THE AMATEUR GARDEN 



them ever so many things may be done now at a 

 quarter or tenth of what they would once have 

 cost. Our old-fashioned fences were sometimes 

 very expensive, sometimes very perishable, some- 

 times both. Also they were apt to be very ugly. 

 Yet instead of concealing them we made them a 

 display, while the shrubbery which should have 

 masked them in leaf and bloom stood scattered 

 over the lawn, each little new bush by itself, vis- 

 ibly if not audibly saying — 



"You'd scarce expect one of my age " 



etc. ; the shrubs orphaned, the lawn destroyed. 



If the enclosure was a hedge it had to be a tight 

 one or else it did not enclose. Now wire net- 

 ting charms away these embarrassments. Your 

 hedge can be as loose as you care to have it, while 

 your enclosure may be rigidly effective yet be 

 hidden from the eye by undulating fence-rows; 

 and as we now have definite bounds and corners 

 to plant out, we do not so often as formerly need 

 to be reminded of Frederick Law Olmsted's fa- 

 vorite maxim, "Take care of the corners, and the 

 centres will take care of themselves." 



64 



