_waste_ purposes, as such spots are usually
called which are occupied with wood, or the shade of open trees, near
the dwelling. But no dwelling can be complete in all its appointments
without trees in its immediate vicinity. This subject has perhaps been
sufficiently discussed in preceding chapters; yet, as a closing course
of remark upon what a farm house, greater or less in extent, should be
in the amount of shade given to it, a further suggestion or two may be
permitted. There are, in almost all places, in the vicinity of the
dwelling, portions of ground which can be appropriated to forest trees
without detriment to other economical uses, if applied in the proper
way. Any one who passes along a high road and discovers the farm house,
seated on the margin or in the immediate vicinity of a pleasant grove,
is immediately struck with the peculiarly rural and picturesque air
which it presents, and thinks to himself that he should love such a spot
for his own home, without reflecting that he might equally as well
create one of the same character. Sites already occupied, where
different dispositions are made of contiguous ground, may not admit of
like advantages; and such are to be continued in their present
arrangement, with such course of improvement as their circumstances will
admit. But to such as are about to _select_ the sites of their future
homes, it is important to study what can best embellish them in the most
effective shade and ornament.

In the immediate vicinity of our large towns and cities it is seldom
possible to appropriate any considerable breadth of land to ornamental
purposes, excepting rough and unsightly waste ground, more or less
occupied with rock or swamp; or plainer tracts, so sterile as to be
comparatively worthless for cultivation. Such grounds, too, often lie
bare of wood, and require planting, and a course of years to cover them
with trees, even if the proprietor is willing, or desirous to devote
them to such purpose. Still, there are vast sections of our country
where to economize land is not important, and a mixed occupation of it
to both ornament and profit may be indulged to the extent of the owner's
disposition. All over the United States there are grand and beautiful
sweeps and belts of cultivated country, interspersed with finely-wooded
tracts, which offer the most attractive sites for the erection of
dwellings on the farms which embrace them, and that require only the eye
and hand of