FOR BUSINESS MEN. 31 



the expenditures about a suburban home. All men, who are not 

 either devoid of fine tastes, or miserly, desire to have as much 

 beauty around them as they can pay for and maintain ; but few 

 persons are familiar with the means which will gratify this desire 

 with least strain on the purse. Two men of equal means, with 

 similar houses and grounds to begin with, will often show most 

 diverse results for their expenditures ; one place soon becoming 

 home-like, quiet, and elegant in its expression, and the other fussy, 

 cluttered, and unsatisfactory. The latter has probably cost the 

 most money ; it may have the most trees, and the rarest flowers ; 

 more rustic work, and vases, and statuary ; but the true effect of all 

 is wanting. The difference between the two places is like that 

 between the sketch of a trained artist, who has his work distinctly 

 in his mind before attempting to represent it, and then sketches it 

 in simple, clear outlines; and the untutored beginner, whose abun- 

 dance of ideas are of so little service to him that he draws, and 

 re-draws, and rubs out again, till it can hardly be told whether it is 

 a horse or a cloud that is attempted. If the reader has any doubt 

 of his own ability to arrange his home grounds with the least waste 

 expenditure, he should ask some friend, whose good taste has been 

 proved by trial, to commend him to some sensible and experienced 

 designer of home-grounds. 



It may be set down as a fair approximation of the expense of 

 good ground improvements, that they will require about one-tenth 

 of the whole cost of the buildings. Premising that the erection of 

 the dwelling generally precedes the principal expenses of beauti- 

 fying the grounds, this amount will be required during the two 

 years following the completion of the house. If the land must be 

 cleared of rocks, or much graded, or should require an unusually 

 thorough system of tile-drainage, that proportion might be insuffi- 

 cient ; but if the ground to be improved is in good shape, well 

 drained, rich, and furnished with trees, a very much smaller pro- 

 portion might be enough ; and almost the only needful expense, 

 would be that which would procure the advice and direction of 

 some judicious landscape gardener. As a good lawyer often best 

 earns his retainer by advising against litigation, so a master of 



