It is a little strange that in this State not one farmer's yard in five hundred has more than half a dozen ornamental trees in it; and in the greater number there are no trees at all. The farmer who ventures upon the outlay of a few dollars in the purchase of well selected ornamental trees, and evergreens especially, is quite sure to find that at least every third passer points at them as something a little select - something, though very pretty, not exactly appropriate in the demesne of the man who gets his living by growing wheat or wool, or by making butter. Why not ? Only because the thing has'nt its precedents among Michigan farmers. Even Johnny Slattern and Bull Carenought, untenanted as their minds are with any thing of a Georgic nature, wish that some of those pretty trees at whose beauties they give a passing look in their way through Town street or Suburban road on their way to market, were their own. But these men want the example of their own class. There are their neighbors Broadbrim and Loanmoney whose farms are the pink of neatness - their fields without a thistle or other noxious weed; their fences of the best; their wheat well drilled; their orchards trim and productive; their houses commodious enough; and, maybe, each keeps his carriage.

They are the men to whom the neighboring farmers look for examples. Farmer Broadbrim thought, when he "laid out" his "dooryard," that he had got it about right. Before he built, and when he lived in the log house, the " front fence" was a rail fence, and the "dooryard" was the whole farm that the house and barn did'nt cover. So, when the new house came to be built, in order to a greater certainty of metes and bounds - "a clear manifestation of visible things," Consistence Broadbrim runs a bee-line from each front corner of his new-built house, whereupon shall stand, as well upon the street, a picket fence. His well kept farm has thus far engaged his whole attention, for from its proceeds he has had a large family to maintain; but now, as the farm is in good culture, and the children married and out of charge, he thinks he will decorate a little: hence that front yard within that picket fence. Consistence says that good Rebecca, the wife, shall plant it. Thereupon she sets her wits to work for the most feasible and economical way of doing it. A neighbor's Blush Rose need the trimming, and she gets the offshoots.

She remembers that her cousin Patience Grownrusty's yard, in town, has an old lilac bush whose uncared-for roots had thrown up a multitude of suckers: jo, the first time she goes to town, some of them are got. With these and the * posy" bed on either side of the walk from door to front gate, the sum of her decorative art is well nigh exhausted. Consistence is an indulgent man, and looks quietly on all this transforming process in a way which reads unmistakably - "what's the lse?" - "extravagant!" She has a want or two unsatisfied yet. Passing their friend Benjamin's well kept nursery on a fine spring morning, she would fain thin it a little or the good of her yard; but her good Consistence has been quite a long time naking his money, and has no mind to spend much of it for "show." She is easily oersuaded; though an Elton or a Bartlett, costing little more than one of the hundred apple trees in her husband's orchard, would have combined beauty and utility. The oretty Norways, Pines, and Spruces, that stand out so vividly in the nursery rows, and which, transplanted to their own door yard - small as it is - might add greatly to its beauty, as well as keep off the hard winter winds, fail to entice them.

The little yard, with its rose and lilac bushes, and its two flower beds, has not the elements for growing better. Is was "made" long ago.

Now, Consistence is but a type of a large class of farmers whose "strivings" to be tasteful are as uncertain as the flesh. What I especially wish to call attention to n his case is this : that possessing, as he does, quite his share of acres, he should so grugingly "set off" (as though it were a dangerous associate of the rest of the farm) only that stingy little enclosure he designates "front yard." The few square rods of pound favored (?) by this exclusiveness, give a stifness and prude air to the farm. The fence enclosing it draws attention to what should always be the best ornamented >art of a farmer's grounds - the part which all members of the family, as well as assers; must look at the oftenest. The mistake made by Consistence involves a point in decoration in which nine in ten stumble in making their improvements: that ll fences not really required for purposes of division, should be studiously avoided ither on village lot or farm. A fence should be as much out of the vision as possible. With the greater number a "handsome fence" is of higher moment than the shrubs and trees surrounding the house, and too often answering the place of them.

