Halsey again. Most of the trees you see hee-aa are ones I planted – or descendants of trees I planted. We didn’t know anything about global warming and the importance of planting trees. But boy, did I love to plant ‘em.

In the spring of 1860 I set sour cherries trees by the highway. That was the way we thought back then. We didn’t even let the roadside space go to waste. Those trees not only gave us shade and made the roadway more beautiful, but they also gave us all the cherries we could eat.

Those trees cost me nothing as they came from the woods on the farm of Hiram Terry at the so-called Hog Neck in Southold, whose daughter Marietta I was about to marry – she was my first wife. Sadly, she died in childbirth childbirth four-and-a-half years later, just five days after Lincoln was assassinated.

I soon married again – this time to Emilie Wells, a young girl who lived down the road. I brought back some butternut seeds in my pocket from our honeymoon to Ohio and planted those. I also brought some shagbark hickory nuts over from Connecticut at the request of my brother-in-law and planted them. One is just to your left. Those two horse chestnut trees over towards the garage – I planted them too.

Oh yes, you see that black walnut tree over there to your right! I planted that from a nut. No need for my Emilie to go out and buy nuts when she made her delicious black walnut cake.

Many years ago, a couple of American Elm saplings about ten feet high growing in a yard in Laurel attracted my attention. I got permission to remove them and planted them on each side of the walk that leads to our side door.

They were so nearly alike and so noble in their “erectness” that they must have been twins. We called them our Guardians. My daughter Bessie loved to take photos of those trees. If you look just outside the gate to the road, you will see an offspring of those guardian elms still standing today, a rare survivor of all the ravages of Dutch Elm disease.

Now walk towards the Homestead. My daughters are all waiting for you by the horse block.