Art Out-of-Doors 
uals, no less than to preserve the beauty of 
the general effect of the scene ; and it must 
very often consist in larger part of the judi- 
cious cutting-out of individuals which are 
not only superfluous but detrimental. Yet 
the hardest task of an artist is to persuade 
an owner to cut down trees which were 
never intended long to remain. Generally 
it is harder still for an owner to persuade 
himself to sacrifice trees of his own plant- 
ing, even though, by his own confession, 
they might much better be out of the way. 
And when the owner is indefinitely multi- 
plied until he becomes a public, then in- 
deed the cause of the beneficent axe often 
seems well-nigh hopeless. 
Central Park, and Prospect Park in Brook- 
lyn, are merely examples of a condition of 
things which is common throughout the 
public pleasure-grounds of America. They 
need nothing to make them wholly admi- 
rable except that their trees should be 
thinned ; this they need in the most pitiful 
fashion ; yet never in the public’s sight is 
one tree cut, whether it be fine or ugly, 
alive or dead, that an outcry is not raised. 
302 
