64 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Every village, before it becomes a city, with land occupied and enor- 

 mously high in price, should secure liberal areas for parks, and fortu- 

 nately most of them do this very thing. 



As a rule, all the knolls and undulations should be left as they are 

 found, only smoothing down the little irregularities which are the size of 

 a wheelbarrow and smaller. And here I can do no better than to refer 

 you to A. J. Dowing, that genial and eloquent instructor on landscape 

 art, concerning ''The Beautiful in Group." He said: 



''Many have never thought of looking for beauty in the mere surface of 

 the earth. There is a great and enduring interest, to a refined and artis- 

 tic eye, in the mere surface of the ground. We believe artists and men of 

 taste have agreed that all forms of acknowledged beauty are composed 

 of curved lines. The most beautiful shape in ground is that where one 

 undulation melts gradually and insensibly into another; and every land- 

 scape gardener well knows that no grassy surface is so captivating to the 

 eye as one where these gentle swells and undulations rise and melt 

 away gradually into another. A plot or level surface is considered beau- 

 tiful by rcany persons, though it has no beauty in itself. We see all 

 ignorant persons who set about embellishing their pleasure-grounds, or 

 even the site for a home, immediately commence levelling the surface. 

 This is a fearful fallacy, however; fearful, oftentimes, to both the eye 

 and the purse. We have often seen in this country a finely varied out- 

 line of ground utterly spoiled by being graded." 



If the right man could be selected, money would be saved in the long 

 run by emplojdng him to lay out and plant the park. Around the 

 strniffht sides of a park we cnn do no better than plant in rows; but, 

 further than this, geometrical figures should usually be avoided. 



Most of the paths or drives across the park should be made in curves 

 more or less pronounced, according to the lay of the land, size and shape 

 of the park. I should never wriggle a path nor drive about just for the 

 sake of wriggling, as I have sometimes seen. 



No, I should not think it imperative, the first thing, to remove every 

 native tree and shrub or old appl? tree, because it did not stand just 

 where I thought it ought to stand; on the contrary, I should strive to 

 adapt my plans so as to preserve the best of these old woody plants. 

 Neither should I take off all the lower limbs of the evergreens, to a 

 height of five feet; nor should I shave the tops of the Norway spruces. 



Grade the land as I have suggested, plant almost at random, in prefer- 

 ence to straight lines, a great variety of trees and shrubs adapted to the 

 soil and elevation of the park; have some spaces of considerable size free 

 from trees, shrubs, or bedding plants, and here strive to have a good 

 lawn. Grass, as well kept lawns, and trees are the best of nature's orna- 

 ments. 



A fountain may be desired by many, but it is expensive, requires much 

 care to keep it in order, and may not prove to be a success. 



Not every one can make a good plan for a park; and even those who 

 think they can, may greatly overestimate their own ability in this direc- 

 tion. 



Other things being equal, the man who has had the longest training 

 and most extended experience; he who has had a good course in horticult- 



