454 



HORTICULTURE 



October 5, 1907 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



Head before tUe Congress et Uorlieultnre. 

 Jamestown F^xiiositiuu, Norfolk, Va.. 

 September 23, 1907, by Jobii C. Olmsted, 

 Br('okIiue, Mass. 



Landscape gardening is the art of 

 improving grounds for use and enjoy- 

 ment with due regard to beauty. 



Landscape gardeners should be edu- 

 cated in architecture, civil engineering 

 and ho'ticulture — in architecture, be- 

 cause all worKs of landscape gardening 

 should be designed or planned in a 

 way analogous to that in which build- 

 ings are planned to combine utility 

 with beauty; in civil engineering, be- 

 cause to plan the improvement of 

 ground involves surveys, topographical 

 maps, draughting of plans, profiles, 

 cross sections, drainage and masonry 

 plans, specification:?, and other techni- 

 cal training such as civil engineers 

 get; in horticulture (including arbori- 

 culture), because every landscape gar- 

 dening design calls for either trees, 

 grass, shrubs, vines, hardy and tender 

 plants and some or all of these. 



To many it may seem unreasonable 

 to place, in the edi'.cation of landscape 

 gardeners, a training in technical de- 

 sign ahead of a knowledge of civil en- 

 gineering and of horticulture. It is 

 true that most of the time of architec- 

 tural students and practitioners is 

 taken up with matters that would be of 

 compaiatively little oi no use to the 

 landscape gardener but in the absence 

 of adequate means for thoroughly edu- 

 cating landscape gardeners in the aes- 

 thetic side of their profession, a train- 

 ing in architectural design is at pres- 

 ent the best available for the purpose. 

 It must not be inferred that architects 

 can easily practice landscape garden- 

 ing. The fact that they appreciate cer- 

 tain fundamental esthetic principles, 

 no more fits them to practice land- 

 scape gardening than landscape paint- 

 ing or any other art to which those 

 principles apply. It is certainly better 

 that most architects should confine 

 thepjselves to architecture. 



Civil engineers should not be too 

 much elated by the statement that a 

 good knowledge of and experience in 

 certain branches of civil engineering 

 is more important in the education of 

 landscape gardeners in the ability to 

 design woll than horticultural know- 

 ledge. Indeed, such a claim may seem 

 paradoxical when we call to mind how 

 many obtrusively ugly woiks of civil 

 engineering there aie in all parts of 

 this count! y, and on the other hand 

 how much horticulturists are con- 

 cerned with beautiful flowers and gar- 

 den plants 



The reason why a certain kind of 

 engineerin.g knowledge is more impor- 

 tant to the landscape gardener than 

 horticultuie, as a means of developing 

 his general designing ability, is that it 

 has to do with larger and more com- 

 plex problem.s of fitting land for hu- 

 man use. 



The ability required to successfully 

 design important municipal, railroad, 

 river, canal and harbor works an-1 

 other extensive plants involves a ca- 

 pacity for investigating physical and 

 human and financial conditions, re- 



quirements and limitations and for 

 evolving a logical solution of each 

 problem which is similar in a general 

 way to the capacity possessed by suc- 

 cessful architects. Engineering schools 

 do more to educate that capacity than 

 the ordinary methods of educating 

 horticultuiists do. 



The most essential eschelic require- 

 ment of conspicuous works of civil en- 

 gineering is that they should accom- 

 plish their purjioses in an appropriate, 

 pleasing and satisfactory way. — and 

 that they should be made pretty by 

 means of ornament applied as an after 

 thought. 



The Superiority of Beauty of Form 

 and Proportion. 



The main object of this paper is to 

 call the attention of horticulturists to 

 that particular idea — the importance of 

 the esthetic principle th.at all visible 

 works of man should be expressive and 

 beautiful in their general form and 

 main features before they are orna- 

 mented with mere decorative detail. 



Esthetic ideas are difficult to explain 

 without illustrations. 



Among large constructions, we find 

 a general regard for good appearance 

 has always controlled ship builders. 

 They made many mistakes, from a 

 scientific point of viev/; they did not 

 always make fast ships; they com- 

 pelled sailors and passengers to submit 

 to unnecessary inconveniences; but 

 they strove alwp.ys for such beauty of 

 form and outline of hull and fittings, 

 rake of masts, taper of spars, cut of 

 sails, that sailing vessels have always 

 been the delight of artists. And how 

 conspicuously absent is all surface dec- 

 oration and applied ornament. 



