PARKS t'ersus \^LLAaE8. 



Improver. " I beg your pardon ; this is the nearest land to the city that can 

 be bought in this way. Besides, you see I have left lots for a church and a public 

 square." 



Editor. " A public square ! Why, truly, it is a square ; but it is not large 

 enough to pasture a single cow, much less to serve as a healthful promenade for a 

 closely packed public. You should have left acres instead of feet, laid it out 

 tastefully, and planted it with a great variety of the best and most beautiful trees." 



Improver. "Ah yes ! you don't catch me paying out cash for such things as 

 those ! I have enough to do to persuade people of the advantages I offer. I 

 have an office in town for this purpose, and advertise in all the papers." 



Editor. " Advantages ! You mean to say, you design to take advantage of 

 your purchasers ! Now, this is all wrong. Shall I tell you what you ought to 

 do ? It is not too late, and if you will follow my advice, you may dispense with 

 your office in town, and the people will come to you." 



Improver. " Ah ! I wish you could bring that about." 



Editor. " Nothing easier. There is an appreciation of beauty underlying all 

 the rough natures and busy merchants, which, if once awakened, is sure to respond 

 to a good leadership. The ladies, too ! Why surely you can have few advocates 

 for your plans among those best portions of the creation. And, without the ladies' 

 approbation, depend upon it, you can accomplish nothing. What you want is, 

 first, to burn your map ; get a surveyor and a landscape gardener (a real one, I 

 mean) to lay out your farms according to some well-established principles. Don't 

 think of levelling that knoll ! It would be preposterous." 



Improver. " Excuse me ! how should we fill up that ravine ?" 



Editor. " There is no occasion to fill up that ravine ; to do so you would be 

 obliged to throw an arch over the whole of that beautiful stream of water, and 

 bury one of your best resources for beautiful results. You must build a strong, 

 sound dam, and create a lake." 



Improver. " A lake ! O dear ! who would ever buy water lots ?" 



Editor. " Keep them, then, yourself, and agree, when you have disposed of 

 one hundred lots, to present the lake to the residents. Place suitable trees around 

 it ; border with shrubbery and an intricate walk ; place, if you find it will answer, 

 a small island in your lake; plant a rustic bridge to it, and fill it with the choicest 

 shrubs and flowers. Let every purchaser have a key to the whole, and my word 

 for it, you will get more for your whole plot, if your other improvements corre- 

 spond, than for your abominable city lots, with the old arrangement of alleys in 

 the rear." 



Improver. " And pray, what would be the other corresponding improvements ? 

 I begin to comprehend you." 



Editor. " Nothing more palpable. Plant out your boundaries judiciously, say 

 with Norway firs, to be kept down, after a few years, by cutting off the leaders ; 

 make a properly curved drive through the place, which shall approach in its gentle 

 sweeps every acre or half-acre of the park! Yes, a park, for the residence of 



