432 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



gin the building of a woodshed or corncrib without some sort of a 

 plan, even if only roughly pencilled on a board, so he should es- 

 teem the ornamentation of his grounds at least worthy of a sim- 

 ilar effort. Where one can start the planning from the very be- 

 ginning, locating first the buildings and the drives and walks, if 

 any, the results are generally more satisfactory. In relation to 

 this it may be said that convenience for accomplishing the daily 

 tasks, proper drainage and conditions conducive to the best health 

 of the family, must be fully considered and met, for art is false or, 

 at least, misplaced, if it interferes in any way with the true pur- 

 pose of the thing it is intended to adorn. The skeleton of the de- 

 sign thus being furnished, either by our own planning or the 

 chance efforts of our predecessors, it lies with the planter to fill 

 up and beautify this framework. 



The artist, working with oil colors on his canvas and the ar- 

 tist developing with nature's materials a picture on some small 

 area of the earth's surface, must to some extent, at least, be gov- 

 erned by the same rules, and one is that both light and shade arc 

 essential, and these essentials should appear in broad masses 

 rather than in scattered and disconnected blotches ; so when we see 

 a lawn all broken up with patches of plants and scattered single 

 shrubs, we cannot but be dissatisfied with the spotted eft'ect. Ban- 

 ish these invaders to a connected mass of planting around the 

 border of the lawn, leaving a clear space of sunlit sward in the 

 center, and the picture is much more satisfactory. 



One thing to be avoided in planning ornamental planting is 

 overcrowding. The ardent salesman, not entirely forgetful of 

 commissions, perhaps, is apt to suggest close planting for imme- 

 diate effect and thinning out later. I recall that at a recent meet- 

 ing of the state horticultural society a man was pointed out to me 

 as the best nursery agent in the northwest. In reply to my en- 

 quiry, "Why so?", my informant replied "Why, he can sell a man 

 $50 worth of ornamental stock when he has not room for $5 

 worth." 



I could mention grounds of public buildings, not many 

 hours' ride from here, which have been dotted all over wnth elm. 

 linden and other large growing trees, but a few feet apart, "and 

 which in a few years, as the life of a tree goes, will be touching 

 each other on all sides. This may be good forestry, but it is very 

 poor landscape work. Street trees are also crowded in like man- 

 ner. I have seen five fine elms set in front of one forty-foot lot. 



