102 
Many a fine property has its roadways bounded on both sides 
by wide stretches of lawn alone, a method always beautiful, 
but wanting somewhat in color and warmth. A treeless 
roadway is seldom a thing of beauty, even when the eye is 
carried across a broad greened space to woods and trees in 
the distance. One can not do much in landscape decoration 
without trees and shrubbery; and after the grassed border 
the problem advances to the next stage of shrubbery treat- 
ment and trees. Here, as the illustrations show, there is the 
very widest latitude for individuality of effect. Trees of one 
kind, or lofty shrubs, may be planted in solid rows or spaced, 
with or without lower shrubbery between them. A great 
garland of rhododendrons may be swung beneath the forest 
trees if the roadway is fortunate enough to pass beneath the 
survivors of the primeval growth. Beds and borders of 
gaily blooming flowers may preempt the foreground, and 
constitute a veritable illuminated border until the brilliant 
picture is closed by a wooded growth some distance within. 
The real problem is one of design, and in quite the same 
sense as the design of the house. It means care and atten- 
tion. It means taste and ability to design. And it means, 
quite as much as anything, the utilization of natural condi- 
tions. It is true enough, in these days of large plantings, 
that whole trees can be transplanted at practically any period 
of growth; and not a few property owners will point, with 
quite justifiable pride, to beautifully wooded estates that at 
the beginning were treeless, plantless, barren wastes. All 
this is true enough, but one need not effect such wholesale 
transformation from the sheer love of change. Any con- 
siderable landscape work is an expensive undertaking, and 
the really fortunate owner is the one who has, within his 
estate, such natural beauties as lend themselves to further 
beautification. Certainly such a one is better off than he 
who must bring every tree and bush to his grounds, exactly 
as he has had transported every piece of iron and wood and 
stone and other material that has entered into the construc- 
tion of his dwelling. 
And he is especially fortunate when his border lines lend 
themselves to decorative treatment. ‘The first impression of 
a place is gained from without. External beauty must begin 
casnifhn sath a 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
March, 1909 
at the most external point. And this brings us back to the 
original proposition, that the external border must be sub- 
jected to artistic treatment, and that the relation of the home 
road to the public road must be effected in a beautiful and 
agreeable manner, in keeping with the landscape properties 
of the estate and consonant with the scale upon which it is 
planned and maintained. 
How this shall be done is not so important as the doing of 
something. ‘he question of posts and gateways, of arches, 
pillars and wails are matters to be determined by an intimate 
study of the particular problem involved. Each has a value 
of its own, each has its own work to do, and each does it in 
its own way. Ihe problem is one of fitness and beauty. Ifa 
definite emphasis is desired at the entrance—and a post or 
pier, a column or arch is a definite emphasis—it is useless to 
discuss these matters in the abstract, but only in their rela- 
tionship to the individual problem under consideration. And 
the aspect of beauty is quite of the same sort. It is not so 
much what shall be used, as how it is used. And over and 
above all other considerations, first and foremost the supreme 
test, the only thing to be considered, is the result good and 
beautiful? Does it answer the desired requirements of indi- 
viduality, fitness, beauty and utility? Is it the right thing 
in the right place? If these questions be answered in the 
afirmative there will be little fault found in the matter of 
cost. 
A final word on what each one shall do for his own place. 
It is well to remember that the solution adopted by others, 
no matter how successful or how beautiful it may be, may 
not answer at all for another problem which has a different 
environment, or which is developed under different condi- 
tions, or which calls, as it certainly will call, for special and 
individual treatment. ‘The illustrations here presented have 
each their own point of excellence and advantage, but these 
excellencies and advantages cannot be divorced from .the 
physical conditions under which they were developed. ‘This 
is the great crux of all landscape work. General advice fails 
utterly when applied to such matters, and it is only the indi- 
vidual study, the individual treatment, the individual solution 
that admits of success and actually obtains it. 
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A broad driveway gives stateliness to the entrance = 
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