Attention is also called to the location of walks and drives.

Unless

the house is very near to the front of the lot I would not advise a straight walk from the street to the house, but rather a double walk in the form of a curve leaving an opportunity for a fine lawn. These walks should be made of cement or fine gravel. The walks and drives should be made of gravel and kept well rounded and Drives. smooth. In making a gravel walk or a gravel drive the earth should be excavated to a depth of twelve or eighteen inches. Then in the bottom fine sand should be placed and well pounded. Upon this may be placed the gravel which has previously been carefully screened. The surface of the walk or drive should be slightly above the surface of the lawn.

In planning the grounds, as I have indicated in the foregoing, we should begin with the fundamentals, that is, the grading of the ground, locating buildings, drives and walks. When we have "blocked out" the plan it is not difficult to gradually work in the details. It is wrong to plant trees, shrubs, and flowers in the grounds first and then begin the grading and the locating of the buildings.

For grading I would suggest that unless the grounds are very uneven very little should be attempted more than to level down knolls and fill up small hollows. If, of course, the grounds are naturally uneven then they should be carefully and scientifically graded. Grading In doing this the location of the building should be the high- and Seeding. est spot and the ground should gently slope away from the building in every direction. If the soil is heavy it should be well drained by the use of tile.

After the grading will come the seeding and this may be done either by sodding the lot immediately about the house or by sowing grass seed and giving it proper care until it is well rooted. For a lawn in front of the building the plan of sodding is usually the most satisfactory. This grading and seeding may easily be done by means of a "bee" for improving the grounds if the people would prefer doing this to hiring someone to do the work. The advantage of this plan is that all will be interested. When the grounds have been graded and seeded and fenced the next question will be the planting of trees, shrubbery, etc. It may not be out of place here to remark that the school district is obliged by law to build the fence around the school yard and adjoining land owners are not required to build any part of it.

The following cuts will give in a general way the ideas of landscape gardeners as to how a school ground should be arranged and planted. Note especially the grouping of shrubs and trees by themselves and that the shrubbery follows the exterior line of the school lot and screens the outhouses.

The means of beautifying school grounds will vary with locality, character of soil, and drainage. Trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants may be used, but with all these a large part of the school lot should be a lawn. That part of the yard immediately surrounding the house and in front should be kept as a lawn. The following statement, written by Professor W. J. Beal of our Agricultural College, very tersely states the case and gives valuable suggestions:

"Attempt no grading, except to cut off and fill very slight inequalities, as the chances are that a person who has given little attention to the topic will do crude things-more harm than good. For decoration rely almost entirely on grass, trees, and shrubs. Seed the yard to June grass, using no other crop in the operation. If time will permit, this can be helped by cutting small bits of sod, say two inches across, and rolling down.

Do not scatter shrubs about, but plant in groups of five to thirty, because they will be much more easily cultivated and will look better. Shrubs of a group may in a few cases be all of the same kind. Trees and shrubs should be placed to screen outhouses and woodpiles, and in groups near the margins and in the corners of the school lot. In beginning, the first thing the person of slight experience will think of will be to plant at equal distances in straight lines to balance one tree or group of shrubs by another of the same size and make the plants exactly opposite. Don't do it. Avoid all appearance of planting in rows. Why? Because it is never done, or only to a very limited extent, by persons who have made a specialty of such work, and nature favors curved lines. A curved line is ornamental, a straight line is not. For school grounds, make it a point to plant a good variety of trees and shrubs, that they may be used as object lessons. In this be guided by what kinds are grown on other property adjacent to the school grounds or on the streets near by. If the people of the neighborhood have planted abundantly to sugar maples, elms, Norway spruces, and common lilacs, these may be very sparingly planted about the schoolhouse. To some extent, it will be better to plant liberally to trees and shrubs that are native to the neighborhood, because they are pretty, because they are available almost without cost, because they are apt to thrive, and because they will serve as excellent object lessons. The grounds should have a third or more of the area

destitute of plants, excepting the lawn, for playground. If possible, by all means plant one side or one corner somewhere to a thicket of wild or native plants in great variety, unless, fortunately, such a thicket already exists. If there are many white oaks, or red elms, or other trees, thin here and there to make room for other species. Get someone who knows trees and shrubs to help find these in the neighborhood.

Now for the care,-a portion of the plan usually much neglected. The chances are fifty to one that the trees, bushes and lawn will not receive much care, because the officers of the district think they must economize, because they are not accustomed to giving much, if any, attention to such things at home, and because they do not know how. What shall be done? It is as well to attempt nothing whatever in the way of outdoor planting as to plant once for all time and give no after care. In most cases, there can be found in the vicinity some tidy and observing man or woman who can be hired by the year to look after the school grounds. The district officers know where to look for such a person, because his or her work about the home advertises the fact well. The tactful person so employed should by all means have the opportunity to secure and employ the services of as many school children as she can, with or without pay, assigning definite shrubs or trees to one person.

A lawn mower costs three to five dollars, and its use adds wonderfully to the appearance of the premises. Take good care of it.

