LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING 1815 



park can often be planted at a cost of $15 to $25 for a 

 family. This work is expensive to a state, owing to 

 the large number of persons whose taste must be 

 educated to conform to a plan that will set a higher 

 standard for the community. However, such effort 

 greatly stimulates the planting of home grounds in 

 all parts of a town. There is serious danger of debasing 

 public taste by leaving neighborhood planting to 

 commercial agencies that make no plans and merely 

 plant "best sellers," especially curiosities and other 

 gardenesque materials. Careful plans should be made 

 by state aid in the many cases in which the cost of 

 experts cannot be afforded. 



Corporation opportunities. 



Railroads. The first duty of railroads toward public 

 beauty is commonly thought to be the building of good 

 stations and planting of station grounds. The Boston 

 and Albany and the Pennsylvania have already begun 

 to beautify their rights-of-way in a permanent and 

 naturalistic manner. Theoretically, the principles of 

 wild gardening can be applied to rights-of-way so as 

 to save the wild flowers and shrubbery, with little 

 more expense than the cost of mowing everything. It 

 is probable that railroads running through monotonous, 

 level countries, can restore or create a characteristic 

 type of scenery at reasonable expense. Some even 

 think that this can be done in such a way as to 

 increase passenger traffic. The laws which, the rail- 

 roads assert, compel them to cut down all brush and 

 weeds, have been interpreted by lawyers to refer only 

 to noxious vegetation. 



Traction lines. Interurban lines sometimes ask for 

 advice on the merits of plans submitted for trolley 

 parks. These are generally in the gardenesque style, 

 where naturalistic treatment would be better for the 

 people. At least one line has shown a disposition to get 

 better plans and consider a comprehensive policy for 

 all its parks and station grounds. 



State opportunities. 



State parks. Every state needs large reservations of 

 cheap land where the toiling millions may restore the 

 energies necessary to do the world's work. Wisconsin 

 and other states have reservations where laboring 

 people who have only two weeks' vacation may camp 

 amid wild surroundings. Every type of natural scenery 

 should be represented, for scientific and educational 

 purposes. 



Waterways and drainage. Great public improve- 

 ments, like flood prevention and reclamation projects, 

 are commonly conducted without regard to the rights of 

 beauty. Competent landscape architects should be 

 employed in all large engineering works affecting the 

 face of nature. Water-courses are commonly treated 

 as sewers and otherwise defaced. Landscape extension 

 can arouse each local community to do its share toward 

 restoring beauty to the watercourses. 



Roadside planting. Every state and county can have 

 a great rural park system without the cost of buying 

 land, by saving or restoring to the roadside the native 

 trees, shrubs and flowers. The famous drives connect- 

 ing Madison, Wisconsin, with the surrounding lakes, 

 afford a good example. The comprehensive plan now 

 being made for the Lincoln Highway, contemplates a 

 consistent scheme of roadside planting from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific. Several miles of planting have 

 lately been done near Monticello, Sidell, and Bar- 

 rington, Illinois. The cost of restoration varies from 

 $500 to $1,500 a mile, or about 10 per cent of the cost 

 of constructing concrete roads. 



State character. One of the greatest opportunities of 

 landscape extension is to show how every home and 

 town may connect with a large scheme to give the 

 whole state a characteristic beauty. The Middle West 

 had developed a prairie style of landscape gardening 



based upon conservation and restoration of native 

 beauty and repetition of the horizontal line of prairie 

 land or sky, by means of trees and shrubs with horizon- 

 tal branches or flower clusters. One designer has sub- 

 mitted an itemized list of $6,000,000 worth of work 

 accomplished from his plans in the prairie style since 

 1901. Each state may have something like the "Illinois 

 way of planting," which is the use of a high percentage 

 of permanent materials native to the state. 



Methods of landscape extension. 



All activities of landscape extension except admin- 

 istrative, can be summarized under the heads of lec- 

 tures, publications, and design. 



Lectures. These are necessarily illustrated, and high- 

 grade colored lantern-slides are much more effective 

 than plain ones. Before-and-after pictures showing 

 money spent in the state on permanent native plant- 

 ing are more convincing than random, theoretical, tem- 

 porary, or foreign subjects. Apathy may be indicated 

 by those who stay away, but those who attend the 

 lectures are generally enthusiastic to the point of 

 making pledges, and of asking for more state aid in 

 design than it is proper to grant. Mere enthusiasm for 

 wholesale public planting often leads to poor arrange- 

 ment, unfit material, and neglect of cultivation. Care- 

 fully organized campaigns give better results than 

 individual lectures. Traveling expenses are paid by 

 local communities. 



Publications. The traditional type is the practical 

 circular, which is essential, but presupposes general 

 interest in planting. The inspirational type is exem- 

 plified in a type or form of publication that contains 

 many illustrations, for the reason that landscape gar- 

 dening must be taught chiefly by means of pictures. 

 Since truth in landscape gardening is not exact but 

 comparative, the pictures may well be arranged in 

 contrasting pairs. 



Design. In rich, old communities the people are 

 not apathetic, but willing to improve if someone will 

 show them what to dp. Therefore, after every lecture, 

 each community is likely to ask for a well-designed 

 demonstration. In the West, many communities 

 have no example at all of landscape gardening, or a 

 poor and antiquated one. They will wait indefinitely 

 unless the state supplies a standard. Such designs have 

 been supplied on conditions about as follows: 



1. The project must be educational. Therefore, it 

 should not compete with landscape gardeners, and it 

 should be the smallest unit that will stimulate a large 

 amount of designing and planting. 



2. It should be for public, not private, benefit. 

 Therefore, front yards may be designed in street plans, 

 but not back yards, except for corner and vacant lots 

 where screening of unsightly objects may be necessary. 



3. A reasonable guarantee must be furnished before 

 the plan is made, that a definite sum of money will be 

 spent, if the plans are acceptable, and adequate pro- 

 vision must be made for maintenance. 



Some results of landscape extension. 



At the end of its second year, the Division of Land- 

 scape Extension at the University of Illinois had 

 5,200 pledges "to do some permanent ornamental 

 planting within a year." The signers were then asked 

 to tell how they had kept their promises. The number 

 who replied were 991, or 19 per cent of the signers. Of 

 these, 206 spent nothing, while 785 spent a total of 

 $75,117 (not including labor), the average being nearly 

 $76. The mean expenditure of those who spent over 

 $100, was $392. This class is composed of persons who 

 can afford the services of a landscape gardener. The 

 mean expenditure of those who spent less than $100 

 was $22. This represents the general public which 

 commonly thinks that it cannot afford the services 

 of a landscape gardener. The average expenditure ($22) 



