THE MANAGEMENT OF LARGE COUNTRY PLACES. 175 



ness and dignity, and a simple feeling of nature about it which no 

 highly decorated pleasure-grounds or garden scenery can approach, 

 as the continual surrounding of a country residence. It is, in fact, 

 the poetical idea of Arcadia, a sort of ideal nature softened, refined, 

 and ennobled, without being made to look artificial. 



Of course, any thing like English parks, so far as regards extent, 

 is almost out of the question here ; simply because land and for- 

 tunes are widely divided here, instead of being kept in large bodies, 

 intact, as in England. Still, as the first class country-seats of the 

 Hudson now command from $50,000 to $75,000, it is evident that 

 there is a growing taste for space and beauty in the private do- 

 mains of republicans. What we wish to suggest now, is, simply, 

 that the greatest beauty and satisfaction may be had here, as in Eng- 

 land (for the plan really suits our limited means better), by treat- 

 ing the bulk of the ornamental portion as open park pasture and 

 thus getting the greatest space and beauty at the least original ex- 

 penditure, and with the largest annual profit. 



To some of our readers who have never seen the thing, the idea 

 of a park, pastured by animals almost to the very door, will seem 

 at variance with all decorum and elegance. This, however, is not 

 actually the case. The house should either stand on a raised ter- 

 race of turf, which, if it is a fine mansion, may have a handsome 

 terrace wall, or if a cottage, a pretty rustic or trellis fence, to sepa- 

 rate it from the park. Directly around the house, and stretching 

 on one or more sides, in the rear, lie the more highly dressed portions 

 of the scene, which may be a flower-garden and shrubbery set in 

 a small bit of lawn kept as short as velvet or may be pleasure- 

 grounds, fruit, and kitchen-gardens, so multiplied as to equal the 

 largest necessities of the place and family. All that is to be borne 

 in mind is, that the park may be as large as you can afford to pur- 

 chase for it may be kept up at a profit while the pleasure- 

 grounds and garden scenery, may, with this management, be com- 

 pressed into the smallest space actually deemed necessary to the 

 place thereby lessening labor, and bestowing that labor, in a con- 

 centrated space, where it will tell. 



The practical details of keeping the stock upon such a place, are 

 familiar to almost every farmer. Of course, in a country place, only 



