78 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE. 



We know that the health, and the daily comfort and 

 convenience of countless millions who are to "inhabit the 

 towns and cities which are to grow up through all this 

 region, may be affected for ages after we are forgotten, by 

 the care or the carelessness with which we perform our 

 duty in designing their primary arrangement. 



The site selected may comprise within its area natural 

 features for whose possession, for esthetic use, old cities 

 would gladly expend millions, were it possible for millions 

 to purchase them; it may command views of mountains, 

 lakes or rivers, which lovers of the picturesque would 

 traverse half the globe to see. The value of such 

 possessions to the future town or city which is to arise 

 on that spot is no more within the compass of estimate 

 than that of the love which has created the beautiful in 

 nature, and bestowed upon man the power to enjoy it. 

 Yet this priceless opportunity may be lost forever for 

 want of an appreciative eye to detect its value. The 

 gem may be thrown aside as worthless, because no one 

 is at hand to detect its lustre and arrange its setting. 



The duty of laying out the towns is entrusted to a sur- 

 veyor, and is comprised in measuring and staking out a 

 certain number of streets at stated distances apart, run- 

 ning north and south, and east and west, and then prepar- 

 ing a " plat " of the same, on which the blocks are divided 

 into lots which are numbered, and sold to the highest 

 bidder. No regard is paid to the topography of the 

 ground ; no reference is had to future interests or neces- 

 sities of business or pleasure ; no effort is made to secure 

 the preservation of natural features which in time might 



