Chapter VI 



Concerning the Laying-out of the Lawns of Parks 

 Meadows, and Gardens 



WHAT the gold backgrounds of the old 

 masters, which set out the sweet, lovable 

 faces of madonnas and saints in so ideal a manner, 

 are to religious pictures, green, luxuriant grass 

 spaces are to a landscape. They are, as it were, the 

 canvas of Nature-painting, the playground where 

 the sun disports an element of brightness which 

 sets out the whole landscape. Green grass en- 

 hances the freshness of the entire landscape and 

 furnishes a carpet for the sun to shine upon, 

 whereas an arid, gray heath appears like a shroud 

 even in the most beautiful spot. But while the 

 grass plot should be green, it* should not be 

 marshy, being thereby rendered inaccessible, nor 

 so soft and spongy that horses and wagons leave 

 their tracks in passing over, thereby spoiling its 

 appearance for months after. Although the latter 

 cannot be wholly avoided in the first weeks after 

 laying the plot out, especially in wet weather, 

 yet if the grass is well kept it soon acquires a firm 

 texture, even in light soil. 



For the making of lawns I can recommend 

 the following rules, which the experience of sev- 

 eral years in my neighborhood has confirmed: — 



