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sources, — ^then of course he can have made attractive walks, gateways, garden 

 trellises, and many other details which contribute in a large measure toward the 

 success of a cottage garden. It must be admitted, that the design of such detail 

 is most difficult. However, to some extent it is necessary. 



In the preceding attempt at an analysis of the cottage home, which is, after all, 

 but an assumed type, the aim has been primarily to show the independence of 

 planning possible under such conditions, and also to picture the character, or 

 total effect, which may result in the finished product. Necessarily many state- 

 ments have been made which may lead one to the conclusion that, after all, 

 cottage gardens are not such erratic, vague, and indefinable productions of man 

 as they might at first appear. If, however, these descriptions have made a 

 somewhat clarified picture in the mind of the reader, it is because the details and 

 examples used have been assumed to be common to most gardens of this character. 

 It should be realized that actually one cannot make such an assumption. Anal- 

 ysis of details may contribute toward the clarity of the general picture. Gen- 

 eralizations may recall to the reader similar things he has seen, which wiU also 

 add their touch to the picture. Contrasts with homes which are quite unlike 

 may check one who has moved to a totally new and different environment from 

 repeating that which he has become accustomed to in the old. But for that which 

 is actually completed probably no rules can be made. 



A cottage garden, to be most beautiful, must be the result of a truly artistic 

 impulse. Nevertheless, many have been made, and may still be made, 

 which, while not as beautiful as they might be, are still interesting in 

 some degree. That they shall be interesting to their owners is, of course, most 

 important. One should not expect to produce satisfactory results in a short 

 time, as time is, and always has been, an important factor in their making. 

 It may be possible for one to purchase an idea from an artist, to engage skilled 

 men and to spare no expense to obtain the effect of age at the beginning, and- to 

 engage the services of a skilled gardener to care for it and to mould it as it grows. 

 But this would be mere "nature faking," and while such gardens may be interest- 

 ing, and such an appreciation of simple beauty very meritorious, still, if it were 

 possible, one would prefer to see such simple homes become common and there- 

 fore the expression of the individual. Perhaps this hope is too ideal and de- 

 pendent on too many conditions that are non-existent today, — among which the 

 most sadly wanting are good architectural models and the carpenter-architect 

 of taste and genius who lived a hundred years ago. Some old houses may be 

 copied and successfully adapted to new situations; hut as a rule, it will even 

 be hard to find an architect gifted not only with the skill but also- with thp sym- 

 pathy and the understanding necessary for the handling of such difficult and un- 

 profitable problems. But the answer to all these difficulties, is improvement of 

 public taste, of the coming of which there is every assurance. It matters little 

 how we achieve better living conditions, but as they are necessary to our com- 

 fort, — ^both our convenience and our pleasure, — we are likely, by some means, 

 to obtain them. If there is a genuine desire, and especially if this is community 

 or a country wide desire, it is safe to assume it will be realized. 



Conditions in villages vary markedly. In some villages the lots are narrow, 

 and, worse yet, the new houses are copied from the poorest models of the city! 

 The lots in some villages grow more and more narrow as the distance from the 



