370 



GARDENING. 



Sept. 



And an adjoining brick building is clad 

 with moon flowers and Japanese ivy. 



At the north side of the house tall palms 

 stand in a wide circle of roses. The roses 

 on the outside are Perle des Jardins, next 

 American Beauty, third row is Mme. 

 Honore de France, and the inside mass is 

 of Prince Camille de Rohan. All of these 

 are healthy and grow finely. In trjing 

 to make niy roses grow I have trenched a 

 couple of feet deep between them, avoid- 

 ing cutting their roots as much as possi- 

 ble, and filled in with fresh earth, and 

 have also given them, late in summer, 

 hea vv applications of weak ma nure water. 

 Ivvery year I find myself taking out the 

 weak plants from these beds and filling in 

 some strong ones. The roses removed are 

 put out in fresh ground and make a 

 strong growth, showing plainly how 

 beneficial a change of ground is for the 

 ijueen of flowers. 



The La France rose makes a beautiful 

 hedge, we have 180 plants of it used in 

 this waj". 



We have planted a lot of the Texas blue 

 grass and hope to make a lawn of it next 

 year, as the ordinarj' Kentucky blue 

 grass will not stand our hot sun. 



Among the other conspicuous plants in 

 our garden is a twelve j'ear old eucalyptus 

 about 70 feet high, a handsome magnolia 

 about half that height, and some fine 

 oleanders. We raise the oleanders in this 

 way. We cut the woodtwelveto eighteen 

 inches long, and plant these pieces with a 

 crow bar, they rarely fail to grow. We 

 prefer to cut the bushes back to the ground 

 every five or six years, and keep them 

 topped back, as the bloom is finer on the 

 young growths. 



Fuchsias and heliotropes are not quite 

 hardy; they need the protection of lath 

 houses to grow them to perfection. Most 

 i)f the hard}' shrubs do well, notably 

 mock orange and crape myrtles. 



M. D. ESHLEMAN. 



Fresno, Cal., August 20, 1896. 



WALKS AND DRIVES IN PRIVATE GROUNDS. 



In all places of suflicient extent or pre- 

 tension to invite artistic design in the lay- 

 ing out of the grounds, the plan of the 

 necessarj- walks and drives calls for care- 

 ful study, in order to combine the great- 

 est convenience in use with harmonious 

 relation to the grounds as a whole. Even 

 on places of only a few acres it is well to 

 consider and sketch in advance of con- 

 struction the elements of a satisfactory 

 working plan of the roads and walks. 

 Position and alignment depend chiefly on 

 local conditions, but some general rules 

 are more or less applicable to all cases, 

 such as utility, convenience, proportion 

 and construction. 



For walks in nearly constant use, flag- 

 stones are preferable to gravel, especially 

 in the immediate vicinity of buildings. 

 Where flagging or concrete is too expen- 

 sive, gravel is the material most usually 

 available. Such a walk should have a 

 foundation of 6 to 9 inches in depth, of 

 stone chips or coarse gravel, to give it 

 proper drainage in wet weather. The 

 surface material should compact readily 

 by rolling or by travel. The gravel must 

 be fine enough not to be harsh or gritty 

 under foot, and yet not so fine as to be 

 slimy after a shower. A slight crown on 

 the middle is an advantage, and paved 

 gutters should be provided if there be 

 any stretch with a steep gradient. The 

 width should be determined by conveni- 

 ence in use, \- feet being required for two 

 persons going abreast or passing each 

 other but greater width may be demanded 

 bv other conditions. 



Winding walks for pleasure only across 

 open lawns, or along their borders, are 

 unnecessary if the travel on such lines can 

 be sustained by the greensward without 

 damage. Walks made for show only are 

 in bad taste because worse than useless. 

 Such walks are sometimes surfaced with 

 small pebbles of nearly uniform size, 

 round, smooth and clean, but so loose 

 that nobody can walk on them, until by 

 neglect they become encased and cush- 

 ioned with weedy grasses. All gravel 

 walks in places where frequent hoeing and 

 stirring are necessary to check such weeds 

 are evidently of little use, and are of no 

 value for ornament. 



In private grounds walk and drive are 

 often happily combined in one. The 

 smooth wheel track makes an excellent 

 path, and there is always room to give 

 a vehicle the right of way without any 

 risk of collision. Where no special advan- 

 tage can be gained by using a separate 

 path there is no incongruity in walking 

 on the drive. 



The proper width of the drive is deter- 

 mined by the conditions of its use. On 

 short stretches where vehicles have no 

 occasion to pass each other, eight feet 

 may suffice, but otherwise fourteen to 

 eighteen feet may be necessary, according 

 to the general proportions of the adjacent 

 grounds. Where a drive is so narrow as 

 to confine the travel to one line, a gutter 

 like groove will be worn along its center, 

 if "one hoss shays" are in general use 

 on it. 



Such drives are usually constructed 

 with a foundation of stone spalls on 

 coarse gravel and surfaced with finer 

 gravel or finely crushed stone. The cases 

 are rare where a substantial macadam 

 structure is built, but the principles gov- 

 erning the macadam process should be 

 followed as closely as circumstances will 

 permit. These may be briefly stated as a 

 guide to the inexperienced. 



