Landscaping 85 



naturally graded and finely adapted for a broad, smooth 

 green plat broken only by a few trees or clumps, along on the 

 rear edge of it and so circling towards the shore, some low 

 thick shrubbery (a) is wanted. Back (cornering on b) I 

 suppose will be a good place for an orchard (beyond the pro- 

 posed barn). 'Tis there we are carting our manure now and 

 mean to plant corn and potatoes this year. 



He consulted an architect regarding the proposed house, 

 having himself first made sketches of floor plans and deter- 

 mined tentatively on a site. By November lo, 1847 he had 

 planted trees, which he describes in a letter to his brother : 



We have planted 75 apple trees in first rate manner, 60 

 quinces, too. About a dozen ornamental forest trees on the 

 back bone of the point lot ; which make quite a pretty show, 

 — but I do not think many of them will live. 



Further improvements were not carried out at Sachem's 

 Head on account of the relinquishment of this farm for the 

 larger and more promising place on Staten Island. 



Mr. Frederick Kingsbury in 1903, after Mr. Olmsted's 

 death, recalled the development of the Staten Island farm 

 and his friend's beginning as a landscape improver. When 

 Mr. Kingsbury first visited the new farm, Mr. Olmsted ex- 

 plained how he intended to improve its appearance. 



Mr. Kingsbury notes : 



"The house was simple yet picturesque. It had been 

 occupied by a tenant. The barns were quite near, and in the 

 rear of the house was a small pond, fifteen or twenty feet in 

 diameter, used for washing waggons, watering stock, and as 

 a swimming place for dogs, ducks and geese. There was no 

 turf near it. The whole place was as dirty and disorderly as 

 the most bucolic person could desire. It was on the sur- 

 roundings of the house that Olmsted first showed his genius 

 in landscape construction. 



' ' He moved the barns and all their belongings behind a 

 knoll, he brought the road in so that it approached the house 

 by a graceful curve, he turfed the borders of the pond and 

 planted water plants on its edge and shielded it from all 



