80 FAULTS TO AVOID, 



on the professional services of educated gardeners. It would be 

 as absurd for the mass of men, engrossed in acli\e business, to 

 devote a large amount of time to the study of the mere rudiments 

 of gardenesque art, simply to enable them to lay out a half acre or 

 acre of land, as it would be for the same business man to pore 

 over an architect's library and pictures to enable him to design his 

 own house — provided skillful planters were as easily found as com- 

 petent architects. Twenty years ago there was the same dearth of 

 architects of culture as there now is of educated gardeners. The 

 general study of domestic architecture, which Downing's works then 

 aided to make a fashion, produced, at first, an astonishing fermen- 

 tation and rising of architectural crudities ; but it also produced, 

 afterwards, a crop of architects. If we can induce every family 

 who have a home to adorn, to study the art of planning and ar- 

 ranging their own grounds, the seed will be planted that will ger- 

 minate, in another generation, in a crop of art-gardeners of such 

 high culture, and of such necessity to the educated community, that 

 it will be one of the honored professions of our best collegiates. 

 Now, however, the number of such men, devoted to this profes- 

 sion, is so small, that we have not heard even of more than half a 

 dozen skilled, professional gardeners among our thirty millions of 

 native Americans ; and not greatly more than double that number 

 of educated foreigners, who have established a deserved fame 

 among us as men of culture in their art. Even these men, with 

 few exceptions, are little known outside the wealthy circles of the 

 great cities, nor half appreciated where they are known. Until 

 employers are themselves persons of culture, artists, even when 

 employed, are regarded as a kind of dilettanti, whom it is neces- 

 sary to employ rather to conform to "the fashion," than for such 

 service as the employer is competent to appreciate, and really 

 enjoy the results of. We know of nothing that will at the same 

 time cultivate a taste for the fascinating art of gardenesque design- 

 ing, and produce a quick return of pleasure for the time spent, as 

 the study of paper plans for one's own grounds. 



Ignorant gardeners, and self-sufficient business men who know 

 nothing about gardening, are apt to indulge in ridicule of this 

 paper gardening, but it is the ridicule only which is ridiculous. 



