96 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



in the garden seems desirable the whole area may be annually 

 spaded or plowed up ; the walks given a new course and the 

 general scheme of planting changed. Such an arrangement will 

 give variet}' and novelty to the garden and for most purposes 

 wuU prove cjuite as successful as the more formal arrangement. 

 During wet times, unless the soil is of a sandy character, the 

 lack of graveled walks will prove a disadvantage. 



THE GREENSWARD. 



The grading and making of a lawn are two of the most 

 important operations in connection with the adornment of a 

 place. The greensward is the canvas on which all architectural 

 and floral decorations must be placed. Nothing is to me more 

 pleasing than a well made and well tended lawn. Now-a-days 

 we hear much about the beautiful in nature, about the beauty of 

 the over grown, unkept fence corners, the straggling briars and 

 the like. I admit that these features make beautiful pictures 

 w^hen the subjects are well chosen. The bramble when allowed 

 unrestricted development is charmingly graceful and pleasing, 

 and the tall grasses, the golden rod, and the aster are all appro- 

 priate to a sylvan roadside or the corner of that most picturesque 

 of all fences — the rail fence. But place these naturally graceful 

 plants against the foundation of a well executed piece of archi- 

 tecture and note the effect. Even a rustic cottage must be built 

 of rough slabs or logs in order to harmonize with such surround- 

 ings. The farm home, the suburban place, or the village lot 

 must leave these pastoral features out of their scheme of adorn- 

 ment in order to prove pleasing and effective. The old saying 

 that "when in Rome do as the Romans do" is as good for the 

 adornment of a place as for one's demeanor. By that I mean 

 that well kept lawns, closely cropped, if you like, with the lawn 

 mower are more in keeping with the rigid lines of shingled or 

 clapboarded house than are the conditions of the roadway just 

 mentioned even if the one is formal and artificial. Graceful 

 trees, shrubs, and flowering plants show to better advantage 

 upon a cropped lawn than they do in an abandoned lot. While 

 it should be the aim, in all work of adornment, to modify the 

 natural characteristics of things as little as possible in order to 

 have them conform to the object before us ; yet true harmony 



