THE AMATEUR GARDEN 



note a few exceptions to these ground rules, 

 which may give the rules a more convincing 

 force. First of all, "don't" let any of your 

 planting cut or split your place in two. How 

 many a small house-lot lawn we see split down 

 the middle by a row of ornamental shrubs or 

 fruit-trees which might as easily have been set 

 within a few feet of the property line, whose 

 rigidity, moreover, would have best excused the 

 rigidity of the planted line. But such glaring 

 instances aside, there are many subtler ones 

 quite as unfortunate; "don't" be too sure you 

 are not unwittingly furnishing one. 



"Don't" destroy the openness of your sward 

 by dotting it with shrubs or pattern flower-beds. 

 To this rule I doubt if a plausible exception could 

 be contrived. It is so sweeping and so primary 

 that we might well withhold it here were we 

 not seeking to state its artistic reason why. 

 Which is, that such plantings are mere eruptions 

 of individual smartness, without dignity and 

 with no part in any general unity; chirping up 

 like pert children in a company presumably try- 

 ing to be rational. 



