THE GENERAL PLAN OR THEORY OF THE PLACE 19 
nine that may be secured at a drug store is added to sufficient 
water to cover a quart of wheat. Let the wheat stand in the 
poison water twenty-four to forty-eight hours (but not long 
enough for the grains to sprout), then dry the wheat thoroughly. 
It cannot be distinguished from ordinary wheat, and sparrows 
usually eat it freely, particularly if they are in the habit of eat- 
ing scattered grain and crumbs. Of course, the greatest cau- 
tion must be exercised that in the use of such highly poisonous 
materials, accidents do not occur with other animals or with 
human beings. 
The planting is part of the design or picture. 
If the reader catches the full meaning of these pages, he has 
acquired some of the primary conceptions in landscape garden- 
ing. Thesuggestion will grow upon him day by day; andif he is 
of an observing turn of mind, he will find that this simple lesson 
will revolutionize his habit of thought respecting the planting 
of grounds and the beauty of landscapes. He willsee that a bush 
or flower-bed that is no part of any general purpose or design — 
that is, which does not contribute to the making of a picture 
— might better never have been planted. For myself, I would 
rather have a bare and open pasture than such a yard as that 
shown in Fig. 9, even though it contained the choicest plants 
of every land. The pasture would atleast be plain and restful 
and unpretentious; but the yard would be full of effort and 
fidget. 
Reduced to a single expression, all this means that the great- 
est artistic value in planting lies in the effect of the mass, and 
not in the individual plant. A mass has the greater value 
because it presents a much greater range and variety of forms, 
colors, shades, and textures, because it has sufficient extent or 
dimensions to add structural character toa place, and because 
its features are so continuous and so well blended that the mind 
is not distracted by incidental and irrelevant ideas. Two 
