138 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



if the front door be in the centre facing the 

 street, the walk should approach it by as easy 

 curves as possible from one side, leaving the 

 ground in front unbroken. A curved walk, 

 however, is not only inconvenient, but obvious- 

 ly inconsistent, in a very limited space. 



Box, and all other kinds of edgings, to walks 

 that run through grass plots, are not only out 

 of place, but add greatly to the expense of 

 planting and keeping. Such things are only 

 appropriate in flower gardens, to mark the out- 

 lines of walks and beds. Hedges of privet, 

 red cedar or arbor vitse, are occasionally plant- 

 ed along the edges of walks, but are entirely 

 superfluous, and have a bad effect, unless to 

 screen a wagon road to out-buildings, or to se- 

 parate a front garden or lawn from the kitchen 

 garden, or such objects as it may be desirable 

 to conceal. Such hedges have also a very good 

 effect when placed immediately behind a low 

 open front fence, forming, in that case, a back 

 ground to the lawn, when viewed from the 

 dwelling. 



Planting, in most of our small gardens, is 

 carried to such an excess, as to convert them 

 into miniature forests. There must be the 

 universal row of horse chestnuts, or something 

 else, within the fence; and then the interior is 

 dotted over closely with all manner of shrubs 

 and plants. A corner is probably cut up into 

 something like a child's flower garden; small 

 beds filled with tall, straggling plants, lying 

 over the box edgings, covering the walks, and 

 giving to the whole a neglected and confused 

 appearance. Such management displays no 

 taste, and gives no satisfaction. 



We would discard these straight rows of 

 trees, and convert the whole surface into as 

 perfect a piece of lawn as could be made. This 

 we would embellish with a few, very few, ap- 

 propriate trees, mostly evergreens, having as 

 great a variety among them as possible, both 

 in regard to habit of growth and tint of foliage. 

 The smallest plot, managed on this principle, 

 may be made beautiful. A single tree, such 

 as a Norway spruce, a deodar cedar, a hemlock 

 spruce, or any other fine evergreen — or even a 

 deciduous tree, such as a magnolia, a tulip tree, 

 a linden, horse chestnut or mountain ash — 

 standing on a lawn, having ample space on all 

 sides to develop its fair, natural habits and 

 proportions, is always a beautiful object, and 

 cannot fail, though a common tree, to attract 

 attention and admiration; but plant three or 

 four, or half a dozen such trees where one 

 should be, or crowd up the one with urider- 

 shrubs and other objects, and you at once de- 

 stroy the character and expression of the tree, 

 and produce a confused mass that cannot fail 



to be disagreeable to every one whose taste has 

 been even slightly cultivated. 



Few people seem to appreciate fully the beau- 

 ty of a piece of lawn — a beauty which is at 

 once cheap and permanent. Most of us desire 

 to be economical; but what economy is there 

 in cutting up small gardens into walks, flower 

 borders and beds, and in planting them all over 

 with trees and plants ? These walks and bor- 

 ders need constant care, or they soon become 

 unsightly; they need a constant succession of 

 flowering plants to keep up a display. The 

 culture of flowers along borders and among 

 trees, is never successful or satisfactory. They 

 must have a place allotted to themselves, where 

 they can be tastefully grouped, and receive pro- 

 per attention. A very important point is the 

 selection of suitable trees for small gardens. 

 We very often see trees of the largest class 

 planted where there is no room for them, sim- 

 ply because such trees are planted in every 

 garden. The litte front gardens of street houses 

 in some of the English towns, delight every 

 one who sees them, by the appropriateness of 

 their arrangement and ornaments. 



A spot of bright green lawn, garnished with 

 two or three laurels or rhododendrons, and 

 some climbing roses or honey-suckles around 

 the windows, and these all glittering with high 

 polish, like a new coin from the mint — no cut- 

 ting up into all manner of misshaped beds and 

 borders, no entangled masses of trees and 

 plants. We hope this matter will be consi- 

 dered, for a reform is great needed. We shall 

 have more to say on the subject hereafter. 



THE GAME FOWL. 



We take the following interesting article 

 from a work lately published in England, en- 

 titled " The Poultry Book:" 



Game Folds as a Stock for Profit. — From 

 the numbers of game birds, of greater or less 

 purity of blood, that are seen in the farm-yards 

 of this country, it is evident that, in an econo- 

 mical point of view, they must be favorably 

 regarded by many who pay but little attention 

 to form and feather. Now, there is probably 

 a general acquiescence in the common idea of 

 the ever quarrelsome disposition and pugnacious 

 habits of this bird that greatly prejudices its 

 claim to the poultry yard ; but those who have 

 studied it most carefully will confirm our opi- 

 nion that, his' rule once recognized, the tho- 

 rough-bred game cock is not justly liable to 

 such objections. Competitors, it is* true, he 

 will not brook; but if, after the preliminary 

 trial of strength, precedence is allowed him, 

 (and few of other varieties will long contest 



