LAYING OUT OF GROUNDS 



is, indeed, an artificiality about his straight 

 lines of crops, and his rectangular enclosures 

 which does not tempt the painter; but it is an 

 artificiality that excuses itself. There is a fit- 

 ness and propriety in it, which, when con- 

 trasted, as it may be, with the farmer's clumps 

 of pasture shade, his wayside trees, and his 

 leafy screen of the farm buildings, is not with- 

 out a certain charm. 



LANDS NOT FARMED 



There is, however, a higher grade of land- 

 scape beauty than can belong to lands tilled 

 for their economic returns, just as there is a 

 higher grade of man than the agricultural 

 laborer. I propose to indicate some of the 

 methods by which this higher beauty may be 

 made to declare itself. First of all, in the im- 

 mediate neighborhood of every country home- 

 stead, (the site and architecture being already 

 determined on, and not, therefore, subject to 

 present discussion,) there must be neatness 

 and order; no tangled weedy growth, no paths 

 half matted over: there must be abundant 

 evidence of that presiding and watchful care 

 without which every homestead, whether 



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