FINISH. 67 



stand in a prominent place, it cannot be permitted to 

 wear a decrei^it, unthrifty, untidy appearance. But 

 besides this, it should have positive excellence to its 

 credit. It should be a plant worth seeing, not merely 

 as a botanical curiosity, but as an example of nature's 

 best work. 



Good care is required to keep trees thrifty, to keep 

 plants growing vigorously and luxuriantly. Cultivation 

 and manure are needed. Pruning must be done. 

 Crowded clumps must be thinned out. Sheared trees 

 must be kept sheared, and mowed lawns must be kept 

 mowed. The walks and drives must be kept graded 

 and surfaced and free from weeds. Buildings must be 

 kept painted, and fences put together and standing 

 straight. And dozens of similar matters demand con- 

 stant attention, or directly the finish of the composition 

 is marred and its whole effectiveness diminished. 



Perhaps cleanliness is only a matter of good care; 

 but it sometimes happens that a gardener becomes so 

 absorbed in taking good care of his shrubs and flower 

 beds that he forgets the general cleanliness of his 

 grounds. In public parks the lawns and walks rapidly 

 become littered with papers and rubbish of all sorts, 

 and this may quickly reach such a point as to interfere 

 seriously with the satisfaction of the park habitues. In 

 the farm yard, where good attempts at ornamental gar- 

 dening are often made, a proper regard for cleanliness 

 would suggest that a wheelbarrow should not be left 

 standing in front of the house unused for a week, and 

 that chicken coops, dog kennels, grindstones and other 

 agricultural paraphernalia should be put behind the 

 main dwelling house, or at least kept off the lawn. 

 On any grounds more or less litter is bound to accu- 

 mulate, and this may readily amount to enough to spoil 

 the best studied effect of unity, variety, character and 

 propriety. 



