August, 1906 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



105 



I speak charitably. The early land 

 clearer destroyed; the next genera- 

 tion also destroyed, so that it was 

 soon necessary to plant seedlings 

 in order to furnish the highways 

 with shade. To-day it is difficult 

 to find, in some sections of the 

 country, even a sufficient number 

 of seedlings. Hence the necessity 

 of nurseries. 



I watched a tree surgeon and 

 his men at work, in Ohio upon a 

 beautiful maple which hail been 

 sub)ected to decay by having the 

 central branch, or "leader," cut 

 out. The force of the wind had 

 rent the tree asunder, and the en- 

 tire trunk was in the far stages of 

 decay. The excavations had been 

 made, and it was interesting to 

 watch the process of filling with 

 the cement. Nature is kind in 

 healing her wounds. Next season 

 a new growth will start out from 

 under the old bark and in time 

 will unite over the cement, leaving 

 no visible trace of the skilled 

 surgery that has been practised. 

 There are many trees in the Mid- 

 dle West that have undergone scientific operations. The 

 virus has been removed until only the shell remained, an wherever 

 arched steel brace inserted inside the great cavity, and the plished in 



Splitting Means Decay 



new lease 



filling completed, when the great 

 silent forces of nature heal over 

 ghastly wounds, enabling the 

 beautiful growth to continue in 

 health for centuries. The work is 

 spreading rapidly, and a school <>| 

 horticulture and landscaping, 

 teaching the new methods and 

 training men for the work, has 

 been successfully started in the 

 West. 



All this means new work, new 

 impetus to tree life, and more and 

 better trees. Our people are 

 awakening more and more to the 

 fact that the growing of trees is 

 a difficult art, and that a tree once 

 destroyed can not be replaced. 

 The interest in reforestation 

 proves that this is realized. The 

 tree surgeon aims to help tree 

 life exactly as the human surgeon 

 aims to help human life. But he 

 does more for trees than the ordi- 

 nary arbiculturist, since he aims to 

 preserve trees, rather than to grow 

 them. 



This surely is noble work as 



well as useful. It means giving a 



of life to trees and maintaining nature's beauty 



it has fallen into decay. The work already accom- 



this direction is both helpful and encouraging. 



The Country Home and the Country Life 



jHE large country house built in a splendid 

 style, fitted with every possible convenience, 

 and furnished and maintained in keeping 

 with the resources of its owner, leaves noth- 

 ing wanting to the completeness of country 

 life. These houses have all the conveniences 

 and all the luxuries of the modern American hotel, which, 

 among all the buildings in the world, is of a type calculated 

 for such purposes and for nothing else. 



It is under such circumstances and because of them that the 

 country house has become the center of American country 

 life. The country house that may be briefly described as 

 good, need not be a large and costly edifice, although often 

 it is such; but it must be roomy and convenient; it must have 

 an ample water supply; it must be supplied with the most 

 advanced sanitary appliances; it must be capable of being 

 thoroughly warmed in the cool weather and thoroughly 

 adapted to winter use; it may have such special apparatus and 

 equipment as the needs of the owner or his means may 

 demand; it must, in short, be complete in every respect. 



Outside the house, but commensurate with it in complete- 

 ness, are many subsidiary buildings with which it is closely 

 allied. There will be a table and carriage house; there may 

 be a polo stable; it is possible there may be separate houses 

 for the men help; a dog kennel may be added; an automobile 

 garage; a hen house and chicken run; and a lodge for the 

 porter at the main entrance. If the house be located on an 

 extensive estate there will be a full line of farm buildings and 

 a corresponding increase in the number and variety of the 

 buildings. 



And the house of the owner is the center ot the whole. It 

 is because his house is so complete that he lives in the country; 

 fond of country life as he might be he could not tolerate it 



without a dwelling that satisfied his needs and his desires. It 

 is the conveniences of his house that most appeal to him, al- 

 though he may have instructed his architect to make it com- 

 paratively splendid in appearance. He has learned, in most 

 cases, of the value of a handsome house; but he appreciates 

 more thoroughly the value of a convenient house, of a house 

 thoroughly adapted to his own personal needs, reflecting his 

 personal tastes and his own personal pleasures in the country. 



The architects have in many instances risen to the solution 

 of this question, and splendid country house after splendid 

 country house, has risen within reachable distance of all our 

 great cities. The countryside near New York, Philadelphia. 

 Boston, Chicago and other great cities is thronged with fine 

 houses that owe their existence to the skill of the architect and 

 of the household engineer quite as much as to the addiction of 

 their owners to country life. The fondness for that life, and 

 appreciation of it, may have long existed, but the architect 

 with his modern house, built in a modern way and equipped 

 with the resources of the modern house builder's art, has 

 made country life both real and practical. The country house 

 is. in truth, a powerful instrument in the development of 

 country life and the real center of country living. 



No one, doubtless, lives in the country for the sole pleasure 

 of living in a great house; yet it is possible to have a much 

 more complete dwelling, one provided with more conven- 

 iences, one affording greater pleasure as a house, than any city 

 residence, even of the utmost sumptuousness, can do. It is 

 the general country joys that are drawing the people to the 

 countryside, but the country house is being developed in a 

 way that ministers to the delights of country living in a su- 

 preme manner. It is helping on the satisfaction in country 

 life as perhaps no other single cause is doing. And this is 

 the real value of the country home to country life. 



