APPENDIX 



351 



nally down from the upper left-hand corner. This is so common a con- 

 vention that any other direction, except perhaps out of the upper 

 right-hand corner, may look strange, so it is well, if it can be done with- 

 out contravening some other considerations, to arrange the plan ac- 

 cordingly. 



The composition can be improved, inside the border line, by properly 

 composing such extra elements as can be added, — for instance, the title, 

 the north-point, and notes concerning the plan. As these can be made 

 of various forms, the}- can be adapted to the spaces left over between 

 the plan and the border line. They are, however, all things made of 

 lines, not masses, and therefore have a limited use. One reason for 

 putting a title into a "cartouche" is that this makes the title a mass 

 in the resultant design. A properly spaced and composed block of 

 lettering will, however, fill a space as a recognizable tone when seen 

 from a distance, even if it is not surrounded by a boundary line. It is 

 commonly desirable to have it serve in this way. 



Though the various esthetic effects which we have just discussed 

 are always worth striving for in a landscape plan, in actual professional 

 work another consideration enters in : the desirability of uniformity in 

 plans of the same kind, the establishment of an office practice in pres- 

 entation, the choice of a method which shall be rapid and simple, and 

 thus inexpensive and easily learned. This stereotyping of presenta- 

 tion is certainly a good thing in such drawings as grading plans, but 

 for preliminary sketches or any drawings where the esthetic efi'ect of 

 the plan itself is an important consideration, it should not be much 

 encouraged. 



In our state of society the accepted and almost inevitable way in Superintmd- 

 which landscape work is actually constructed is that the contractor '^" °f. ^°^' 

 shall, for a stipulated payment, undertake the financial responsibility 

 for the construction, and furnish the labor and executive ability to carry 

 it out. The lack of artistic skill among those concerned in landscape 

 construction cannot fairly be called the fault of the contractor. He is 

 a business man, and could hardly be expected to be also a designer. 

 Some landscape contractors have work enough to afford to keep in 

 their employ superintendents and even workmen of real artistic skill, 

 but most men who have artistic perception prefer to exercise it as de- 



