66 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE. 



out. Thus if the general design for the arrangement of 

 the fine avenues and parks is determined, the work of 

 preparation may proceed in order of importance, the first 

 being grading and drainage, because until that is done 

 there can be no planting, which is the most essential 

 object of esthetic improvement. When the planting is 

 done, further outlay for improvement may be postponed, 

 or expended from year to year. Architectural structures 

 and ornamental works of art can be added at any time, 

 and may continue to be contributed as long as they can 

 be tastefully introduced, but the growth of trees is the 

 work of time, which can only be partially, and by no means 

 satisfactorily accomplished by the modern appliances 

 for the removal of trees of large size. An immediate 

 effect, it is true, may be thus secured at a very large cost, 

 but the trees thus removed will never attain the grace 

 and dignity of form and rich luxuriance of foliage which 

 comprise the essential elements of their beauty and 

 character. 



No such thing as a system of street planting under 

 municipal regulation has, to my knowledge, been adopted 

 by any city in the country. Every proprietor of a lot 

 claims, and is allowed, the right of planting what he 

 pleases in front of his own premises, and the result, of 

 course, is an utter deficiency of the symmetrical and im- 

 posing effect which might be secured by the practical 

 application of an artistic design. No two proprietors act 

 in concert in the selection of variety or size of trees. 

 One man pays a high price to secure two or three large 

 elms, brought from the woods, where they have run up 



