Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1896-09-19
INEXPENSIVE SHRUBBERY.
1t Would Add to the Beauty and Value
Of Every Farm.


Of Every Farm.
Many farmers ARE deferred from
planting ornam entail shrubs and
trees by the supposed necessary OK
rense. They have II variety of large
and small fruit, hat 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 tH:mer is fully aware that
apple orchards and strawberry beds
nay 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 net 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 barc Surroundings of his house
AFRO loft to tho charity of the small
ANIMALS which his wife and daugh-
tiers raise from seed or are able to
carry over from year to year by
means of slips, and perhaps to the
occasional sweet brier CT peony root
procured from flower loving neigh
Dor. 1t is not that the farmer dis
likes shrubhory or is niggardly with
his money. Flo is rarely caught up
with lii, work, and there are always
important things waiting his atten-
tiOn-thingS that take money and
timo and are of prime Importance to
Tho prosperity of the farm. And
then ready money is undeniably
scarce even to tho average farmer
who is getting ahead. New horses
or tools or buildings are needed, and
tho small acoumulations 90 to pro-
vido them, and tho shrubbery is put
off and off, and finally is lost sight
of.
If tho farmer knew how cheaply
his grounds could be ornamonted, I
am convinced there would be fowor
unsightly yards i'll the country.
Even tho boys and girls, with lit
tie trouble. could surround the house
with beautiful trees and shrubs and
clam bering vines, and the cost
would be only a fow days work each
year. There is scarcely tree or a
shrub that will not propagate sadily
from cuttinr:, and all kinds can be
increased almost indefinitely. l set
tho cuttings il u moist piece of
ground in the spring and give them
ono or two hoeings. BY the second
year they will be large enough to
transplant to permanent quarters.
Herbaceous plants, like lilies,
phloxes, roonies, irises, yuccas,
anemones aud hundreds of others
can have their roots divided and
sublivided, and he plants will he
all the moro thrifty for the division.
Pruuin. is the secret Of successful
shrub growing, and in nearly every
locality can DO found fair assort-
ment of shrubs and plants whose
owners would be perfectly willing to
give away tho cuttings Of each prun-
ing, and cuttings of such desira BILE
shrubs as might not be found in the
neighborhood could easily be pro-
cured from nursery for a few
cents. know a young man who
has several acres of fino shrubbery,
nearly all CT which no raised from
cuttings procured in the neighbor-
hood. What would have cost him
several hundred dollars at nursery
only cost him few days of labor
and Some years of waiting. There
arc dozens of handsome California
piivet hedges in this vicinity, all
.'aisod from cuttings furnished by
gentleman II few miles away, who
prunes his hedge three or four times
each summer. l have propagated
thousands of willows, poplars, ny
drangeas, altheas, roses, spireas and
other trees and shrubs and lost less
than 5 Per cent of the cutting. Out
side of the saving, thcio is fascina-
ton in raising ones own slrubbery,
and, it dcsirable, one can easily
ma ko j u source of no inconsidora-
bio profit | know small farmers
who add $500 CT moro each year to
their income by growing a small as
sort,ncnt of plants for local trade
New York Ledger.