survey the great triumphs of landscape art in the Old World, the 



clearer it becomes to us that those who designed and built and planted 

 them worked with knowledge and in sympathetic understanding of 

 the natural surroundings and resources, the native flora of the region 

 and the trees and plants that could be grown in it successfully ; that 

 they were the very antithesis of paper performers, inspired by hazy 

 views derived from the perusal of seductive catalogues. 



I have an invincible belief in our need for the completest study of 

 past examples. I shall not rest until we have added a Fellowship 

 in Landscape Design to our American Academy in Rome. But I also 

 am sure that the men who are to do great work in this country — and 

 our vision hardly tells us yet how marvellous it may be — must 

 know, to their fingertips, what this country offers of trees and shrubs 

 and flowers and all growing things, and what may be done with them. 

 When they know this, and use their knowledge, we shall have Ameri- 

 can gardens. To acquire this knowledge under present conditions 

 is well-nigh impossible. The country is too vast ; its flora too scattered. 

 Even the most superb examples of wild growth are but stimulating 

 suggestions, not made available by opportunity for close study and by 

 certainty of what transplanting, cultivation, care and breeding will 

 accomplish. 



Your plan offers all this. If you succeed with it, I see all those 

 who would equip themselves with what their art demands of them 

 flocking to it from all quarters of the country. It would be a god- 

 send, not only to those who live in approximately similar regions — 

 there is none just like it — but to those others whose lives are cast in 

 far less interesting places, of dull, topography and limited flora. I 

 can think of no one thing that could be done in America, more greatly 

 to contribute to and to advance the art and the practice of American 

 landscape design. Good luck to you. 



, / ' Sincerely yours, 



(Signed) C. Grant LaFarge 



January 22, 19 14. 



