CHAPTER V 



LANDSCAPING 



THERE are several bits in the letters during his career 

 as a farmer that show his earliest attempts at landscape 

 improvement. 



When the farm at Sachem's Head, Guilford, was being 

 considered for purchase, he wrote to his father, July 23, 1846 : 



I have thought a good deal about that Sachem's Head 

 place without knowing it was for sale (so I have of 'Miah's). 

 There is no fruit there, I suppose, and perhaps no soil for it. 

 I should like to hear more about it. There is the prettiest 

 ground for aferme ornee in that place of 'Miah's I ever saw 

 almost, a beautiful nook under the mountain or dell, with a 

 fine large trout brook running through it, a quarter of a mile 

 from David's, half a mile from the railroad canal. The farm 

 has been miserably cultivated by the old miserly tyrant that 

 has gone to his account, but there is by nature excellent land 

 and every convenience and beauty desirable. 



After the Sachem's Head farm was bought, he wrote 

 definitely (March 23, 1847) of its landscape development to 

 his brother, with a marginal sketch of his general idea : 



I wrote shortly to father yesterday and now reply to 

 yours of the i8th inst. 



I note what you say about Alsop's and trees. I intend to 

 plant (trans-) but few ornamental trees and with them to 

 take great pains, until I know where to put my house 

 exactly, I cannot arrange the lawn very well. The lawn 

 is to be the grand feature of my gardening. The ground is 



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