82 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



an attractive line of beauty, yet be direct. If planting can shut 

 off from view what is ahead, so much the better. In small 

 grounds drives are always objectionable, and should be omitted 

 if possible. 



Water enters but rarely into the composition of the home 

 grounds. When it does, it may be easily spoiled. Nature 

 handles it wisely ; man may well take pattern. She never bor- 

 ders it with a stiff and rigid band. She lets it wander carelessly 

 down in its own way, and fringes it with plants as carelessly 

 placed. 



Fig. 2i — A walk may present an attractive line of beauty. 



The application of these principles, and a little effort, to the 

 rural school grounds of our country, would work a vast change 

 in their appearance. I recall passing a schoolhouse in the midst 

 of a beautiful farming region, within five miles of one of the 

 great nursery centers of the United States, some years ago. 

 That house stood close to the highway, flanked by its hideous 

 out-buildings, and with not a tree or shrub anywhere about 

 the grounds. Bold, bare and cheerless, it stood there, an eye- 

 sore to the whole region, yet at that nursery center doubtless 



