326 Landscape Gardening 



makes the main difference between Massachusetts and 

 Madagascar. 



We have in a former number said something as to the 

 practical manner in which "graceless villages" may be im- 

 proved. We have urged the force of example in those who 

 set about improving their own property, and shown the 

 influence of even two or three persons in giving an air of 

 civilization and refinement to the streets and suburbs of 

 country towns. There is not a village in America, however 

 badly planned at first or ill-built afterwards, that may not 

 be redeemed in a great measure by the aid of shade trees 

 in the streets and a little shrubbery in the front yards, and 

 it is never loo late or too early to project improvements of 

 this kind. Every spring and every autumn should witness 

 a revival of associated efforts on the part of selectmen, 

 trustees of corporations, and persons of means and influence, 

 to adorn and embellish the external conditions of their 

 towns. Those least alive to the result as regards beauty, 

 may be roused as to the effects of increased value given to 

 the property thus improved, and villages thus rendered 

 attractive and desirable as places of residence. 



But let us now go a step further than this. In no coun- 

 try, perhaps, are there so many new villages and towns laid 

 out every year as in the United States. Indeed so large is 

 the number that the builders and projectors are fairly at a 

 loss for names, ancient and modern history having been 

 literally worn threadbare by the godfathers, until all asso- 

 ciation \\ith great heroes and mighty deeds is fairly beg- 

 gared by this re-christening going on in our new settlements 

 and future towns, as yet only populous to the extent of six 

 houses. And notwithstanding the apparent vastness of our 

 territory, the growth of new towns and new states is so 

 wonderful - - fifteen or twenty years giving a population of 

 hundreds of thousands, where all was wilderness before - 

 that the plan and arrangement of new towns ought to be a 

 matter of national importance. And yet, to judge by the 

 manner in which we see the thing done, there has not, in 

 the whole duration of the republic, been a single word said 



