PARK AND CEMETERY. 
77 
result from diseases to which they are more subject 
as a class than natives. 
Primarily plants are used by a landscape design- 
er as a painter uses his pigments to secure certain 
landscape effects. He does not select a plant for a 
position because it is rare but because it gives just 
the shade of color, texture or outline to complete 
the ideal picture he has formed in his mind. Some 
of the secondary motives, such as the provision of 
screens, the covering of banks, etc., I have already 
referred to. Another secondary motive that can 
sometimes be provided so as not to interfere with 
the landscape effects is the provision of a collection 
of plants arranged approximately in botanical se- 
quence and grouped together by genera and families 
and designated by names and numbers in the 
grounds and on plans, and by corresponding num- 
bers placed on a list. In the bringing together 
of such a collection however, it is quite essen- 
tial that it should be restricted within certain 
clearly defined limits or it will become a menace to 
the beauty of the park. It may be that it would 
be a collection of the woody plants of the state sim- 
ilar to the one now established in Cherokee Park 
here in Louisville, or it may be a collection of 
woody plants ordinarily found in gardens, as is the 
case in Shawnee Park. In Iroquois Park, which is 
already a huge wild garden full of a great variety 
of trees, shrubs and herbs, it is proposed to add 
very extensively to the collection of native herba- 
ceous plants so that this part of the flora of the state 
will be fairly well represented. 
One who works out the details of a planting 
plan must have a thorough knowledge of plants 
that can be readily secured at a cost that will bring 
the plantations within the price fixed. Ordinarily 
plants are purchased by the wholesale in American 
nurseries at a cost which makes the use of them in 
very large quantities quite out of the question. If 
plants are to be used in such large numbers, say by 
the 100,000 as they ought to be to secure satisfac- 
tory results in park plantations, they can be secured 
to advantage abroad at very low prices, and of such 
plants some would be large and vigorous enough to 
be planted at once in their permanent places, while 
others must stand in nursery room for one or 
two years. Native plants can often be collected in 
some places to good advantage. This is however 
one of the most difficult undertakings to perform 
successfully that the park planter will have to do 
with, for it requires a large experience to know just 
where to secure plants in a satisfactory condition to 
be transplanted successfully. It is less difficult to 
transplant native herbaceous plants than it is trees 
or shrubs. They can be even moved if necessary 
in mid-summer, provided they are secured with a 
ball of earth. Very often immediate effects can be se- 
cured by trans-planting large shrubs and trees with 
a heavy ball of earth that could not be secured by 
other means. The best results are secured however 
in park planting by establishing a nursery in the very 
beginning of the work and growing the stock that is 
required to carry out the plan. If the planting can be 
anticipated for two or three years, a succession of 
plants can be grown in this way at a very much less 
costand in a much more satisfactory condition than if 
purchased nursery or collected -plants are depended 
upon. It is most important in park planting to have 
the soil thoroughly prepared by deep ploughing, 
sub-soiling, cross-ploughing, harrowing and fertiliz- 
ing, or in important cases, by trenching. Ordinar- 
ily a plow cannot be sunk deeper than six or eight 
inches, and a sub-soil plow will not go more than 
eight or ten inches into the ground. It should al- 
ways be the aim of the park-planters however, to 
have the ground thoroughly stirred to the depth of 
a foot or more, and to have the fertilizer turned as 
deep into the ground as possible. This applies 
particularly to large areas that can be prepared in 
this manner. Where individual trees are to be 
planted, it is hardly possible to give too good prep- 
aration. In the Arnold Arboretum the soil was 
excavated from a hole 20 feet or more in diameter 
and two to three feet deep, and these holes were 
filled with good soil before the trees were planted. 
In plantations I find that trees are very often 
planted too deep. Shrubs at about the right 
depth, herbaceous plants and bulbs too shallow. 
It is quite important too, to see that the soil is 
compacted thoroughly about the roots of plants. To 
accomplish this thoroughly the soil should be trod 
in place in thin layers, instead of after the hole is 
completely filled. 
Another important point in planting is to see 
that water does not stand in the hole. If the soil 
is in such a condition, either the whole field should 
be drained, or if this is not practicable the holes 
where the trees are to stand should be drained by 
having drain tiles run from them to proper outlets. 
It is the custom with many planters to trim back 
shrubs and trees severely at time of planting. Un- 
doubtedly this is sometimes necessary, but in most 
cases, especially with shrubs, it is quite unneces- 
sary. The theory is that the tops should be reduced 
to correspond with the reduction made in the roots 
by digging. The fact is nature provides for this, 
making a shorter growth and smaller leaves during 
the first season after transplanting. If it seems 
necessary to reduce the top, as it sometimes will 
be, it is much better to thin out whole branches 
without destroying the natural outline of the tree, 
rather than to chop off the ends of branches in such 
a manner as to leave stumps, which not only gives 
the tree a disfigured look, but later induces decay. 
The most beautiful trees are those produced 
by nature without any process of trimming. 
After plantations are well established they 
will require constant attention if the purpose of the 
designer is to be realized, for no part of his work is 
so subject to injury, and it is in this work that 
the most intelligent service and the longest tenure 
of office is required. 
