4 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



Some failures will be made, but success will at last crown 

 our efforts, and the things we have planted, the walks and 

 drives we have located, and the other objects of beauty we 

 have created about our homes will be ours in a sense that 

 they cannot be if we build after the plan of others, and a 

 most precious source of joy and comfort in declining years. 



The Natural versus the Artificial System. 



In earlier times and in other countries much of the 

 work in landscape or ornamental gardening was, done 

 in what is known as the geometrical or artificial system, 

 where the work was largely laid out in squares, circles, 

 or other geometrical figures; the changes in grade were 

 largely obtained by steep terraces, the trees and shrubs 

 trained to regular and often grotesque forms. In our 

 own country the natural system is more largely used, and 

 more and more in Europe it is coming into use, where 

 all the work is done so as to represent the best and most 

 beautiful in nature. By this system the walks and drives 

 are laid out in graceful curves, the changes in grade made 

 by graceful slopes and rounded surfaces, and the trees and 

 shrubs are encouraged to take the most perfect natural 

 forms, while they are so grouped as to give the greatest 

 variety of natural beauty. 



Under some conditions, as in squares or city lots, close 

 up to large, tall buildings, with paved roads and side- 

 walks, on steep hillsides and abrupt slopes, or where 

 the terrace or retaining wall is a, necessity, the arti- 

 ficial system may not be objectionable, but in the country, 

 with so much of freedom of thought and action, and 

 so full of natural growth and beauty, the artificial style 

 is not in good taste and should generally be avoided. 



