1880. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



2T 



few gardens of this character are better arranixed 

 to get back more pleasure for the money than 

 this. The house fronts on the street, and all 

 around it are rare shrubs and trees, evergreens 

 and deciduous, with open spaces of well kept 

 lawns with roses and flowers, the whole backed 

 up by one of the most beautiful Hemlock hedges 

 it is any one's good fortune to see. In the front 

 is a neat iron fence, which is just my idea of 

 what a garden fence should be. There is just 

 enough of opening here and there to give views 

 of the very pretty grounds inside, to any one 

 who may stop to examine it, — while there is 

 plent}' of seclusion for the proprietor and his 

 friends to sit and enjoy the pleasures of the gar- 

 den without feeling that the eyes of all the world 

 may be upon thera. The land gradually slopes 

 from the house to beyond the middle of the 

 ground, from which it again rises to the extreme 

 end. At this endarethe stables, carriage house, 

 grape house, and the best part of the vegetable 

 garden ; the fruit department chiefly occupying 

 the centre of the grounds, and of course the flo- 

 ral pets being more near the dwelling. The 

 central and lower level of the garden was once 

 spongy and wet, but by a little judicious filling 

 it is perfectly dry, and gave the advantage of 

 forming a pond where there can be boating, 

 water lilies and other aquatic plants, rustic 

 arbors, over clear and limpid streams, in which 

 fish sport and play in the shade during a hot 

 Summer day, and afibrd a delightfully cool spot 

 to those who may be in the mood to avoid the 

 broiling sun and enjoy the antics of the finny 

 denizens of the waters. Then there are rock 

 gardens in the moist places, among which Ferns 

 and shade loving plants grow in luxurant pro- 

 fusion. 



Sitting in the summer house, with the placid 

 waters of the little lake in front of me, I was 

 never more impressed with the beauty of a clump 

 of trees instead of the never ending but yet 

 pretty enough single stem tree which is every- 

 body's rage to possess. I have often stopped 

 to admire willows which have been osiered 

 when young, but which have been left to grow 

 up with half a dozen stems from near the ground, 

 and which, when the whole mass becomes fifty 

 feet or more high, and each main branch as 

 thick as one's body, are very beautiful, — but here, i 

 across the lake from me, was an English Bird 

 Cherry having twelve main stems. all of which had 

 reached a height of perhaps fifty feet. It was a 

 sight for all seasons. In the Spring with its 



myriads of racemes of rather large flowers, — inj 

 the Summer by the profusion of large black 

 drupes, — in the Fall by its handsome colored foli- 

 age, — and in the Winter season by the abundance 

 of its slender, graceful bi'anchlets, on which, I 

 should imagine the eye would never tire. Even 

 of this pretty tree I have seen beautiful single 

 specimens, — trunk straight and head shapely, — 

 but I think none ever impressed me as this mass 

 seen here. Among the rare trees which abound' 

 here is one of the best Lawson Cypress I know 

 oL It is probably 20 feet high, and very shapely 

 from the ground to the summit. A curious 

 growth of Wistaria much interested me. It had 

 originally twined around a large tree which had 

 died, and nothing was left for the coils but to in- 

 crease in size. Of course the growth is chiefly 

 between the coils, and these were flattened so as 

 to be not more than two inches tlrick, though 

 nearly six inches wide. In the course of no dis- 

 tant time the coils will meet and unite, and then 

 we shall have the tree enveloped in a uniform 

 living tube of Wistaria wood. Though the lover 

 of Rhododendrons, Roses, and hardy flowers 

 will find quite enough for half a day's study 

 about the dwelling house, he cannot but be at- 

 tracted to the remarkably healthy fruit trees, 

 especially pears, to which a six feet walk through, 

 the middle of the garden invites him. Cross 

 walks at intervals meet him and which divide the 

 garden into numerous blocks or squares. Healthy 

 box edgings, kept low and neat, line these walks, 

 which are graveled or ashed, and kept scrupu- 

 lously clean. A few feet inside these box edg- 

 ings, are devoted to old fashioned flowers ; Irises,, 

 Sweet Williams, Phloxes, Lilies, and such like, 

 and different kinds of vegetables occupy the 

 ground beyond. We have seen some '"truck 

 patches " where it is thought that it " costs too 

 much" to have box edgings and nice flowers aside 

 them, because the ground can not be ploughed, 

 but all must be done by hand, — but it is wonder- 

 ful how much can be done by a digging fork ; and 

 when the extra beauty of a garden like this and 

 the general superiority of the fruits and vegeta- 

 bles are set against the ordinary ploughed "truck 

 patch," few but the very poor to whom a penny 

 saved is worth more than a dollar full of enjo}'- 

 ment, would care to choose the slovenly thing 

 we often see. After all it is not a very costly 

 thing to have a garden like this when the right 

 gardener is found. Here one does it all, and an 

 excellent gardener in Mr. McCatVerty, evidently 

 has the good " Major" found. The fruij; trees- 



