This is frequently recommended by writers on country embellishment, as
indispensable to a finished decoration of the farm. Such may, or may not
be the fact. Trees shade the roads, when planted on their sides, and so
they partially do the fields adjoining, making the first muddy, in bad
weather, by preventing the sun drying them, and shading the crops of the
last by their overhanging foliage, in the season of their growth. Thus
they are an evil, in moist and heavy soils. Yet, in light soils, their
shade is grateful to the highway traveler, and not, perhaps, injurious
to the crops of the adjoining field; and when of proper kinds, they add
grace and beauty to the domain in which they stand. We do not,
therefore, indiscriminately recommend them, but leave it to the
discretion of the farmer, to decide for himself, having seen estates
equally pleasant with, and without trees on the roadside. Nothing,
however, can be more beautiful than a clump of trees in a
pasture-ground, with a herd, or a flock beneath them, near the road; or
the grand and overshadowing branches of stately tree, in a rich meadow,
leaning, perhaps, over the highway fence, or flourishing in its solitary
grandeur, in the distance--each, and all, imposing features in the rural
landscape. All such should be preserved, with the greatest care and
solicitude, as among the highest and most attractive ornaments which the
farm can boast.
[Illustration: FARM HOUSE. Pages 131-132.]