CHAPTER XII. 



THE ORNAMENTATION OF PONDS AND LAKES. 



/ID the reader ever have a place in the 

 country ? If he has and does not 

 \\^ant to grow sick of it, or if he has 

 none, but hopes to have one, and 

 does not want to be forced to give 

 it up in disgust, let me give him a 

 piece of advice. Don't undertake 

 too much. Have only five hundred square feet of grass and 

 one tree or half a dozen shrubs, but have all of the best. 

 Dig deep, fertilize liberally, plant the best grass-seed and 

 plenty of it, set out the largest trees and shrubs that will 

 be likely to grow, and care for them tenderly, year after 

 year. Dig about them and prune them and spare no pains 

 to make them the best of their kind ; or, let me say at once, 

 that the readei''s delight in nature and his desire to imitate 

 her effects will not prevent the failure of his lawn-planting. 

 All this is said in advance, because it applies as well to 

 water-plants as to ordinary lawn-plants. 



I propose now, in a few words, to tell the reader how I 



came to attempt to grow, and to succeed, after much tribula- 



238 



