IMPROVING SUBURBAN RESIDENCES. 



As the season of the year is at hand when operations may 

 he commenced for planting ornamental trees and shrubs, we 

 propose to offer a feu- hints in regard to the improvement of 

 suburban residences, with the hope that they may aid in 

 giving increased attention to rural art. 



Few complete and thoroughly made gardens or grounds 

 are to be found. We see everywhere, in the rapid increase 

 of wealth and population in our suburban towns, fine build- 

 ings, erected almost by magic, in the highest style of archi- 

 tectural art, and finished without regard to expense. These 

 costly dwellings, as well as those of more humble pretensions, 

 meet our eyes in every direction, and would command our 

 highest admiration but for one great defect ; they are wanting 

 in the elegant surroundings which should belong to every 

 suburban residence ; the lawn, the ornamental grounds, the 

 fruit garden, or even the little parterre have been entirely 

 neglected, and they stand bleak and alone, an ostentatious 

 display of wealth without taste, on the one hand, or the ap- 

 pearance of a depleted purse without the means of doing 

 anything more, on the other. 



We do not intend to be understood that this is generally 

 the case. By no means. There are too many evidences to 

 the contrary, abounding everywhere, to assert this. Yet we 

 think it must be admitted, even by those who would give 

 our countrymen every allowance for their love of rural life 

 which they can well claim, that it is quite too common, and 

 should not be in a country with a climate and soil so favor- 

 able to the growth of every forest tree, shrub, and plant. 

 We can name one locality, in the immediate vicinity of Bos- 

 ton, where thousands of dollars have been expended in 

 the erection of the finest dwellings, and yet scarcely a tree 

 or shrub has been planted, or anything done, save making 

 the avenues and walks, to beautify the several enclosures, 



VOL. XXII. NO. XI. 62 



