STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 173 



The fruit crop — small fruits excepted — has been very light, the past 

 season, along and near the western shore of lake Michigan, owing mainly 

 to the very heavy crops i)roduced both in eighteen seventy and eighteen 

 seventy-one, and the extreme drouth of both these seasons exhausting 

 the trees so that they were not able to mature fruit-buds for the past 

 season's crop. The timely, (though not by any means copious) rains 

 the i)ast summer, have so invigorated our trees that they give promise 

 of an abundant crop next season. Robert Douglass, 



Waukegan, Til. 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING FOR ILLINOIS. 



BV J. P. PRYANT, MEMBER OF COMMITTEE ON ORNAMENTAL AND LAND- 

 SCAPE GARDENING. 



Landscape gardening is an art about which so much has been 

 written that it would seem almost unnecessary to try to say anything 

 nevv, or for any but one of rare experience and ability to write at all on 

 the subject. But when I see on every hand so many evidences of a lack 

 of a true knowledge of the art, (perhaps I should say a lack of any 

 knowledge at all, or even any interest in the subject) and this too among 

 those who are known as "eminent horticulturists," and whose self-inter- 

 est one would think would pronijii them to foster and encourage all 

 efforts in that direction ; I (eel that somehow the fine thoughts of our 

 writers — clothed in beautiful language though they are, — have not been 

 what was needed, have not hit the nail on the head, and that there is still 

 room tor myself as well as others, if wx» can only bring the subject be- 

 fore our hearers in a shape that \yill enable them to appreciate its beau- 

 ties and advantages, and also the convenience and economy resulting 

 from a practical application of its principles. 



I am willing to confess that alter reading Downing's work on Land- 

 scape (hardening, ami also the writings of others on the same subject, 

 it was not at all easy to reduce their ideas to practice. Though they 

 were men o( experience and wrote with ability and a true appreciation 

 of the art. the thought has occured to me that many persons would, after 

 reading their works, give u[) the subject in disgust and go back to first 

 jjrmciples; which generally means no principle or plan at all. 



In fac t, though generally i)rofessing the contrary, the general tend- 

 ency of such works has been to make people believe that to lay (nit a 

 place and keep it iiji would be to incur an expense that but lew would 

 be able to afford; when in reality such work can be done in a manner 

 that will not only enhance the beauty and value of a place, but also re- 

 sult in positive economy in the end. 



Ueautv has been defined as fitness of the object, or means used for 

 its destined end ; and on reflection 1 think all will admit that the defi- 

 nition is a good one. 'I'hus in nature we see every leaf, flower, twig, 

 tree, or |)lant, perfectly fitted for its office. Every piece of machinery, 

 every building impresses us with its beauty^ in proportion to its adapta- 

 tion to the purpose for which it was made. Why then should we not 



