September, 1907 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 351 



Something Concerning Driveways 



By George H. Miller 



OADMAKING is commonly supposed to be 

 the work of the engineer. It is because of 

 that supposition that so many of our drives 

 and roadways in parks and private places 

 permanent eyesores to the traversers 



are 



and so unbecoming to their locations as to 

 render the best treatment of adjoining 

 grounds impossible. The temperament of the successful 

 engineer is not the esthetic temperament. So before settling 

 upon the location of a drive because it is the shortest or per- 

 haps by a trifle the most economic, we should stop and con- 

 sider the very many things which will affect and be affected 

 by it, and which may eventually make it the longest, meanest 

 and most extravagant. Since every piece of property offers 

 new opportunities and problems to be solved, it would be 

 impossible to lay down any set of rules concerning the rela- 

 tion of a drive to the general division of the parts; yet there 

 are a few facts concerning treatments that certainly should 

 be suggestive to those who have the subject before them. 



If a road is straight and of some length it should be 

 edged with an avenue of trees with the lines converging into 

 some object of substantial interest. An avenue perspective 

 is very fascinating with the distances diminishing between the 

 tree trunks and the lights and shadows playing on the cool 

 ground. The small, round-headed trees have a formal effect 

 in both shape and shadow, but the taller, graceful, arching 

 elms lend the rarest dignity and airy shade. One method 

 is to plant the elm type on one side to admit the air and the 

 maple on the other to furnish shade, but this arrangement 

 gives a one-sided and hardly justifiable appearance. A double 

 row on each side is more effective. For instance, a row of 

 gingkos in front of a denser foliaged tree makes an attrac- 



Adapt the Drive to the Landscape, Not the Landscape to the Drive 



The Carriage Drive Should Approach the House Parallel with the Front 



tive avenue, though very formal and perhaps with a weak- 

 ened shade. Never should a pyramidal tree be overarched 

 with the branches of one like the elm, but the well colored 

 foliage of a small deciduous tree is quite effective in front 

 of the darker, stronger green of the taller pointed ever- 

 greens. Always retain a single variety in a single row rather 



than introduce different colors, 

 thereby lessening the dignity. 



An avenue should be plain, 

 stately, symmetrical and clean. Oc- 

 casionally a formal curved road is 

 edged with evenly spaced trees to 

 carry out a more important feature, 

 on which its regularity is based, but 

 the trees on the outer edge will 

 surely have a foreshortening and 

 cramping effect. The inside row 

 should be lost in a thickened group, 

 shutting off the discordant view of 

 the trunks beyond. 



But even though the shortest dis- 

 tance to a destination is by the 

 straight path, yet among the natur- 

 ally trodden paths and roads there 

 is seldom found a straight line. 

 While the avenue still retains its 

 ever-pleasing effects, the graceful 

 movement and diversified charm of 

 the irregular naturally curved drive 

 is superseding it in popularity. As 

 a rule the curved road should not 

 be treated with avenue planting, but 

 rather with naturalized grouping at 

 the sharper curves linked with spec- 

 imens on an open greensward, a 

 treatment lending change and free- 



