IMPEOVEMENT OF GROUNDS. 



IMPROVEMENT OF GROUNDS. 



BY WM, ClIOELTON, GARDENER TO J. C. GREEN, NEW BRIGHTON, STATEN ISLANT). 



In connection witli your well-timed and judicious remarks on the " Improvement of 

 Grounds" in the October number of the Horticulturist, the preservation of Nature's 

 trees and shrubbery claims our most important attention. The subject requires not 

 my humble pen to depict its great advantages and extol its usefulness, having been 

 often treated of by the most eloquent writers ; but as we all labor in one pursuit, even 

 a mite added may be of some service in preventing the wholesale depredation that 

 we so often see going on, the waste of capital, and often vexation when too late to 

 repair the mistake. Ingenuity would be exhausted in discovering a term which should 

 sufficiently express the true meaning of this ignorant demolition. 



How often is it the case that, when the site for a house is determined on, the first 

 thing done is to hew down and cut up every living vestige of a tree or shrub on the 

 space to be (as so called) improved. There may be the majestic Oak, Hickory, or 

 Chestnut ; and as likely in places where such objects are wanted, there may be 

 beautifully wooded knolls, and shady dells, where the Song Thrush is wont to warble 

 forth his melodious notes ; and beneath the bough on which he sits may spring the 

 sparkling Hepatica, the fragrant Violet, the Laurel, the Azalea, and a host of other 

 gems of like character, luxuriating under their accustomed shade, shedding their 

 brilliance, beauty, and perfume around, inviting us to take gratification at no other 

 expense than merely forming paths and removing worthless Cat Briars, Poison Vine, 

 or other such, to give us all that could be required as a pleasant, secluded walk or 

 drive. There may be likewise, a bank of evergreens that by a little care might be 

 improved and reserved as a shelter from cold blasts, or to hide some ugly feature in 

 the back ground, beside the cheeriness given when all other things are leafless and 

 bare. Yet at this point of action all must be leveled — at one fell swoop all must be 

 cut down before the erection of the dwelling-house can be proceeded with. The Song 

 Thrush must be banished — the little flowers and Nature's shrubbery, which before 

 were just where they liked to be, must be leveled : and how all alone and deplorably 

 looking is the most splendid mansion after erection, upon this once Avell covered 

 eminence, but now a bare hill — or that former sylvan grove, now a vacant slope, 

 where in the present defaced and solitary scene it rears its proud and seedy-looking 

 superstructure. Instead of appearing as a part of a harmonious whole, here alone 

 it stands, a woe-begotten subject, mourning in stiff" subjectness to bad taste, and 

 seeming to belong to any thing but the spot upon which it is placed. Sorry is such 

 a scene ; and why ? Because the ruthless hand of ignorance has irrecoverably des- 

 troyed those advantages where Nature has done her utmost to contribute to man's 

 enjoyment. 



This is no over-drawn picture, for many a beautiful spot and appropriate feature has 

 been destroyed that might have been preserved, and which it is impossible to create 

 again to equal perfection. Spare, then, the trees ; and when the site of a dwelling 



