32 LANDSCAPE-GARDENING 



until perhaps Nature through her kindness has 

 covered them with grape or bittersweet vines. We 

 have done innumerable things to give the country 

 an ugly appearance and mar its beauty, blind alike 

 to both, and then have gone complacently on de- 

 claring that we are the salt of the earth and pity- 

 ing the people who live in other countries. 



If a landscape-gardener were called on to prescribe 

 for the country as a whole, just as he is sometimes 

 called on to prescribe for the premises of individuals, 

 he would probably give his first attention to the 

 farms, because they form a larger part of the face 

 of the land. They are not only the foundation of 

 wealth, furnishing food and clothing, but they also 

 lie at the foundation of our national character, be- 

 cause many farmers' boys and girls graduate to 

 the cities, and the farmers constitute a large per- 

 centage of our population. The farms covering 

 such a large proportion of the area of the United 

 States form the greatest factor in the beauty of 

 the country as a whole. In treating the farms, the 

 group of farm buildings would first be embellished 

 with trees, shrubs, and flowers, and then attention 

 would be given to the wood-lots, springs, streams, 

 and other features of beauty. Incidentally, all 



