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may enable him to discover the law of harmonious relation between 

 multitudinous details; and it* he can discover it, there is nothing to 

 prevent him from putting it into practice. The result would be a 

 work of art, and the combination of the art thus defined, with the 

 art of architecture in the production of landscape composition 

 what we denominate landscape architecture. 



The first process in the application of this art upon any given site, 

 is the formation of a judgment upon the capabilities and the limita- 

 tions of that site, with reference to the artistic purpose. It is obvi- 

 ously impossible, for instance, to produce in the vicinity of Brooklyn 

 such scenery as will affect the mind as it is affected by the Alps or 

 the Sierras, on the one hand, or by the luxuriant vegetation of a 

 tropical swamp on the other. 



Moreover, there are certain kinds of scenery which experience 

 shows to be most satisfactory within a town park, which require an 

 extensive aggregation of their elements. It will be readily seen, for 

 instance, that if all the wood, water and turf, within a certain area of 

 ground, were distributed in patches, strips and pools, however ex- 

 tensive as a whole, and however varied in detail it might seem to 

 those who should thoroughly explore all its parts, there would be 

 no part which would not seem confined; there could be no large open 

 single scene, and no such impression or effect on the mind would be 

 produced as there would be if all the water were collected in one 

 lake, all the trees in one grove, all the strips of grass in one broad 

 meadow. Such aggregations, and consequently the degree of the 

 impression intended to be produced by them, must be limited by 

 consideration for two other purposes : the purpose of variety and 

 interest, and the purpose to make all the scenery available to the 

 satisfaction of the public by ways of communication. Other limita- 

 tions upon the artistic purpose, again, are imposed by conditions of 

 soil and exposure, by rock and springs. How far each of these can 

 be overcome, as by blasting, draining, grading, screening, manuring 

 and other processes, has to be studied with care, and the artistic 

 purposes of the plan must be affected in every part and particular 

 by the conclusions arrived at. 



In the case before us, it is obvious that we should attempt 

 nothing which is incompatible with, or inappropriate to, compara- 

 tively slight variations of surface, and a climate of considerable rigor. 

 On the other hand, there are no protruding ledges of rock, no 

 swamps difficult of drainage, and there is no especial bleakness, or 

 danger to trees from violent winds, to be apprehended. It is under 

 similar conditions to these that we find in nature that class of scenery 



