P BE Fi C E. 



A TASTE for rural improvements of every description 

 is advancing silently, but with great rapidity in this country 

 While yet in the far west the pioneer constructs his rude 

 hut of logs for a dwelling, and sweeps away with his axe 

 the lofty forest trees that encumber the ground, in the 

 older portions of the Union, bordering the Atlantic, we 

 are surrounded by all the luxuries and refinements that 

 belong to an old and long cultivated country. Within the 

 last ten years, especially, the evidences of the growing 

 wealth and prosperity of our citizens have become 

 apparent in the great increase of elegant cottage and villa 

 residences on the banks of our noble rivers, along our 

 rich valleys, and wherever nature seems to invite us by 

 her rich and varied charms. 



In all the expenditure of means in these improvements, 

 amounting in the aggregate to an immense sum, pro- 

 fessional talent is seldom employed in Architecture or 

 Landscape Gardening, but almost every man fancies 

 himself an amateur, and endeavors to plan and arrange his 

 own residence. With but little practical knowledge, and 

 few correct principles for his guidance, it is not surprising 

 that we witness much incongruity and great waste of time 

 and money. Even those who are familiar with foreign 

 works on the subject in question labor under many 

 obstacles in practice, which grow out of the difference in 

 our soil and climate, or our social and political position. 



These views have so often presented themselves to me of 

 late, and have been so frequently urged by persons 

 desiring advice, that I have ventured to prepare the present 

 volume, in the hope of supplying, in some degree, the 



