August 25 1897. 



Garden and Forest. 



329 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST-OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. V. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY. AUGUST 25, 1897. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



page. 



Editorial Article :— The Planting of Private Grounds 329 



The Dalles of the St. Croix, Wisconsin ami Minnesota. .Mrs, J H. Robbins 330 



(Ecological Notes upon the White Pine AVt*. E. J. 1 it'll \\\ 



Plant Notes: — Viburnum dentatnm. (With figure) M. L. Dock. 332 



Entomological; — The Influence ot Environment on the Life History of Insects, 



Professor John B. Smith. 334 

 Cultural Department: — A Renewed Outbreak of the Asparagus Rust. (With 



figure.) Professor Byron D. Halsted. 335 



The Hybrid Gladioli T.D.Hal/;./,,. ; 35 



Sparaxis pulcherrima \V. E. Endicott. 336 



Some August Flowers.... Joseph Meehan. 336 



Heliopsis Pitcheriana T. D. Hat 'Held. 336 



CoRhESPoN hence : — Arsenate ot Lead with Bordeaux Mixture John Craig. 336 



The Codling M.ith Professor T. D. A. Coder,!/ : /> 



The Elm-leaf Beetle Professor John B. Smith. 336 



Critical Notes on the Loganberry L F. Kinney. 3 J7 



Electricity in Vegetation Rosa G. Abbott. 337 



Recent Publications 337 



Notes _■ 33 8 



li.i ustrations : — Viburnum dentatum. Fig. 43 333 



Poitions of Rusted Asparagus Stems, Fig. 44 335 



The Planting of Private Grounds. 



THIS is a season when little actual work needs to l>e 

 done in gardens and pleasure-grounds. Therefore it 

 is a good time for contemplation — for self-instruction. It 

 is the time to judge the results of past work — to decide 

 whether what has been achieved is good or is bad, and to 

 examine why it is so. And it is the time to plan for the 

 future — to decide what more shall be done, what shall be 

 undone, and from what the enterprising hand shall be alto- 

 gether withheld. Plans should be made to correct past 

 sins of commission, to repair past sins of omission, and to 

 guard against both for the days to come. 



The great sin of commission which a study of orna- 

 mental private grounds in all parts of our country reveals, 

 is the failure to cutout trees and shrubs which were always 

 ill-placed or which have been rendered detrimental or 

 superfluous by years of growth and development. Every- 

 where we see country places, small ones especially, which, 

 whether viewed from the inside or the outside, are less 

 beautiful than they might be because their plantations are 

 too crowded. A house may well be draped and shaded, 

 but it should not be concealed or smothered by foliage. 

 Charming outlooks ought not to be shut off. A fine tree 

 ought not to be hampered in its development by others 

 less attractive. Two or three trees of equal excellence 

 ought not to be allowed to survive so long together that 

 the beauty of all will be ruined. A shrubbery ought not to 

 look like a rough thicket, nor should a place be so crowded 

 with shrubberies as to look like a wilderness. Health as 

 well as beauty demands that foliage should not be too 

 dense in the neighborhood of a dwelling-house, for human 

 beings, no less than plants, need the free ministration of 

 the winds and the sunshine of heaven. Therefore, at this 

 season of the year, every owner of a country place, large 

 or small, should look carefully at his trees and shrubs, and 

 should decide whether it may not be for the greatest good 

 of the greatest number (himself and his family included) 

 that some of them shall be cut out. 



Corresponding to this sin of omitting to use the axe when 

 its use is required, is the sin of commission involved in 

 planting excessive numbers of trees and shrubs. Even 



when allowance is made for the need of young trees to be 

 protected, and for the need of the planter to guard against 

 the possible failure of some, too many are usually set out 

 on a new place where Nature has not already supplied a 

 superabundance. The beauty of placid open spaces of 

 grass, the charm of far-away vistas and the dignity of 

 simplicity in the general effect of a place are forgotten. 

 Even when large lawns are reserved, they are generally 

 sprinkled over with isolated plants to such a degree that 

 their true beauty is fatally impaired. Therefore the owner 

 of a place where planting is needed should carefully con- 

 sider, before the season to attempt it begins, just where he 

 had best put his thick plantations, and just how many — or, 

 rather, how few — trees and groups of shrubs need to be set 

 near his house and upon his lawn. He should have a defi- 

 nite scheme in mind before any work is started, and, in 

 spite of the profuse temptations of nursery and garden cata- 

 logues, he should strictly adheie to this scheme unless 

 definite good reasons for its alteration present themselves. 



Of course, it is impossible to lay down any general rules 

 with regard to the desirable amount or to the desirable 

 distribution of foliage in a small country place ; for each 

 place differs from all others in the conformation of its 

 ground, the character of its native vegetation, the attrac- 

 tions of its outlooks, and the tastes of its owners. For 

 example, there are seaside situations where Nature has 

 done scarcely any planting, and where no more is required 

 by a sensitive eye unless, perhaps, in the way of a few 

 hardy shrubs and vines set about the foundations of the 

 house to make it look as though it belonged to the ground 

 upon which it stands. On the other hand, in inland regions 

 there are places where thick, shadowy groves of Nature's 

 planting need only to be thinned sufficiently for the due 

 admission of air and light and the opening of vistas. Be- 

 tween these two extremes lie many intermediate possibilities 

 of beauty. 



One general precept can, however, be laid down : Re- 

 spect should be paid to the essential character of the 

 country-side at large. If it is covered by trees of great size 

 and beauty, your place will not look well if it seems to be 

 a barren exception to the local rule of luxuriant growth. 

 And, if it is a barren stretch of seashore, your place will 

 not look well if you spend thousands of dollars in setting 

 out thick groves of trees, and try to cultivate plants of 

 luxuriant aspect better suited to the fertile soil and sur- 

 roundings of some interior valley region. But even this 

 great general rule of appropriateness to broad local condi- 

 tions should not be pushed too far. Respect m^^' paid 

 to the charms of variety as well as to those of harmony. 

 In a thickly forested district, for example, fine trees should 

 be secured ; yet broad open lawns will be peculiarly 

 attractive as a relief to the eye satiated with dense wood- 

 land effects. And, correspondingly, while many a seashore 

 place demands no planting at all, yet if one or two good 

 trees can be induced to grow near the house they may 

 delight the eye much more than if they had been met with 

 in regions where similar ones abound. 



However, most people need to be more carefully warned 

 against planting too much than against planting too little. 

 It is extraordinary to seethe energy often bestowed upon 

 the creation of a wide lawn, and then the equal energy 

 displayed in ruining it with a cluttered assemblage of 

 freshly introduced plants. Everything which the spot 

 naturally bore is cut down and grubbed up. Often even 

 picturesque rocks, or wide low stones, invaluable as giving 

 dignity and individuality to the place, are remove. 1 at great 

 expense. And when at last the wide sheet of green is 

 secured, forthwith it is broken up and frittered away by 

 being dotted over with a hundred garden trees or shrubs. 



The mention of rocks suggests another rule which may, 

 in a general manner, be prescribed. If one or more stones. 

 large or small, break the uniformity of a lawn, the places 

 for possible planting are thus naturally indicated. < )f course, 

 even here planting is not always required, and it may even 

 be injurious if a fine view is thereby spoiled, or if the har- 



