Il6 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC. 



parts ; the relative hight of the land and convenience 

 to water. The house must be upon high land on a 

 knoll if possible. It should be situated to take 

 advantage of swales, for easy approach, if the land 

 be hilly, and equally for convenient drainage. Yet 

 the general rule holds good, to get away from the 

 street, and as near as possible to the center of your 

 land. This is a sound principle even on a lot of sev- 

 eral acres. It is no loss of time that you involve 

 yourself in while reaching your own door; for on the 

 other hand, you are saving half the work of going 

 from your house to different points of your ground ; 

 that is, while you are farther from the street you are 

 nearer your gardens, orchards, pastures and mead- 

 ows. You can more easily direct the work, and 

 more thoroughly enjoy what is going on. But the 

 real point is this, that by such a residence you have 

 the sensation that the whole lot is your own. I think 

 that one result will be that you will not have a bit 

 of shaven lawn in front, over which you run the 

 lawn mower every day, but no end of neglected 

 lawns and other uncared-for property in the rear. 

 The house being placed far back and drives estab- 

 lished, you have a splendid opening for hedges to 

 border your driveways, and to break up your whole 

 plot into lawns, each one with its own idea. You 

 will live among your gardens and your orchards and 

 your shrubbery, all of which invite the aid of shel- 

 ters, windbreaks, and different sorts of dividing lines. 

 Bear in mind that a man who lays out a homestead 

 that does not express an idea might as well live in 

 the woods, or in the street. 



Now I cannot get on rightly without saying that 



