THE MANAGEiMENT OF LARGE COUNTRY PLACES. 



of the house, is partly mown for lawn, and partly for hay ; the lines of the farm and 

 the ornamental portion of the grounds, meet in a confused and unsatisfactory manner, 

 and the result is a residence pretending to be much superior to a common farm, and 

 yet not rising to the dignity of a really tasteful country seat. 



It appears to us that a species of country places particularly adapted to this coun- 

 ti-y, has not, as yet, been attempted, though it offers the largest possible satisfaction at 

 the least cost. 



We mean a place which is a comhination of the 'park-Uhe and pastoral landscape. 

 A place in which the chief features should be fine forest trees, either natural or plant- 

 ed, and scattered over a surface of grass, kept short by the pasturage of fine cattle. 

 A place, in short, where sylvan and pastoral beauty, added to large extent and great 

 facility of management, would cost no more than a much smaller demesne, where a 

 large part is laid out, planted and kept, in an expensive, though still unsatisfactory 

 manner. 



There are sites of this kind, already prettily wooded, which may be had in many 

 desirable localities, at much cheaper rates than the improved sites. On certain por- 

 tions of the Hudson, for instance, we could purchase to-day, finely wooded sites and 

 open glades, in the midst of fine scenery — in fact what could with very trifling ex- 

 pense be turned into a natural park — at $60 per acre, while the improved sites will 

 readily command S200 or $300 per acre. 



Considerable familiarity with the country-seats on the Hudson, enables us to state 

 that for the most part, few persons keep up a fine country place, counting all the 

 products of -the farm-land attached to it, without being more or less out of pocket at 

 the end of the year. And yet there are very few of the large places that can be look- 

 ed upon as examples of tolerable keeping. 



The explanation of this lies in the high pi-ice of all kinds of labor — which costs us 

 nearly double or treble what it does on the other side of the Atlantic, and the com- 

 paratively small profits of land managed in the expensive way common on almost all 

 farms attached to our Atlantic country-seats. The remedy for this unsatisfactory 

 condition of the large country places is, we think, a very simple one — that of turning 

 a large part of their areas into park meadow, and feeding it, instead of mowing and 

 cultivating it. 



The great and distinguishing beauty of England, as every one knows, is its 

 parks. And yet the English parks are only very large meadows, studded with great 

 oaks aTid elms — and grazed-^prqfitalhj grazed, by deer, cattle and sheep. We be- 

 lieve it is a commonly received idea in this country, with those who have not travelled 

 abroad, that English parks are portions of highly dressed scenery — at least that they 

 are kept short by frequent mowing, etc. It is an entire mistake. The mown lawn 

 with its polished garden scenery, is confined to the pleasure grounds proper — a spot of 

 greater or less size, immediately surrounding the house, and wholly separated from the 

 park by a terrace wall, or an iron fence, or some handsome architectural barrier. The 

 which generally conies quite up to the house on one side, receives no other at 

 ion than such as belongs to the care of the animals that graze in it. As most of 



