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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



other work where more dollars per day are 

 earned. I believe it is safe to say that the 

 majority of those who call themselves gar- 

 deners, who are drifting- about and ready to 

 accept a position at any price, are not safe 

 men to have on a place. Their assurance is 

 in proportion to their ignorance, and by 

 taking advantage of the ignorance of their 

 employers they can do more damag-e to a 

 place than the proprietor himself could, how- 

 ever ig-norant of gardening". For this reason 

 I believe it is safer for him to employ a will- 

 ing and industrious man who lays no claim 

 to a knowledge of gardening, but who will 

 do as he is told, and give him directions how 

 to do the work on the place. If errors are 

 then made, they will only serve to increase 

 the knowledge and interest of the proprietor. 



In this writing I have had in view small 

 or medium sized home places especially. 

 I have hardly touched on the service the 

 landscape architect may be to the real estate 

 owner in planning his property to avoid steep 

 grades and heavy cuts and fills, in preserving 

 and developing the natural features of the 

 place, in so arranging the lots that each may 

 be accessible and have as nearly equal ad- 

 vantages as possible, and in planting to 

 utilize the material on the grounds; to the 

 village, town, or city in designing public 

 recreation grounds and the surroundings of 

 public buildings, advising with regard to 

 street tree planting or roadside improvement; 

 to cemeteries in designing the grounds and 

 their decorations ; to public amusement 

 resorts in providing a convenient and pleas- 

 ing arrangement of buildings and grounds, 

 laid out in a manner to educate rather than 

 to degrade public taste. 



Some information as to the methods em- 

 ployed by the landscape architect, or land- 

 scape gardener, in carrying on his profession 

 may be of service to those who contemplate 

 employing such assistance. Some make a 

 charge for their plan, a profit on the men 

 employed in superintendence, and also a 

 profit on the plants used, which they supply 



partly from nurseries of their own ana partly 

 by purchasing from other nurseries. Inhere 

 are others whose practice is the same, exce pt 

 that they have no nursery of their own or n p 

 personal interest in one. Others prepare- 

 plans and superintend the construction for 

 a percentage of the cost, and still others 

 contract for a specified sum to design, furnish 

 all material, and construct a place. Where 

 it is taken up as a profession purely, the 

 practice is to make a charge for general 

 design and report also for working drawings, 

 estimates of cost and superintendence. Such 

 charges are usually based on the difficulty of 

 the undertaking rather than on the cost. On 

 any purchases of materials that are made it 

 is the practice to give the client the benefit 

 of the lowest rates which frequent and often 

 large purchases enable the landscape archi- 

 tect to procure. 



Where a trained landscape architect is not 

 available and the proprietor or any of his 

 family has not the time or disposition to 

 study into and direct the work, then the 

 safest course would be to trust to your local 

 florist, nurseryman, or contractor, securing 

 from him an estimate of the cost in advance. 

 You can hardly expect to get very artistic 

 or original results, for the greater part of 

 their time and thought must be given to the 

 successful conduct of their business, of which 

 this forms only a small department. It is 

 very often to the local florist, nurseryman, 

 or contractor that the landscape architect 

 looks for his skilled assistance in carrying 

 out the details on a place, under the direction 

 of his trained assistants who are familiar 

 with the plans and the results desired. 



I believe the time is not far distant when 

 the man who is to build a new place, or 

 remodel an old one, and who wishes to 

 secure the best and most economical result, 

 will call in the landscape architect to help 

 him plan the ground, as he now calls in the 

 building architect to help him plan the 

 building. 



Boston, Mass. W. H. Manning. 



