LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING 1783 



fruit trees in private grounds and in a few public parks, 

 that extended through the middle and latter i)art of the 

 last century, established the fact that many of these 

 varieties were too short-lived to be of permanent value. 

 Others thus secured not only an established place in our 

 gardens by reason of their adaptabihty to our condi- 

 tions and their evidence of long life, but also a perma- 

 nent jilace in our Hora by becoming naturalized in fields 

 and woods of both the North and South. This experi- 

 ence in exotics was followed by an interest in the natives 

 of both the East and West of the United States, which 

 has led to their use in nurseries and in gardens. In 

 recent years, new groups of e.xotic plants and more of 

 our native plants, are coming into general cultivation 

 through the interest of Professor Sargent and the 

 Arnokl Arboretum, where a careful test is made befoi'e 

 the plant is recommended for general use, and through 

 the Department of .\griculture at Washington, and the 

 Experimental Farms of t'anada. Through these vari- 

 ous agencies, an important part of wliose sujiport has 

 always come from the owners of large private estates, 

 a ver}' large share of the earth's surface has been searched 

 for new varieties. 



"There are, therefore, represented in the great private 

 estates one group in which special attention was given 

 to the growing of collections and fine specimens, such 

 as \\'odenethe, the Sargent estate on the Hudson; 

 Glen Cove, the estate of the late Charles A. Dana at 

 Glen Cove, Long Island; the Payson estate in Belmont, 

 Mass.; and the Hunnewell estate at Wellesley, Mass. 

 In another group, the beauty of landscape was the 

 dominant motive in design and maintenance, as repre- 

 sented by the Montgomery place south of Clermont on 

 the Hudson, which was regarded by Downing as being 

 second to none in America, and by Charles Eliot was 

 placed among the first in his series of articles on "Some 

 (_)ld -American Country-seats" in "Garden and Forest." 

 In this same class would be the A. T. Lyman and 

 Christopher Goreestatesin Waltham, Mass. (Fig. 2076); 

 Sunnyside, the Washington Irving place on the Hud- 

 son; Monticello, Jefferson's homestead at Char- 

 lottesville, Virginia; and the Arlington estate, the home 

 of Lee near Washington. 



"The work on the large private estates of the future 

 should and probably will be on broader and more 

 definitely directed lines than was represented by the 

 great estates of the past. WTiile there will always be 

 individuals who prefer to make collections of interest- 

 ing specimens, such owners will be able hereafter to 

 avoid duplication of effort and work with clearly 

 designated groups of plants, or secure more tangible 

 return through plant-selection and plant-breeding by 

 co()perating with such agencies as the Arnokl Arbore- 

 tum, the departments at Washington and Ottawa, and 

 state institutions, instead of attempting to record and 

 establish great general collections. 



"There wiU be a group of individuals whose chief 

 interest will center in the development of landscapes 

 in a very much broader way than has been the general 

 practice of the pa.st, and which is indicated by the 

 development of town park systems and town plans, 

 and will be enlarged to include a national plan that 

 will fit the lay of the laud. 



"The exjiress train, automobile, and the aeroplane 

 to follow, are training the eyes to see real land- 

 scapes more and the details of landscapes less. This 

 breadth of view will lead men to become connoisseurs of 

 the living lanrlscapes instead of the painted landscapes 

 alone. It will lead men to seek out the choicest land- 

 scape views and purcha.se them, and to acquire or con- 

 trol in the.se outlooks the essential features instead of 

 attempting to acquire all the lanrl for themselves." 



Literature. 



The best results in the planning of any place are to 

 be expected when one employs a competent landscape 



gardener. Avoid the man who places great stress on 

 flower-beds and unrelated designs. Yet one can do much 

 by himself, and be the happier for the effort. Books 

 will help. Some of the current American books on 

 gardening as related to landscape are the following: 

 Downing, "Landscape Gardening;" Kemp, "How to 

 Lay Out a Garden;" Parsons, "Landscape Gardening," 

 and "How to Plan the Home Grounds;" Long, "Orna- 

 mental Gardening for Americans;" Waugh, "Landscape 

 Gardening" and "The Landscape Beautiful;" Maynard, 

 "Landscape Gardening as Applied to Home Decora- 

 tion;" Davis, "Ornamental Shrubs;" Van Rensselaer, 



2072 An interesting marginal road Page llbO 



"Art Out-of-Doors;" Bailey, "Manual of Gardening;" 

 Underwood, "The Garden and Its Accessories." See 

 Borders, Banks, Garden, Herbs, Shrubs, and other 

 articles. The home vegetable-garden and flower-garden 

 are discussed in Vol. Ill, p. 17.38, p. 1747. L. H. B. 



The art of designing landscapes. 



Landscape gardening is one of the terms used to 



designate the profession that conserves, develops and 

 creates landscape, locates and arranges artificial struc- 

 tures, plantations, and passages therein for tne con- 

 venience and pleasure of man. It is practised profes- 

 sionally as a fine art by men and women who have also 

 adopted such titles as landscape architect and land- 

 scape designer; and by some architects. It is practised 

 as a part of their duties by some superintendents of 

 public aiid private grounds and made a part of their 

 business by some dealers in plants. 



This landscape art may include all objects within the 

 scope of vision, from a narrow strip of sky and foliage 

 between buildings, a lawn, a garden, a town, to a 

 horizon-sweeping panorama. 



In this, as in all professions, many are mere copyists 

 who, in all their problems, duplicate or adapt with 

 minor variations, styles, plans and patterns originated 

 by others to meet the special requirements and con- 

 ditions of each of their problems. 



The artists of the profession as well as artists among 

 painters of landscape are striving to give a quality of 

 distinction to each of their productions. This distinc- 

 tion comes from a study of the distinctive beauty of the 

 locality in which they work; a beauty th.at may be 

 partly or wholly hidden by extraneous material. The 

 designer of the living landscapes must also acquire 

 a knowledge of the conditions and requirements of the 

 u.se to which all or parts of their landscape is to be put 

 by its occupants. The landscape painter is free to 

 choo.se his subject while the landscape-maker often 

 must create a new beauty in wholly artificial landscape 

 compositions. Artistic distinction of design is gained 

 through the omission by the painter or removal by the 

 landscape-maker of extraneous material and incon- 



