ON AMERICAN GARDENING 



copied and imitated less frequently than the 

 houses, the reason has probably been that 

 the patterns were vaguer and harder to 

 follow, rather than that they were artistic- 

 ally inferior. 



If there was a special artistic weakness 

 in the schemes of colonial gardens, it lay 

 in their imperfect adaptation to their envi- 

 ronment. They copied too slavishly the 

 styles of the old country, and clung too 

 tenaciously to the plants which had been 

 favorites in the gardens over-seas. The 

 English farm and garden was naturally the 

 chief model, and it is laughable to think 

 of men planting peas, sowing grass, or se- 

 lecting varieties of fruit upon the strict 

 advice of gardeners in Warwick or Kent. 

 The following quotation from one of the 

 best early American garden books, Cob- 

 bett's "American Gardener," is characteris- 

 tic. Speaking of the cultivation of the 

 vine, he says; "Vineyards, as Tull observes, 

 must always be tilled, or they will produce 

 nothing of value." He adds that Mr. 

 Evelyn says that "when the soil, wherein 

 fruit trees are planted, is constantly kept 

 in tillage, they grow up to an orchard in 

 half the time they would do if the soil 



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