272 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 333. 



knowledge of trees and shrubs and flowers. Noteworthy, 

 too, is the effort of our growing towns and cities to secure 

 areas for parks and public gardens. Besides this, we 

 already have parks and private places, which, for unity and 

 consistency of design, for breadth and simplicity of treat- 

 ment and for the absence of features essentially petty and 

 vulgar, are not excelled by any in the world, and inquirers 

 for advice from competent landscape-gardeners are in- 

 creasing in numbers every year. 



Gardens which should be pictures of peace do not 

 naturally find a place in a country where life is a continual 

 struggle with the untamed forces of nature. Large por- 

 tions of our country are still in the pioneer stage, and even 

 the older-settled regions have not advanced entirely be- 

 yond the influence of frontier traditions. We have inherited 

 the idea that forests are inhospitable ; that woodlands at 

 the best are only waste lands, and it is only of late years 

 that there has been any development of the sentiment of 

 affection here for trees and native wild growth. The sub- 

 jugation of nature has been carried on with needless 

 cruelty, and yet, as our surroundings have become more 

 stable and secure, garden-art has kept pace fairly well with 

 other humanizing and civilizing influences. When we 

 once thoroughly learn the great lesson that the highest art 

 is found in following suggestions of nature, an endless 

 variety of climate and of season awaits our effort, and 

 with an untold wealth of native plants America should 

 have the most effective and diversified gardens in the world. 



Practical Work for Forestry Associations. 



FORESTRY associations have done as yet little more 

 than talk. This is quite natural and legitimate, since 

 their first object is to make propaganda for an enlightened 

 general appreciation of the necessity of rational forest- 

 treatment. Many persuasive arguments must be used be- 

 fore such an appreciation can be sufficiently widespread 

 to lead to action. Meanwhile, here and there the oppor- 

 tunity for direct active and practical work presents itself, if 

 not in behalf of the forest, at least in behalf of the trees in 

 our streets and parks. These are nearer objects to many 

 than forests ; they belong to the public, and interest in 

 them may well serve the useful purpose of inculcating that 

 love and intelligent appreciation for trees everywhere 

 which may ultimately lead to the establishment of a sound 

 forest-policy for the country. 



The planting of ornamental trees on Arbor Days and on 

 other occasions has been often encouraged by forestry as- 

 sociations, but the Genesee Valley Forestry Association, 

 at Rochester, has entered another field of usefulness in 

 freeing the shade-trees of the city from insect pests. Last 

 year the association offered a series of prizes to the chil- 

 dren of the public schools for gathering the cocoons of 

 caterpillars, with encouraging success. This year, in addi- 

 tion to the previous prizes, a special prize of ten dollars 

 was offered to all who would bring a larger number than 

 was brought in 1S93 by any one pupil (44,900). As a re- 

 sult, on June 20th, each of sixty-five scholars received a 

 ten-dollar gold piece, with an extra five dollars each to the 

 two boys who had the largest count. The total number 

 gathered and certified to by the teachers was 8,800,200, 

 and the city is relieved of a pest which has in former years 

 driven many families into the country at an earlier date 

 than they would otherwise have sought their summer out- 

 ings. The money for the prizes, which amounted to con- 

 siderably more than had been anticipated, was subscribed 

 by citizens, the Common Council adding one hundred dol- 

 lars, and money was never spent more effectively for such 

 a purpose. 



Now, all this is the result of talking, in the first place. 

 The Genesee Valley Forestry Association owes its origin 

 to public talks by two members of the American Forestry 

 Association. One of Rochester's prominent citizens, Mr. 

 Arthur S. Hamilton, took up the ideas advanced and per- 

 suaded others to interest themselves in the subject, and so 



the association was formed, and being composed of busi- 

 ness men it looked around for business and found it. Cer- 

 tainly the formation of local associations, which can apply 

 themselves to such definable tasks as that of the caterpillar 

 crusade is to be encouraged as one of the most hopeful 

 agencies in all matters relating to forests and to trees both 

 in city and country. 



The Esthetic Value of Roads and Walks. 



IN any landscape-gardening scheme the lines of roads 

 and walks present one of the most important problems. 

 These lines are essential to finish and propriety, but not on 

 account of their own artistic value. They are distinct and 

 prominent in appearance ; they are hard and formal, and 

 their general effect is unvarying and intractable. What beauty 

 they have is derived, in the main, not from themselves, 

 but from their accessories and associations. But since 

 they cannot be dispensed with, they must be treated so as 

 to make their special features as unobtrusive as possible. 

 Fortunately, they can be made to help the design in most 

 cases; and they can always be made to injure it. The 

 injury is due to superfluous lines of travel oftener than to 

 ungraceful ones. The very definite and intelligible nature 

 of a drive or walk inclines the designer, whether owner or 

 professional landscape-gardener, to try to give variety and 

 completeness to his large spaces by inserting pronounced 

 lines which, if they are not imperative for reasons of utility, 

 have at least a fixed beginning and end; and on this ac- 

 count seem reasonable and appropriate to minds not yet 

 skilled to grasp the subtile principles of composition, while 

 to the same minds it is difficult to justify indeterminate 

 shapes of planting for which the locality seems to offer no 

 suggestion. 



But this is not the only reason superfluous roads and 

 paths are popular. The designer often finds a certain 

 satisfaction in filling up his drawing with oval and flowing 

 curves, and his employers enjoy such drawings still more 

 keenly. Again, a beaten way, especially if its end is not 

 in sight, saves the mind the labor of conjecture as to the 

 best route ; if familiar it furnishes a definite length and 

 direction for the journey ; if unfamiliar, there is still the 

 certainty that some object is to be reached which will 

 make an expedition worth while. Such reasons as these, 

 though apparently trivial, excite a desire for formal ways 

 for the more practical provision of dry and solid lines of 

 travel when the grass is wet and the mud is soft. People 

 setting out for a walk will usually keep to the hackneyed 

 foot-way, and this irrespective of the time of the year and 

 condition of the ground, even though they are quite sensi- 

 ble of the superior comfort of the turf for walking on. 

 These reasons, and the general attractiveness of curved 

 lines — whether they find their need in the contour of the 

 surface and position of the landmarks or not — have sac- 

 rificed many rods of rich grass to strips of costly and. use- 

 less macadam. 



In laying out the courses of beaten track, the first and 

 foremost question is that of utility. When it has been de- 

 termined what points are to be connected, the lines them- 

 selves should be controlled first of all by directness. A 

 beaten way between two points should be the shortest pos- 

 sible ; but in landscape-gardening the shortest distance 

 between two points is not necessarily a straight line, or 

 even an approximation to it. The shortest route is always 

 the most convenient, and its course may, therefore, be reg- 

 ulated by the shape of the ground, the position of large 

 trees, the leading to objects of interest or points of vantage 

 for views and similar reasons ; while convenience, too, 

 may be considered to rule the bending of a road to avoid 

 intrusion on a lawn, or the construction of lines out of har- 

 mony with those of the buildings. For convenience or 

 fitness is quite as important to the useful as to the beautiful. 



Thus far, roads have been treated of merely as necessary' 

 parts of a design whose special features can even be used 

 to set off and display it in some measure. But they are 

 quite capable of being made to take on an artistic value of 



