Morris tribune., 1896-11-04
INEXPENSIVE SHRUBBERY.
It Would Add to the Beauty and Value
of Every Farm.

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of Every Farm.
Many farmers are deferred from
planting ornamental shrubs and
trees by the supposed necessary ex-
pense. They have variety of large
and small fruit, but these are part Of
the economy of the farm and repre-
sent money we'll invested. Fruit
trees and plants are longer in COM
ing to maturity than annual crops,
but are just as sure in the end, and
the wise farmer is fully aware that
apple orchards and strawberry beds
pay better interest than county
banks.
But with shrubbery it is different.
The farmer may realize that orna-
mentation has something to do with
determining the value of his place,
but it does not come home to him so
forcibly as the apple orchard and
vineyard, and he puts it off from
year to year until money is more
plentiful or he has more time, and
the bare surroundings of his house
are left to the charity of the small
ANIMALS which his wife and daugh-
ters raise from seed or are able to
carry over from year to year by
means of slips, and perhaps to the
occasional sweetbrier or peony root
procured from a flower loving neigh
Dor. 1t is not that the farmer dis
likes shrubbery or is niggardly with
his money. He is rarely caught up
with his work, and there are always
important things waiting his atten-
tion-things that take money and
time and are of prime Importance to
the prosperity of the farm. And
then ready money is undeniably
scarce even to the average farmer
who is getting ahead. New horses
Or tools or buildings are needed, and
the small accumulations 60 to pro-
vide them. and the shrubbery is put
off and off, and finally is lost sight
of.
II the farmer knew how cheaply
his grounds could be ornamented, I
am convinced there would be fewer
unsightly yards in the country.
Even the boys and girls, with lit
tie trouble, could surround the house
with beautiful trees and shrubs and
olambering vines, and the cost
would be only few days work each
year. There is scarcely a tree or a
shrub that will not propagate readily
from cuttings, and all kinds can be
increased almost indefinitely. I set
the cuttings in moist piece of
ground in the spring and give them
one Or two hoeings By the second
year they will be large enough to
transplant to permanent quarters.
Herbaceous plants, like lilies,
phloxes, peonies, irises, yuccas,
anemones and hundreds of others
can have their roots divided and
subdivided, and the plants will be
all the more thrifty for the division
Pruning is the secret of successful
shrub growing, and in nearly every
locality can be found a fair assort-
ment of shrubs and plants whose
owners would be perfectly willing tc
give away the cuttings of each pruu-
ing, and cuttings of such desirable
shrubs as might not be found in the
neighborhood could easily be pro
cured from. nursery for a few
cents. I know young man who
has several acres of fine shrubbery,
nearly all of which he raised from
cuttings procured in the neighbor-
hood. What would have cost him
several hundred dollars at nursery
only cost him a few days of labor
and some years of waiting. There
are dozens of handsome California
privet hedges in this vicinity, all
raised from cuttings furnished by
gentleman few miles away, who
prunes his hedge three Or four times
each summer / have propagate6
thousands of willows, poplars, hy-
drangeas, altheas, roses, spireas and
other trees and shrubs and lost less
than 5 per cent of the cutting. Out
side of the saving, there is fascina-
ton in raising ones own shrubbery,
and, if desirable, one can easily