CHAPTER VII. 



MISPLACED HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, ETC. 



I have already spoken of the necessity of study 

 before planting. We must place a little more em- 

 phasis on this matter and consider it in brief detail. 

 The majority of planters look only at a thing which 

 is beautiful in its solitary unrelated charms. The 

 educated eye finds fault with detail that is out of 

 relation to the whole scene. I am frequently asked 

 to secure for someone three or four weeping cut- 

 leaved birches, or some other tree charming- in itself. 

 What will he do with them? Probably plant them 

 in a row, as my friend S has done. Does he not 

 get all the charm from one ? Two or three bring him 

 the idea of a row. But a row of such trees is not 

 beautiful unless there is an object in having such a 

 row. So with any other charming thing. A hedge 

 is often misplaced because it is only an effort to get 

 a pretty thing multiplied. But more frequently it 

 is an effort to have a hedge at all events somewhere. 

 The owner has not studied his place, or the relations 

 of its parts. His first impulse is to plant along the 

 roadside. But the old reason for a road fence is 

 gone. A lawn is far more beautiful if left open to 

 the highway. Animals do not any longer run at 

 large, and our neighbors are not our foes. Besides 

 the expense of street hedges is a useless cost. They 

 generally run along lines of trees where the shade 

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