and walks yet to be laid out; but this will not prove true.  It should be remembered that while certain parts of the place are to be kept bare of surface-vegetation, they nevertheless will form a portion of the root-pasturage of the shade and fruit trees.  The land, also, can be more evenly and deeply plowed before obstructions are placed upon it, and roots, pestiferous weeds, and stones removed with greatest economy.  Moreover, the good initial enriching is capital, hoarded in the soil, to start with.  On many new places I have seen trees and plants beginning a feeble and uncertain life, barely existing rather than growing, because their roots found the soil like a table with dishes but without food.  If the fertilizer is plowed under in the autumn, again mixed with the soil by a second plowing in the spring, it will be decomposed and ready for immediate use by every rootlet in contact with it.  Now, as farmers say, the “land is in good heart,” and it will cheer its owner’s heart to see the growth promptly made by whatever is properly planted.  Instead of losing time, he has gained years.  Suppose the acre to have been bought in September, and treated as I have indicated, it is ready for a generous reception of plants and trees the following spring.

Possibly at the time of purchase the acre may be covered with coarse grass, weeds, or undergrowth of some kind.  In this case, after the initial plowing, the cultivation for a season of some such crop as corn or potatoes may be of great advantage in clearing the land, and the proceeds of the crop would partially meet expenses.  If the aim is merely to subdue and clean the land as quickly as possible, nothing is better than buckwheat, sown thickly and plowed under just as it comes into blossom.  It is the nature of this rampart-growing grain to kill out everything else and leave the soil light and mellow.  If the ground is encumbered with many stones and rocks, the question of clearing it is more complicated.  They can be used, and often sold to advantage, for building purposes.  In some instances I have seen laboring-men clear the most unpromising plots of ground by burying all rocks and stones deeply beneath the surface—­men, too, who had no other time for the task except the brief hours before and after their daily toil.

I shall give no distinct plan for laying out the ground.  The taste of the owner, or more probably that of his wife, will now come into play.  Their ideas also will be modified by many local circumstances—­as, for instance, the undulations of the land, if there are any; proximity to neighbors, etc.  If little besides shade and lawn is desired, this fact will have a controlling influence; if, on the other hand, the proprietor wishes to make his acre as productive as possible, the house will be built nearer the street, wider open space will be left for the garden, and fruit-trees will predominate over those grown merely for shade and beauty.  There are few who would