The Canadian Horticulturist. 281 



Roads and walks are essential to secure convenient and comfortable access 

 to the buildings and grounds, and are more important than fine views from the 

 windows ; but they are not in themselves objects of beauty, and should be lim- 

 ited to the real needs of the place, and be inconspicuously located. They should 

 be thoroughly constructed, with easy grades — about one foot in fifteen feet in 

 roads, and one foot in ten in walks, and graceful curves, if any are necessary. 

 Next the sub divisions of the distinctively home grounds must be considered. 

 These are the lawn, the broadest piece of unbroken surface near the house ; the 

 flat area for tennis and other games ; the flower garden and the vegetable gar- 

 den, as well as the yards and ground for stable or other accessory buildings. 

 These requirements would include the whole of a village lot, but the principle 

 would apply to home grounds upon a farm or a large estate in the country. On 

 the more extended domain there should be a distinct division between these 

 home grounds, which should be nicely kept and the larger areas devoted to 

 other purposes. 



The house location having been determined and its construction commenced 

 the next step is the grading of the grounds. This is an important matter, especi- 

 ally on that part which is not to be planted. A graceful and natural fitting of 

 new surfaces to the old requires some skill. A gently undulating surface and 

 long, gentle slopes are more natural, more pleasing and more easily cared for 

 than short, steep slopes. The latter are seldom seen in nature. Her process is 

 to gradually wear off sharp upper edges and fill it in at the abrupt base, thus in 

 time producing what is called an O. G. curve ; this is what should be imitated in 

 lawn grading. A formal terrace should be distinctly formal, with angles sharply 

 defined and maintained. Very steep, abrupt slopes are sometimes necessary. 

 They can be filled, and held in place with heavy natural boulders, and planted 

 to imitate a similar slope in nature. It is desirable to secure a shallow, turf 

 gutter at the base of a bank sloping toward the road, to prevent the water from 

 flowing on the gravel surface. This water can be intercepted by occasional 

 catch-basins, and carried across the road (if on a side hill) or disposed of by 

 drains. 



Where a permanently vigorous growth of plants or constantly fine turf is 

 required, deep trenching and liberal fertilizing are essential. But masses of some 

 native shrubs — barberry, etc. — do not need this treatment. 



Drainage and disposal of house waste must be provided for in the original 

 plans, and the work of construction of the place. The tight cesspool — periodi- 

 cally emptied — is the safer method of caring for wastes, in the absence of a pub- 

 lic sewer ; but the drainage, even if it is necessary to carry them through an 

 adjoining estate, should be put in for the disposal of surface water. 



Planting, while an important part of the work of the landscape architect, is 

 still only the dress and ornament of a place. There are many thousands of 

 species and varieties of hardy plants in common cultivation in the North-eastern 



