312 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



instead of a few weeks, as much of the planting around country 

 homes is apt to do. 



Some important matters, like placing drives and walks, and fram- 

 ing beautiful pictures by proper disposal of close planting, I cannot 

 even hint at. The fact is, my friends, it is a pretty large contract 

 to try to make plain even the rudiments of skilful dooryard planting 

 in a half hour's time. Few realize the slow evolution of the pres- 

 ent advanced theory and practice of landscape gardening. I was, 

 during the later years of his life, so fortunate as to enjoy the friendly 

 acquaintance of Adolph Strauch, the landscape architect, who left 

 Springgrove Cemetery, Cincinnati as a monument to his creative 

 genius. One morning he took me into his office and showed me his 

 library which cost for books, engravings and folios more than $3,000, 

 besides several hundred dollars for the bookcases and cabinets to 

 hold them. This whole library was devoted to landscape gardening, 

 and Mr. Strauch, a German by birth, in addition to the American 

 language, had mastered French and Italian, that he might read 

 what was written in those languages, along the line of his profession. 

 This library was the work of several hundred authors, going back 

 to the beginning of landscape improvement in the sixteenth cen- 

 tury. 



When you think of this art as commanding such an army of 

 skilled workers, you will, I am sure, forgive me for telling you so 

 little in a brief half hour. It is not a topic to call out flights of 

 fancy, or bursts of oratory, and it was lucky for me that it was not, 

 for I am neither a poet nor an orator. In conclusion, allow me to 

 thank you for your patient listening. 



AN ADDRESS. 



I5y S. B. HEIGES, President. 



I have promised my self to occupy but a short period this evening. 

 During the 37 years that I have been a member of this society, I 

 have spoken a number of times, and can recall no phase of horti- 

 culture or pomology upon which I have not expressed myself. How- 

 ever, 1 have a few practical thoughts whicji I will try briefly to pre- 

 sent. 



