lots for sale for two or three years, well knowing that the increasing value of 
the property, will pay him a good interest on the investment. When a purcha- 
ser goes to look at the property, he finds that when his house is built, he has 
Instead of a naked house on a bare lot, a neat and beautiful home, with its 
beautiful trees and plants, which it would have taken him years to get around 
him. Many of our most active business men are also men of taste, and would 
be glad to improve and beautify their grounds, but they are so occupied with 
business that they have neither the time nor disposition to find out what they 
want, or how to lay out their grounds. 
To aid you in the work of ornamental planting, we offer a few hints. 
now TO PLANT. 
Flower gardens and gravelled wolks are beautiful, but expensive, and require 
constant labor to keep them in order. Grass and trees are always charming, 
and need but little care. In the laying out and planting of grounds, have re- 
gard to economy of labor. Let there be as few walks as possible ; cut your 
flower beds (not many) in the turf ; and don’t make the lawn a checker-board 
of trees and shrubs. Mass them on the boundary lines or in groups, leaving a 
broad expanse of green for the eye to rest on, and the mower to sweep freely 
over. If an unpleasant object is in sight, conceal it by planting free-growing 
trees ; if there is a pretty view, leave an opening. AVhile it is not well to have 
large trees near the house, there should be at least one by the sunny corner, for 
summer shade. Plant flowering shrubs and the smaller evergreens in circles 
and ovals, and twice as thick as they should stand when fully grown. This 
will make a show at once, and in two years or more you can take out one-half, 
leaving the rest to fill up the space, and obtaining a supply of finely rooted 
plants to set some where else. After planting, cut them back nearly to the 
ground, to induce the sending up of strong shoots. Keep the shrubs and trees 
cultivated, or mulched, the first two seasons, and then let the turf grow about 
them. Mow the grass frequently, except in mid-summer, and top-dress with 
fine manure, every fall or winter. 
Straggling growers, like the Forsythia and Pyrus Japonica, should bo re- 
peatedly pinched back or clipped during the growing season, to produce a close 
compact form. Weigelas and Deutzias should be pruned like Currants, leav- 
ing the strong 3'oung wood to flower. Altheas, and some of the Spireas which 
bloom on the new shoots, may be pruned back each year to the old wood. A 
very beautiful hedge can be made by intermingling different flowering shrubs 
and clipping according to the directions given below, or allowing them to grow 
naturallj'. 
All flowering slmibs are improved by taking them up every three or four 
years, and dividing the roots. 
For more extended directions see Downing’s “ Landscape Gardening,” and 
Mitchell’s “ Farm of Edgewood,” and “ Kural Studies.” 
