THE AMERICAN GARDEN 



den at all. Yet it was already superior to many 

 rivals. In those days it seemed to us as though 

 scarcely one of our working people in a hundred 

 knew that a garden was anything more than a 

 bed of flowers set down anywhere and anyhow. 

 It was a common experience for us to be led by 

 an unkept path and through a patch of weeds or 

 across an ungrassed dooryard full of rubbish, 

 in order to reach a so-called garden which had 

 never spoken a civil word to the house nor got 

 one from it. Now, the understanding is that 

 every part of the premises, every outdoor thing 

 on the premises — path, fence, truck-patch, sta- 

 ble, stable-yard, hen-yard, tennis or croquet- 

 court — everything is either a part of the gar- 

 den or is so reasonably related to it that from 

 whatever point one views the place he beholds a 

 single satisfactory picture. 



This, I say, is the understanding. I do not 

 say that even among our prize-winners anybody 

 has yet perfectly attained this, although a few 

 have come very near it. With these the main 

 surviving drawback is that the artistic effect is 

 each season so long coming and passes away 



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