THE CITY YARD 



town, and that it is a parody on nature rather 

 than a reminder of her beauties when we attempt 

 to illustrate the phases of the great world in a 

 back yard. A formal garden enables us to utiHze 

 our space most fully; it exposes the whole yard 

 at a view; it gives opportunity for the cultivation 

 of a sufficient variety and of brilliant groups. 

 Harmony is better esthetics than contrast, where- 

 fore the fixity of the garden plan conforms not 

 disagreeably to the stubborn architecture that 

 hems it in. If the yard is a large one, then, in- 

 deed, we may undertake to create some land- 

 scape and to soften the environment, but it is 

 hard to make a substitute for fields, woods and 

 hills in a place where Mary Ann has been drying 

 the clothes. The Japanese, it is true, have the 

 country in little in a quarter of an acre; but that 

 resolves itself, after all, into another phase of 

 formalism. They have miniature gardens, moun- 

 tains, lakes, lawns and forests; for by pinching 

 off the roots of maples and evergreens they con- 

 fine those trees to a height of one or two feet. 

 They induce a dwarf habit of growth. I once 

 owned a couple of cedars that were fifteen or 

 twenty years old, and were less than six inches 

 25 



In M vAii t I mo 



