PREFACE 



due satisfaction of his higher aesthetic and spiritual 

 nature, the designer should keep large motives 

 in view: breadth, simplicity, a skillful adjust- 

 ment of the relations between the different parts 

 of the place so that there will be a proper bal- 

 ance throughout the scheme. The place should 

 not be all garden or all pleasure grounds or merely 

 well-groomed and planted farm fields. There 

 are instincts and sentiments which naturally 

 well up in the mind when the scheme of develop- 

 ment is undertaken that should be allowed to 

 lead the designer into pleasant harmonious rela- 

 tions with the landscape, not forcing or contorting 

 existing conditions, but allowing Nature to guide 

 in all things with her supremely artistic hand. 



A wind-swept knoll with distant views should 

 not be obstructed by many trees. On the other 

 hand, when a nook at the back or one side of the 

 house suggests a garden or a retired valley, trees 

 and shrubs should further emphasize, perfect, 

 and complete the sense of seclusion. 



This faculty of design in landscape gardening 

 is, of course, the highest and most difficult attain- 

 ment of the art. The promptings of its suggestion 

 can be trusted, however, only by those who have 

 sought with long and diligent study its manifold 

 secrets. The habits and strange vagaries of 

 individuality characterizing different trees, shrubs, 

 and flowering plants must be well understood. 

 The treatment of the special soils in which these 

 plants are to grow needs attention that many fail 

 to give. The change of the surface of the ground. 



