Suburban Home Grounds. 23 



CHAPTER IV. 



Give a man the secure possession of a bleak 

 rock, and lie will turn it into a garden; give 

 him a nine years' lease of a garden and he will 

 convert it into a desert. ARTHUR YOUNG. 



JITH the purchase of the home site is deeded the 

 satisfaction and responsibilities of ownership. Im- 

 mediately the flights of imagination carry the home 

 builder into dreams of possessing so many different 

 desirable features that his mind becomes an enigma. The 

 puzzle grows harder and there is less chance of a good solution 

 as he walks about the plot. In imagination the house is to be 

 here, and the drive there, with the flower garden at the side. 

 Everything appears easy at first, then comes a consciousness 

 that there must be a way to solve the mystery in a business- 

 like straightforward manner. 



The first step towards a solution is to make a survey plot or a 

 topographical map of the ground to a convenient scale. Mod- 

 erate sized lots can be measured by the ordinary method of a 

 tape measure and 2 foot rule. The measurements taken can 

 be plotted on a piece of drawing paper or, if that is not avail- 

 able, a common ordinary sheet of heavy brown wrapping paper. 

 Make the drawing on a scale of ^ inch to the foot, showing 

 the position of the boundaries of the property, the location 

 of any natural features such as trees, boulders, and shrubs 

 which may be used in developing the grounds. Then if the 

 ground slopes the use of a carpenter's level and a pole 10 feet 

 in length will give the difference in the height of the ground 

 approximately. To get the elevation set the carpenter's level 

 firmly in a permanent place, make level and sight along the 

 top of the level to the 10 foot pole held in the hands of an 

 assistant, then by measurement the difference between the 



