298 Landscape Gardening 



- as \vc call all kinds of building and gardening in this 

 country - in a short time consume a handsome competence. 



The fact, that in no country is labor better paid for than 

 in ours, is one that has much to do with the success and 

 progress of the country itself. Where the day laborer is 

 so poorly paid, that he must, of necessity, always be a day 

 laborer, il follows, inevitably, that the condition of the 

 largest number of human beings in the state must remain 

 nearly stationary. On the other hand, in a community 

 where the industrious, prudent, and intelligent day laborer 

 can certainly rise to a more independent position, it is 

 equally evident that the improvement of national character, 

 and the increase of wealth, must go on rapidly together. 



But, just in proportion to the ease with which men 

 accumulate wealth, will they desire to spend it; and, in 

 spending it, to obtain the utmost satisfaction which it can 

 produce. Among the most rational modes of doing this, in 

 the country, are building and gardening: and hence, every 

 year, we find a greater number of our citizens endeavoring 

 to realize the pleasures of country life. 



Now building is sufficiently cheap with us. A man may 

 build a comfortable cottage for a few hundred dollars, which 

 abroad would cost a few thousands. But the moment he 

 touches a spade to the ground, to plant a tree, or to level a 

 hillock, that moment his farm is taxed three or four times 

 as heavily as in Europe; and as he builds in a year, but 

 "gardens" all his life, it is evident that his out-of-door 

 expenses must be systematized, or economized, or he will 

 find his income greatly the loser by it. Many a citizen, who 

 has settled in the country with the greatest enthusiasm, has 

 gone back to town in disgust at the unsuspected cost of 

 country pleasures. 



And yet, there are ways in which economy and satis- 

 factory results may be combined in country life. There arc 

 always two ways of arriving at a result; and, in some cases, 

 that mode least usually pursued is the better and more 

 satisfactory one. 



The price of the cheapest labor in the country generally, 



