm-houses will be in sight at once, and these should be well thrown forward to prevent the aspect of quiet and seclusion belonging to such a view from sinking to one of sleepy-hollowism and dullness. And here so much wind-break is not needed for comfort. As I have said, a single tree for shade and smooth turf in front, will be enough to break the naked look, and other foliage will be better used to flank and back the house, having regard to purposes of shelter, and concealing what is better hid.

These ideas are best illustrated by extreme cases; a sensible landscape painter representing a cottage in a deep narrow glen between steep and heavily timbered hills, would surround it with a patch of clear, open ground; he would also make a house upon the summit of a bold ridge, peep out through a narrow vista between masses of heavy foliage. Still a startling effect now and then is good, to break up monotony, and I know of artistic souls whose dwellings are perched where the south-wester is unchecked in its howling course for miles, without a bush to deaden its sweep around the house.

Before leaving the subject of trees around dwellings I wish to

advert to one or two ideas which I do not find brought forward in anything I have read of late on the subject. First. The planter should consider whose eyes he is planting for, whether his own and those of the inmates of his house, or those of outsiders. That is to say, whether what he plants is designed to affect the view of the house; or the view from the house. And this, both in regard to what it conceals, and what it shows. In this connection, it is of great use to observe that a tree, clump, or grove requires, to produce its proper effect as an object in the view, a distance from the eye proportioned to its size; and this distance, to give the best effect usually requires to be several hundred feet, at least, for medium sized trees, of say forty or fifty feet in height. For we shall find that to strike the eye well, it must be viewed with a good inargin all around it, so as to be seen in contrast with the ground, the sky, the dim distance, etc. Consequently large trees near the house are hardly to be considered as elements of the landscape as seen from the house; shrubs, flowers and a great deal of smooth turf fill the near foreground better, the trees and groves that fit well in the picture are those around your neighbors houses at the other end of the farm, and so on, to miles away. Not but that the huge bell and tent like shade of a heavy oak or elm, close to the house, or a close set clump of pines a little to one side may be made to come in very well if you will sternly insist that everything else near shall be mown at least once a month. But if you have concealed the finest views of the distance by a drizzled expanse of trees and shrubs, without any openings for the eye, you may boast that you have spoiled the foreground of your own view, and hid its middle distance and background for the benefit of those who look at your home from a distance.

But enough of dwellings and other artificial structures and their surroundings. Even when seen to the best advantage, they are but accessories; the more prominent and pretentious their style and character, the more surely they mar the effect and defeat the intent of true landscape, which addresses itself, not to the architect, the builder, or the house-painter, but to many as "looking through Nature up to Nature's God." So while a ruin, a rude hut or an irregular and weather-worn old building will harmonize perfectly with any view, new and high-colored buildings, fences and roads running in straight lines, as well as rows of trees, and all