COST OF LANDSCAPE DEVELOPMENT 



By CHAS. W. LEAVITT, JR. 



(Meetinar of December 12, 190S) 



INASMUCH as the expenses connected with the development of the landscape are 

 so varied, it is necessary to particularize in order to give information that may be 

 interesting, without becoming tiresome. 



I will therefore endeavor to answer the question which is perhaps the most familiar 

 to those in our profession, as the most interesting way of opening the subject for healthy 

 discussion. 



The question may be put as follows: "How much will it cost to develop fifty acres 

 of farm land located about two miles from a railroad station, which is about thirty miles 

 from New York City, in the State of New York, and to put upon it all reasonable features 

 for comfort, beauty and enjoyment." 



Numerous questions and the inspection of the property developed the following 

 information: 



The land is high (about one hundred and fifty feet above the railroad station), about 

 two-thirds meadow, and fairly sprinkled with boulders and fenced with tumbled-down 

 stone walls. Approximately, one-third is woodland, the trees being good-sized beeches, 

 chestnuts, oaks, hickories, dogwoods, etc. There are two streams, one small and origi- 

 nating in a spring upon the property, and the other a good-sized brook with its source 

 about two miles above the property. The first stream had a fall of some fifteen feet in 

 two hundred, and flowed at the rate of about 20,000 gallons a day. 



The site for the house is on the southern edge of the woodland, from which point 

 there is a good view of the countryside. The ground rises in the woods to the north to 

 an elevation of about twenty-five feet above the house-site. It was desired to construct: 



A house at a cost not to exceed $50,000 00 



A stable for not more than 10,000 00 



Greenhouses for about 5,000 00 



Gardener'scottage, poultry-houses, cow -and sheep-barns, collectively to cost about .. 8,000 00 



Or a total for buildings of $73,000 00 



These requirements seemed to call for, first, a driveway leading from the highway 

 to the residence, and from there to the stable and so on to the group of farm-buildings, 

 which added up to some three thousand lineal feet. The drive was designed 14 feet 

 wide with 4-foot sod gutters on either side, with catch-basins located every 200 feet, the 

 basins to be connected with 6-inch pipe with the 8-inch drain carrying the leader water 

 from the house and drainage from the garden. 



The cost of grading this road was 67 cents per lineal foot, including the saving of 



all topsoil, amounting to $2,000 00 



The telford, 8 inches deep, cost $1 per square yard, aggregating 4,500 00 



The 40 catch-basins, at $15 each goo 00 



The sodding of the gutters cost 30 cents per square yard, or 360 00 



And 4,000 feet of pipe, at 40 cents per foot, laid 1,600 00 



Or a total of $9,060 00 



(69) 



