SITUATION, SOIL, SURROUNDINGS 7 



hundred feet, with wire, arranging a httle entrance gate also of 

 wire. In front of this lot, between sidewalk and street, we set 

 two very fine American elms fifty feet apart, of the kind used in 

 the Boston parks, and a third was planted at the extreme back 

 of the lot, in one corner, to give shade and pleasure to a family. 

 Fruit trees were set near the fences at the back, — apple, cherry, 

 plum, pear, — and six grapevines started, with the fence as sup- 

 port. It was the intention, when building there, to place the house 

 within fifteen feet of the street, fill the intervening spaces with 

 flowers, so that all passers-by might enjoy them, and so divide all 

 the groimd in the rear as to give, first, a space of green grass for 

 drying clothes, and for use by the family in warm weather; sec- 

 ond, a space for flowers; third, a space for vegetables; and fourth, 

 a space for a garage. 



Alas, that in a lot of this size to-day the garage seems to be a 

 part of the family need. I could write here many reasons against 

 this so-caUed need. I see sometimes the deterioration of the fam- 

 ily, physical and mental, brought about by the Ford and its 

 kind; but in a book on the garden this type of discussion is not in 

 place. However, the waste of good ground imdemeath the ga- 

 rage, and the fearful ugliaess of its bulk in the small lot, are things 

 which all gardeners of the better sortmust feel and deplore. One's 

 own garage is the thing to screen away from sight ordinarily; just 

 as, on the estate of the rich, the greenhouse is — and cannot 

 be otherwise, no matter how well designed — a blot upon the 

 landscape. 



