62 



MANUAL OF GARDENING 



very considerable undulations may be left in the surface with 

 excellent effect. In lawns of this size, or even half this size, 

 it is rarely advisable to have them perfectly flat and level. 

 They should slope gradually away from the house; and when 

 the lawn is seventy-five feet or more in width, it may be sHghtly 

 crowning with good effect. A lawn should never be hollow, 

 — that is, lower in the center than at the borders, — and broad 

 lawns that are perfectly flat and level often appear to be hollow. 

 A slope of one foot in twenty or thirty is none too much for a 

 ple'asant grade in lawns of some extent. 



In small places, tKe grading may be done by the eye, unless 

 there are very particular conditions to meet. In large or 

 difficult areas, it is well to have the place contoured by instru- 

 ments. This is particularly desirable if the grading is to be 

 done on contract. A basal or datum line is estabhshed, above 

 or below which all surfaces are to be shaped at measured 

 distances. Even in small yards, such a datum line is desirable 

 for the best kind of work. 



The terrace. 



In places in which the natural slope is very perceptible, there 

 is a tendency to terrace the lawn for the purpose of making the 

 various parts or sections of it more or less level and plane. 

 In nearly all cases, however, a terrace in a main lawn is objec- 

 tionable. It cuts the lawn into tw^o or more portions, and 

 thereby makes it look smaller and spoils the effect of the picture. 

 A terrace always obtrudes a hard and rigid line, and fastens 

 the attention upon itself rather than upon the landscape. Ter- 

 races are also expensive to make and to keep in order; and a 

 shabby terrace is always distracting. 



When formal effects are desired, their success depends, how- 

 ever, very largely on the rigidity of the fines and the care with 

 which they are maintained. If a terrace is necessary, it should 

 be in the form of a retaining wall next the street, or else it 



