22 HOME GROUNDS 



gardenesque art may often save a proprietor enough, to pay for all 

 that will be needed, by advising him what not to attempt. 



But it is on bare, new grounds, that there will be most room for 

 doubt of what to attempt. The man who must leave his home 

 after an early breakfast to attend to his office or store business, 

 and who only returns to dinner and tea, must not be beguiled into 

 paying for the floral and arboricultural rarities that professional 

 florists and tree-growers grow enthusiastic over, unless the home 

 members of his family are appreciative amateurs in such things. 

 Tired with town labor, his home must be to him a haven of repose. 

 Gardeners' bills are no pleasanter to pay than butchers' and tai- 

 lors' bills, and the satisfaction of paying either depends on the 

 amount of pleasure received, or hoped to be received, from the 

 things paid for. A velvety lawn, flecked with sunlight and the 

 shadows of common trees, is a very inexpensive, and may be a 

 very elegant refreshment for the business-wearied eye ; and the 

 manner in which it is kept will affect the mind in the same way as 

 the ill or well-ordered house-keeping of the wife. But the beauties 

 and varied peculiarities of a fine collection of trees, shrubs, and 

 flowers require a higher culture of the taste, and more leisure for 

 observation, than most business men have. All women are lovers 

 of flowers, but few American ladies are yet educated in that higher 

 garden culture the art of making pictures with trees, lawn, and 

 flowers. Without this culture, or a strong desire for it, it is best 

 that the more elegant forms of gardening art should be dispensed 

 with, and only simple effects attempted. Now a freshly mown 

 meadow is always beautiful, and a well-kept lawn alone produces 

 that kind of beauty. But the meadow or lawn, without a tree, is 

 tame and monotonous. Large trees are necessary to enliven their 

 beauty. A well-built house, with broad porch or veranda, may ena- 

 ble one to get along very comfortably without the shade of trees to 

 protect its inmates from the excessive heat of the sun ; but the play 

 of light and shade in the foliage of trees, and upon the lawn, is as 

 needful food for the eye as the sunny gayety of children is to the 

 heart. These two things, then, are the most essential to the busi- 

 ness man's home a fine lawn and large trees. The former may be 

 produced in a year ; the latter must be bought ready grown on the 



