Own Acre, showing how I pulled the lawn in
under the trees. The big chestnuts in the middle are on the old fence
line that stood on the very edge of the precipitously falling ground.
All the ground in sight in the picture is a fill.]

Thus we generalize. And as long as one may generalize he is
comparatively safe from humiliating criticism. It is only when he begins
to name things by name and say what is best for just where, that he
touches the naked eyeball (or the funny-bone) of others whose crotchets
are not identical with his. Yet in Northampton this is what we have to
do, and since the competitors for our prizes always have the Where
before they are moved to get and place the What, we find our
where-and-what problem easiest to handle when we lift it, so to speak,
by the tail. Then it is "What to Plant Where," and for answer we have
made a short list of familiar flowering shrubs best suited to our
immediate geographical locality. We name only fourteen and we so
describe each as to indicate clearly enough, without dictating,
whereabouts to put it. We begin:

"Azalea. Our common wild azalea is the flowering bush best known as
'swamp honeysuckle.' The two azaleas listed here, _A. mollis_ and the
Ghent varieties, are of large, beautiful and luxuriant bloom, and except
the 'swamp honeysuckle' are the only azaleas hardy in western
Massachusetts. Mollis is from two to six feet high, three to six feet
broad, and blooms in April and May. Its blossoms are yellow, orange or
pink, single or double. Its soil may be sandy or peaty, and moist, but
any good garden soil will serve; its position partly shaded or in full
sunlight. The Ghents are somewhat taller and not so broad in
proportion. They bloom from May to July, and their blossoms are white,
yellow, orange, pink, carmine, or red, single or double. Soil and
position about the same as for mollis.

"Berberis. Berberis is the barberry, so well known by its beautiful
pendent berries. It is one of the best shrubs to use where a thorny bush
is wanted. _B. vulgaris_, the common sort, and one of the most
beautiful, grows from four to eight feet high, with a breadth of from
three to six feet. _B. Thunbergii_, or Thunberg's barberry, is the
well-known Japanese variety, a dense, drooping bush from two to four
feet high and somewhat greater breadth. Its pale-yellow blossoms come in
April and May, and its small, slender, bright-red berries remain on the
spray until spring. A dry soil is