206 BULLETIN 68. 



a condition which is impossible when trees or bushes or flower- 

 beds are scattered all over the place, for in such case one is at- 

 tracted by these individual and detached objects and is not 

 particularly impressed with the place as a whole or as a unit. 

 Such a yard is a nursery. An artist would not care to paint such 

 an area. If a yard is to be a picture, it must have a sense of 

 frame- work about it, certain strong groups of bushes or trees 

 about the borders, and the central area should be a more or less 

 open greensward with very cautious planting. The different parts 

 are then in masses or in bold contrast, and the place has character. 

 At the same time, the partial shutting off of the surrounding 

 areas sets bounds to the place, defines it, and makes it to appear 

 personal, snug and home-like. One should learn that it is not 

 plants which make a place attractive, but the arrangement of 

 plants. In fact, many otherwise attractive places are ruined by 

 a wealth of good plants scattered without purpose over the lawn. 



It is but a corollary of this discussion to say that plants which are 

 simply odd or grotesque or unusual should be used with the great- 

 est caution, for they introduce extraneous and jarring effects. 

 They are little in sympathy with a true landscape garden. An 

 artist would not care to paint an evergreen sheared into some gro- 

 tesque shape. It is too formal and it has no elements of true 

 beauty. It is simply curious, and shows what a man with plenty 

 of time and long pruning shears can accomplish. 



This leads me to one of the proper subjects of this paper, the 

 planting of the Lombardy poplar. Fortunately, this tree is less 

 planted in New York than in many western states. Its chief 

 merits to the average planter are the quickness of its growth and 

 the readiness with which it multiplies by cuttings. But in the 

 north it is apt to be a short-lived tree and it suffers from storms, 

 and it has few really useful qualities. It may be used to some 

 advantage in windbreaks for peach orchards and other short-lived 

 plantations, as explained in Bulletin 9 of this station ; but after 

 a few years a screen of I^ombardies begins to fail and the habit of 

 suckering from the root adds to its undesirable features. For 

 shade, it has little merit, and for timber none. People like it 

 because it is striking, and this, in an artistic sense, is its gravest 

 fault. It is unlike anything else in our landscape, and doesjnot 