Hoe and rake about the groups of shrubs every two or three weeks during all the growing season. Instead of leaving single trees to stand in the grass, where they struggle between life and death for ten years, if life is spared that long, making very slow growth, dig a circle in the lawn for each tree not less than seven feet in diameter, better eight or nine, and hoe when the shrubbery is hoed, This is not only an insurance on the tree, but its growth will delight all who behold, the upper branches often growing two to five feet in a year. After such trees have been well cared for and well started for three or four years, the cultivation may be entirely omitted and grass permitted to grow.

I have purposely said nothing about the cultivation of herbaceous plants. In the thicket referred to, and in the cultivated ground about the shrubs and trees, may be planted "flowers" at pleasure, but nowhere else, unless it be to one side or back of the house, no matter if someone thinks they should be in the front yard. Space forbids giving here a book of reasons for the directions given above. Will it pay? Is it worth while for any school premises to be talked about by all enterprising people who pass with comments: That is pretty; that is nice; that shows enterprise; what an excellent influence such grounds must have on the children who attend school; how proud the teacher must feel to work in such a district; that beats everything I ever saw; that is worth coming ten miles to see; what a contrast between this place and the one in the district we just passed; somebody is doing excellent missionary work, whether she knows it or not; I wish Director of our district could see this place. Perhaps he could learn something, it might stir him up."

PLANTING TREES, FLOWERS, AND SHRUBS.

The man who plants a tree in a proper location becomes thereby a public benefactor. Someone, many years ago, planted the trees that now adorn the streets of our cities and the orchards that furnish us with luscious fruits. A visit to the Michigan Agricultural College will convince one of the possibilities in the way of decorating a plot of ground by means of trees, shrubs, and herbs. If we plant trees we must take a long look ahead if we wish to place them correctly and so that they will bring the greatest benefit to those who are to come after us. We are not to see the small sprout that we plant in the ground, but the beautiful oak or elm that will one day shade the multitude. Ordinarily, small trees four to eight feet high should be selected rather than large ones, as they establish themselves more quickly and are less easily injured by their removal and replanting. It is well for immediate effect to plant trees and shrubs in abundance, then thin them out as occasion requires. The soil should be thor

Size of
Trees.

oughly broken and unless already fertile should be mixed with good loam and some fertilizer. The following directions given by the Forestry Division of the Agricultural Department at Washington are most excellent.

"Planting is best done by two or three persons. A, who manipulates the tree, is the planter and is responsible for the results. B and C do the spading under his direction. A places the tree in a hole to ascertain whether this is the proper size; a broad stick laid across the hole aids in judging the depth. Trees should not be set deeper than they were before, except in loose, poor soil. More trees are killed by too deep planting than the reverse. As an illustration of this point it may be stated that trees are frequently killed, without removal, by raising the grade so that the soil is raised about their trunks a few inches higher than before. Valuable trees are frequently destroyed in this way. If the root system is developed sidewise, but not centrally, as is often the case, a hill is raised in the hole to fill out the hollow space in the root system and the earth of the hill is patted down with the spade.

When the hole is in proper order, A holds the tree perpendicularly in the middle of the hole, with the side bearing the fullest branches toward the south or the southeast for better protection of the shaft against the sun. B and C spread the roots into a natural position and then fill in the soil, using the good surface soil first,-small spadefuls deliberately thrown over the roots in all directions, while A, by a slight shaking and pumping up and down of the stem, aids the earth in settling around the rootlets, which should also be aided by hand and fingers filling in every crevice. A, while setting the tree, must exercise care to keep it in proper position and perpendicular, until the soil is packed so as to keep the tree in place. Then B and C, rapidly fill the hole, A treading the soil firmly down after a sufficient quantity is filled in, finishing off a little above the general level to allow for settling and, finally, placing stones or any mulching around the stem. Do not use water while planting unless it is very carefully applied with a "rose" after the soil is filled in and packed around the fibrous roots. It is not uncommon to see water poured in the hole while it is being filled up. This practice does harm rather than good, for it washes the fine soil away from contact with the roots, leaving empty spaces between the roots, or even leaving, as the water dries and the earth hardens, the little rootlets in the midst of hollows like the inside of pipe-stems. In such a case they cannot touch the earth which gives them nutriment and they die. More trees are killed by too much water in transplanting than by too little. Water after the transplanting is useful, and should be applied during the hot season, the late afternoon or evening being chosen for its application."

In addition to what has here been said it may be well to suggest, also, that if the tree is small and to be moved but a short distance it may be well to let some of the original earth remain about the roots but ordinarily this is not necessary. Improper taking up and undue exposure to sun and dry air kill many trees, or cause them to die after planting. When the hole has been dug for planting the roots care should be taken that the soil underneath the body of the tree be compact and that the roots rest down solidly upon the soil underneath. More trees die because of improper planting than from lack of moisture. Too often the tree is set in the hole and when the earth has settled there is a hollow space underneath its body and the roots which will most surely destroy its life. If the tree has a heavy top part of it should be trimmed off so that the leaf area and root area may correspond. In trimming, some branches should be cut close to the trunk, but most of them should be cut farther out in the top, taking care to cut off the end of a main branch near a smaller branch so as to avoid a conspicuous stub. Forest trees may be best transferred in the early spring before the leaf buds open but evergreen trees may be planted later in the season.

Pruning.