What more provoking than when passing a good collection of shrubbery in town yard to lave your view of it cut off by a fence nearly twice as tall as there is any necessity rf - a boardy barrier that the owner thrusts upon you as the greater beauty, but which ou consider sheer snobbery. In villages there must be fences between the grounds of djoining proprietors, if not neighbors in the true sense; but far prettier a neat ence of Osage Orange, Privet or Arbor Vitae? to mark the line. On the front, so long is the laws are not enforced against marauding cattle, carpentry must generally be ised; but it should always be as low, light and open, as strength will permit. Much lisplay in ornamental fencing is quite inadmissable about a farm house; more than n the town we expect trees, shrubs, and green vines, and grass to look at, and don't so much need the plane and saw to make beauty. The greatest breach of good taste in a house yard on the farm, is stinginess of size - adopting as a choice in the country what is only a necessity in the city. Half an acre, or even an acre, no fanner should grudge for his yard; especially as no part of the farm can be made to pay better.

The writer has found that two acres that he has mostly planted with forest and evergreen trees, made a better return of grass than twice the number of acres of meadow elsewhere. As breadth and magnitude, rather than elaborate decoration, belong to the farm, a horizontal fence is most appropriate to the yard. Picket fences, so common in front of farm houses, should never occupy that position. A horizontal ten foot rail, made of some hard wood free from knots, to connect the posts, makes a cheap, strong fence, obstructs the vision as little as any, and looks well.

A few words as to the selection of trees. I assume before making any list of ornamental trees for the decoration of the grounds of a well-to-do farmer, that he is not restricted in room. There is no necessity for crowding his trees too closely, as nine-tenths of lot owners in villages are sure to do; but, selecting his trees judiciously, he may give each its proportionate and necessary area, so that its distinguishing beauties shall be best brought out. Let the farmer devote two acres - at least one - to trees and lawn. On two acres he may get all our native forest trees, a complete collection of hardy evergreens, and besides, a good variety of the best pears and cherries. The pear and the cherry are the only fruit trees fit for the yard. From them, varieties may be selected combining the greatest excellence of fruit and all the beauties of form and thrift. The peach and the apple do not sufficiently combine beauty and utility to admit their presence nearer than the orchard.

It need not be objected that the portion of the ground devoted to forest trees is to yield its sole profit in the grass which may grow beneath them. Why not have your hickory nuts grown at home, instead of spending time and legs in roaming the woods or your neighbor's fields for them ? And there is as much difference between such-nuts as you might have by a proper choice, and the average of wood-grown nuts, as would amply compensate for the pains. How few trees equaling the Chestnut as a lawn tree, and how good the nuts! I saw young Chestnut trees last summer in the nursery of a friend, whose crop of fruit quite astonished me. The seed from which they sprung was planted at the same time with nursery apple trees growing near them. The latter had not commenced bearing. The Black Walnut, too, grows rapidly in the proper soil, and produces one of the best of nuts.

From the large variety of evergreens to be found in the nurseries, fifteen kinds will embrace all the well-tried - all that are certain to withstand the irregularity of northern winters without protection. Foremost among them, all things considered, may be placed the Norway Spruce, Hemlock, and Black Spruce. They are all beautiful specimens of tree architecture, and complete types of the two kinds of character in evergreens. Quite too little has been said in praise of the Black Spruce, owing partly to the fact that it has been little cultivated as yet Its growth and size are about equal to the Norway Spruce; but it has a much denser foliage, and, with the Norway, the same association of color is attained as verdigris and French green afford.

Its depth of coloring sometimes gives it rather a sombre expression. To me that very dark green is especially pleasing in the melting days of summer. In the yawl of Dr. D. B. Scott there are specimens, the tallest of which is, perhaps, thirty feet high, with a close, unbroken foliage. They hare been universally admired by tree connoisseurs. Some specimens transplanted into my father's grounds in Toledo eight years ago - trees twenty years old from the seed - are almost always the most admired in a* collection of ten or twelve evergreens. Beside them the much overrated Balsam Fir shows thin and lank. The Black Spruce has been sadly prejudged by those who have gone the wrong way to work to get it. Like the Hemlock, you greatly mistake its domesticated character by judging it from its appearance in the close forest, or by specimens taken from the forest. Like most evergreens, too, it roust be a thin, slow growing tree for many years if transplanted from its native wilds; while, if taken from thrifty nursery collections, it is sufficiently thrifty, and grows thick and compact. Then there is the Red Cedar, a tree that no good collection should be without.

It is often scrawny in its wild, native retreats; but it is not often so with good care in open culture.