530 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 246. 



If, now, we search the world over, do we not find the 

 same truth everywhere? Let us call to mind some of the 

 loveliest of earthly scenes. The red farmstead among 

 the Firs of Sweden, the Ilex-trees and the white villas of 

 the steep bank of Como, the English deer-park and its 

 stately mansion, the towered village of the Italian hills, the 

 broad green and the great Elms of our own Hadley or 

 Deerfield. The beauty of these memorable humanized 

 landscapes is nothing extraneous ; it is not something 

 added to the landscape after the main lines have been laid 

 down ; it springs directly from the fact that these fields, 

 trees, ways and buildings have been arranged first with 

 reference to the needs, uses and enjoyments of real life in 

 their respective lands and climates, and it is their perfect 

 conformity to these principles which constitutes the essence 

 of the beauty we admire. Not by display of knowledge of 

 the styles of architecture and gardening ; not by gathering 

 in one place all the trees of the earth ; not by imitating the 

 beautiful features of the scenery of foreign lands and cli- 

 mates ; not by copying wild nature in places which are 

 not wild ; not even by attempting to obey the laws of 

 landscape-painting, will beauty ever be won to dwell 

 among us in the surroundings of modern life. "All that 

 would be fair must be fit." There is no other way to win 

 the beauty we desire. 



This truth being accepted, what shall we of this too self- 

 conscious age say to our gardener and our builder when 

 we set out to make " a place of our own " ? To the first it 

 must be : Lay out no road or path which is not the most 

 convenient possible in the circumstances. Lay out nothing 

 for mere flourish, but all for use or rational enjoyment. 

 Fell and plant and choose the kinds of plants for good rea- 

 sons only. In all you do, have constant reference to the 

 general scheme of the whole place. 



To the builder we say : Plan for convenience first and 

 always. Take advantage of every peculiarity of the pur- 

 pose, the site and the exposure of the building. Let the 

 exterior of the building faithfully represent the interior, and 

 shape it not as a thing apart, but as the central object in a 

 larger design. In placing doors which involve paths ; in 

 arranging drying-yards, kitchen-courts, piazzas and ter- 

 races ; in all you do, have constant reference to the general 

 scheme of the whole place. 



And who shall conceive and insist upon this general 

 landscape scheme in the perfecting of which the artist 

 gardener and the artist builder are to play their respective 

 parts ? In these days it is seldom that the need of such a 

 broadly inclusive scheme is realized even by the artists 

 who have part in the work, much less by the managing 

 owner ; and yet the time is coming when the landscape- 

 architect, whose province is just this arranging of the build- 

 ing and its surroundings to form one landscape, will be 

 welcomed alike by owner, builder and gardener as the 

 man who will cause the work of each to count for beauty 

 much more effectively than it otherwise can. When this 

 day comes, and either the owner, the gardener, the builder 

 or the professional specialist is looked to as the deviser of 

 a general landscape design based on purpose and fitness, 

 and not upon caprice ; then, again, there will be hope of 

 finding the really beautiful in the surroundings of daily life. 



Our attention is called by the Boston Commonweallh 

 to the fact that Samuel Sewall celebrated Columbus Day 

 in 1692 by planting five Chestnuts. If these Chestnut 

 seedlings had been carefully nurtured as memorials of the 

 second centennial of the discovery of America, the great trees 

 as they were about entering upon the third century of their 

 existence would now be objects of the deepest veneration. 

 We are glad to learn that in many places, as in the new 

 park at Jamaica, Long Island, memorial trees have been 

 planted this year in honor of the fourth centennial of the 

 great discovery. Four hundred years hence, an Oak care- 

 fully planted now and duly nourished and protected from 

 year to year, would have a value beyond that of merely 



directing the attention of future Americans to the daring 

 navigator who found the western shore of the Atlan- 

 tic. We are beginning to be old enough to have a past, 

 although our most venerable date is modern compared with 

 those of European history. We scarcely realize hov^r the 

 doings of the day will look to the generations in the thir- 

 tieth century, who will turn to our records as we revert to 

 those of the Ancient Britons and study the marches of 

 Ctesar. It is a novel thing for us to pose for posterity, but 

 the time has come when it will not be considered altogether 

 frivolous on our part to have some care for statuesque 

 effect a thousand years hence. If we now take heed to 

 establish customs honorable and worthy of veneration we 

 shall then have groves which will compel the same rever- 

 ence as that with which we regard the park of (he Druids 

 and the Olives of Baiae. 



Any custom which encourages the intelligent planting 

 and care of trees is vi'orth establishing and cherishing. If 

 forestry is ever to assume its proper place in public instruc- 

 tion, beginning must be made with the children, and we 

 must impress upon them from earliest youth the value of 

 trees in the economy of nature. They must be taught the 

 importance of preserving our woods and be made to feel 

 that it is the solemn duty of the generations to come to 

 cultivate and guard these bulwarks of our national pros- 

 perity. No course of physics should be considered com- 

 plete in our common schools or our higher institutions of 

 learning which does not include the influence of trees upon 

 agriculture and civilization. But the intellectual apprecia- 

 tion of the economical value of trees is worth a great deal 

 more when this knowledge is vitalized by an admiration 

 of their beauty and a genuine affection for them. Our for- 

 ests will only be safe after we have become a nation of 

 tree-lovers, and the foundation of this regard can be laid 

 in no way so well as by enlisting the interest of children 

 in individual trees. Memorial trees, grouped on school- 

 grounds or supporting a town-hall, if they have been 

 planted with some ceremony by the children of the place 

 and entrusted to their care under the supervision of their 

 elders, would become in time objects of deep personal 

 regard. This affection for the tree by its planters and pro- 

 tectors will grow stronger as all grow together. No one 

 who has developed a love like this for any one tree can 

 witness the useless destruction of another without a feel- 

 ing of pain and indignation ; and we can never look for 

 an assured protection of our woodlands until the mass of 

 the people of the country are not only instructed as to the 

 important function which trees perform in the economy of 

 a civilized nation, but have been brought up from child- 

 hood with a growing appreciation of their beauty and a 

 constantly deepening affection for them as if they vi'ere 

 personal friends. 



The Colimibian anniversary, then, will be a genuine 

 advantage to the nation, if it helps to establish the custom 

 of planting and caring for memorial trees. 



Mount Desert— A 



Foreigner's 



Impression. 



THERE is much to sadden the heart of the lover of garden 

 and forest on Mount Desert island. The sight of the 

 woods is lamentable. One day we drove past mile after mile 

 of half-grown, tangled, choked and airless woods, filled with 

 falling trees and rotting rubbish, and rendered still more un- 

 canny by the numbers of dead trees standing like dreary 

 ghosts, that could not even move about, fettered in the stony 

 soil. And when, after a few mjles of this, I could not help 

 saying that "I had never seen worse-kept woods," I fear I 

 exposed myself to ridicule. 



It was carefully explained that America had no need of for- 

 estry, and one would Judge so indeed by the lavishness with 

 which splendid logs were piled up in the generous fire-places. 

 Yet wood is worth something in Boston, and the splendid logs 

 themselves give little pleasure to one who sees them burning 

 after he has observed that frees of the calibre they represent 

 are none too many for beauty, that is the landscape 

 beauty which ought to be such an important element in a 

 summer playground. 