It is shocking to imagine the hide- 

 ous joL' the engineer of an elevated 

 railroad would make of an order to 

 build and rig a steel sailing ship, if ho 

 should entirely ignore the traditions 

 of ship building and use stock dimen- 

 sion rolled steel beams, bars, angle 

 irons, tubes, rods, and so forth, as he 

 uses them in his elevated trusses and 

 columns and brackets! How much 

 simpler and cheaper it would be for 

 the deck of a ship to be straight from 

 bow to stern and to pitch straight from 

 centre to sides like a flat tin roof! 

 Yet all the demands of the shrewd 

 owners for economy, and all the power 

 of competition were unable to make 

 shiiiwrights for countless generations 

 build a ship that way. They knew it 

 would be ugly and they wouldn't do it. 



The beauty of the typical sailing 

 vessel is a good illustration of the 

 superiority of beauty of form and pro- 

 portion, of graceful adaptation to use- 

 ful purposes over a purely scientific 

 and economical but ugly general form 

 superficially decorated. Let us hope 

 that investors and public opinion will 

 more and more encourage civil engin- 

 eers to take to heart this great es- 

 thetic principle that visible structures 

 should be beautiful in form whether 

 there is superficial decoration or not. 



If a knowledge of horticulture and 

 its allied crafts and sciences is to be 

 regarded as less essential to the land- 

 scape gardener than a training in gen- 

 eral architectural designing and in 

 certain selected branches of civil en- 

 gineering, it is not intended thereby 

 to belittle the importance of a practi- 

 cal knowledge of hardy trees and 

 other plants used in landscape garden- 



ing works and of their cultivation, 

 cost and esthetic qualities. Such 

 knowledge is absolutely essential. 



The point sought to be enforced is 

 that the landscape gardener should 

 be educated to design first the general 

 plan for a given work, then its con- 

 stituent parts and details in such a 

 way that they will produce a consis- 

 tent, well balanced, harmonious whole 

 and to always keep in mind that the 

 inherent, essential beauty of the 

 whole, and its obvious and graceful 

 adaptation to its main purposes are 

 far more important than its super- 

 ficial ornamentation. 



(TV be continued) 



NEWS NOTES. 



A new florist store has been opened 

 at Wethersfield, Conn., by H. S. Gris- 

 wold. 



J. H. Playdon, Andover, Mass., has 

 moved into his new store in the Arco 

 building. 



James Souden has started in the re- 

 tail flowei- business at 106 Sixth street, 

 Minneapolis, Minn. 



Wni. Bruckner of Bayside, L. I., is 

 suffering from a rupture and is in a 

 precarious condition. 



John Serah, formerly foreman for 

 A. Leuthy, Roslindale, is about to 

 open a retail flower store in Hyde 

 Park, Mass. 



G. W. Pool of Gloversville, N. Y., has 

 won his case against Miss Milligan, 

 who rented potted plants from him for 

 decorating purposes in her millinery 

 parlors. 



Henry Bautleman of 1875 Amster- 

 dam Ave., New York, had one of his 

 delivery wagons smashed into last Sat- 

 urday night and totally destroyed. 

 Driver and horse escaped with slight 

 injuries. 



Wernz & Koehne, who have ac- 

 quired the store of C. Christiansen, 67 

 East 10th St., N. Y., find it too small 

 for their increasing business, and have 

 now located at the southeast corner of 

 Fifth Ave and 15th St. 



J. M. Hodgson, Florist. Inc. — Judge 

 Adams of the United States District 

 Court has appointed William F. Upson 

 receiver in bankruptcy for J. M. Hodg- 

 son. Florist, Inc. of No. 71S Fifth ave- 

 nue and Newport. R. I., with a bond of 

 $500, and the sheriff and marshals were 

 restrained from the disposing of the 

 assetfc It was stated that the plants 

 in the greenhouses Avere worth $1000 

 and needed immediate attention. — New 

 York Commercial. 



The stockholders of the New York 

 Cut Flower Exchange have for the 

 last twelve or fifteen years received 

 a dividend of 10 per cent. In addi- 

 tion, in accordance with a resolution 

 passed by the board of directors. May 

 11, 1907, authorizing the return to the 

 stockholders of a portion of the accu- 

 mulated surplus then on deposit in 

 savings banks, on September 21 and 

 2S, the treasurer paid out checks at 

 the rate of $T7 per share to all the 

 stockholders, an incident which goes 

 to show that the corporation is in a 

 most flourishing condition. 



