LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE. 17 



tunity offered, the true definition of the term, which may 

 be expressed in a condensed form as. follows : 



Landscape Gardening, or more properly Landscape Archi- 

 tecture, is the art of arranging land so as to adapt it most 

 conveniently, economically and gracefully, to any of the varied 

 wants of civilization. 



For whatever success I have met with in securing 

 employment since coming to the West (which I gratefully 

 acknowledge to have been far beyond my expectations), 

 I feel that I have been mainly indebted to the persistent 

 urging of this truth, and the conviction it has carried to 

 the minds of those interested in the great real estate 

 operations of the West, that it is the original design of 

 arrangement which confers upon any place its intrinsic 

 expression or character of beauty or picturesqueness, the 

 want of which cannot be atoned for by any amount of 

 subsequent dressing or decoration. 



My object in the following pages is to prove the truth 

 of the above definition by familiar illustrations, and set 

 forth the extent and importance of its application to the 

 Avants of the West. I am not aware that any writer 

 has ever attempted to apply the principles of the art, on 

 the scale which I believe to be required to meet the 

 deriiands which devolve upon us, yet I am confident that 

 no one will deny that it involves issues of vital moment 

 to ihe future of our country which deserve timely con- 

 sideration. 



