470 HORTICULTURE, FORESTRY, FLORICULTURE 



most minds, comprises the essence and sum of the ornamentation 

 of grounds. Every tree and bush is an individual, alone, unat- 

 tended, disconnected from its environments, and therefore mean- 

 ingless. Such a yard is only a nursery. 



The better plan is a picture. The central idea is the residence, 

 with a warm and open greensward in front of it. The trees and 

 bushes are massed into a framework to give effectiveness to the pic- 

 ture of home and comfort. This style of planting makes a land- 

 scape, even though the area be no larger than a parlor. The other 

 style is simply a collection of curious plants. The one has an in- 

 stant and abiding pictorial effect, which is restful and satisfying; 

 the other simply arouses the curiosity, obscures the residence and 

 divides and distracts the attention. (Cornell Exp. St. B. 205.) 



If the farmer catches the full meaning of these contrasts, he 

 has acquired the first and most important conception in landscape 

 gardening. The conception will grow upon him day by day; and 

 if he is of an observing turn of mind, he will find that this simple 

 lesson will revolutionize his habit of thought respecting the plant- 

 ing of grounds and the beauty of landscapes. He will see that a 

 bush or flower-bed which is no part of any general purpose or design 

 -that is, which does not contribute to the making of a picture 

 might better never have been planted. A bare and open pasture 

 were better than such a yard, even though it contained the choicest 

 plants of every land. The pasture would at least be plain and rest- 

 ful and unpretentious. It would be nature-like and sweet. But 

 the yard would be full of futile effort and fidget. (Cornell Exp. 

 St. B. 205.) 



Reduced to a single expression, all this means that the greatest 

 artistic value in shrubbery lies in the effect of the mass, and not in 

 the individual shrub. A mass has the greater value because it pre- 

 sents a much greater range and variety of forms, colors, shades and' 

 textures, because it has sufficient extent or dimensions to add struc- 

 tural character to a place, and because its features are so continu- 

 ous and so well blended that the mind is not distracted by incidental 

 and irrelevant ideas. 



If a landscape is a picture, it must have a canvas. This canvas 

 is the greensward. Upon this, the artist paints with tree and bush. 

 and flower the same as the painter does upon his canvas with brush 

 and pigments. The opportunity for artistic composition and struc- 

 ture is nowhere so great as in the landscape garden because no 

 other art has such a limitless field for the expression of its emotions. 

 There can be no rules for landscape gardening, any more than 

 there can be for painting or sculpture. The operator may be taught 

 how to hold the brush or strike the chisel or plant the tree, but he 

 remains an operator; the art is intellectual and emotional and will 

 not confine itself in precepts. 



The making of a good and spacious lawn then is the very 

 first practical consideration in a landscape garden for a country 

 home. This provided, the farmer conceives what is the dominant 

 and central featuie in the place, and then throws the entire prem- 