The depth of structure should be suffi- 

 cient when firmly compacted to support 

 without yielding the heaviest loads likely 

 to pass over it and to withstand displace- 

 ment by frost. This will depend largely 

 upon the nature of the subsoil and the 

 drainage conditions in wet weather. The 

 common depth for local drives varies 

 from six to twelve inches, but there maj' 

 be conditions where a depth of 18 inches 

 is necessary. It may be naturally sup- 

 posed that a depth of 1 8 inches is onh' three 

 times as strong as a depth of 6 inches, 

 but in reality it is nine times as strong. 

 The pressure of a load spreads through 

 the roadway in the form of a cone with 

 its apex at the wheel. The area of the 

 base of this cone increases as "the square 

 of the depth." Thus if the depth of 

 "macadam" be 6 inches the weight at the 

 bottom will be spread over .36 square 

 inches. A depth of 12 inches will be four 

 times as strong and the bearing surface 

 as the bottom will then be 144 square 

 inches and so on. 



When the structure is given a depth of 

 12 to 18 inches the bottom half is usuallj' 

 built up with rough stones and spalls 

 compactly placed, and the interstices 

 filled with small stones. Over this to the 

 surface grade is placed one or more laj'crs 

 of stone broken into angular cubes of one 

 to two inches across. This is thoroughly 

 rammed or rolled into place, and then 

 covered with a thin layer of fine gravel, 

 or fine screenings from a steam stone 

 crusher. Where work of this kind is now 

 done on a large scale the macadam stone 

 is all broken by machinery, and the ma- 

 terial is thoroughly compressed by a 

 steam road roller of 18 to 20 tons weight. 

 Sjirinkling carts arc also used in further 



compacting the surface layer, and thus a 

 smooth and hard driveway is at once 

 secured. 



Wm. McMillan, Supt. Parks. 

 BuflFalo, August 17, 1896. 



Books on Landscape Gardening, \\. 

 356, W. H. C, Albany, N. Y., writes: 

 "Would not 'Scott's Suburban Home 

 Grounds" answer the purpose? Mv 

 edition isof 1872,61Spages, 200illustra- 

 tions, published bv D. Appleton li Co. 

 The present price] I believe, is $2.50. 

 There is a later, more expensive, work by 

 J. Weidenmann, at $10. ,4ns. Yes, in a 

 measure; both are useful and instructive 

 books. 



Trees and Shrubs. 



YUCOfl TRBCULEONA. 



( Synonyms: 1'. agavoides, V. concava, 



Y. contorta, Y. cornuta, Y. revo- 



luta, Y. undulata, etc.) 



Among the native plants of the south- 

 ern states which are conspicuous tor their 

 tropical appearance, the yuccas lay claim 

 to their valuein landscape gardening, but 

 they have heretofore been rather neg- 

 lected and therefore valuable material left 

 out, which if more generall}- used would 

 add a pleasing feature to many gardens. 



The Yucca aloifolia, commonly called 

 Spanish bayonet, is the hardiest of the 

 arborescent species of the south; it is 

 found as far north as the sea coast of 

 North Carolina, where the temperature 

 in winter sometimes falls many degrees 

 below zero, but gianting that the influ- 

 ence of the sea is often very marked upon 

 the resisting power of plants against ex- 

 cessive cold, and thus extending the nat- 

 ural habitat of some species much farther 

 north along the sea coast than they are 

 found inland; still most of these species 

 can be successfully cultivated at the same 

 latitude in the interior sections if planted 

 where somewhat protected from cold 

 winter winds by surrounding buildings 

 or windbreaks of coniferous trees. Thus 

 Yucca aloifolia can stand the wi'iters of 

 middle Tennessee and possibly farther 

 north. 



But the handsomest species, which in 

 point of size and beauty of its inflores- 

 cence, surpasses all those we have tested 

 here during 35 years past is Yucca Trecu- 

 leana. A specimen planted in ourgrounds 

 IS years ago has now attained the 

 following proportions: height 12 feet, 

 spread 14 feet, diameter of body at 

 12 inches above ground 16 inches, 

 body to first branches 3 feet, number 

 of branches 5, each of the latter sub- 

 divide in two to three, thus affording this 

 year 15 enormous panicles of ivory white 

 flowers. It is a plant of noble appear- 

 ance at any period of the year, but espe- 

 cially so during the early part of April, 

 when it is clothed with its wealth of flow- 

 ers. For many years past it has pro- 

 duced its flowers with singular regularity, 

 beginning early in' April and lasting three 

 weeks. A plant surrounded with camel- 

 lias and azaleas all bedecked with a pro- 

 fusion of bloom form a glorious floral 

 combination which may be had in all 

 southern gardens. Yucca Treculeana has 

 withstood here a cold of 5" above zero; it 

 is likely that it can stand a much lower 

 temperature, being a native of northern 

 Mexico and some sections of northern 

 Texas. Perfect pollination, either natural 

 or artificial has so far failed here and the 

 plant has remained barren of fruit. Sound 



