PARK AND CEA\ETEF^Y 
13 
difficult to maintain an equal temperature in all 
parts of a long house. 
It is generally considered that 100 feet is the 
best length for plant houses. Two houses one of 
which can be kept at a higher temperature than 
the other are very desirable and for this reason it is 
better to build two 50 foot houses than one 100 foot 
house and the expense is not so very much greater 
as we have but 150 feet of wall instead of 200. 
They will also be found cheaper to heat. Unless 
absolutely neccessary it is not wise to build them 
less than 50 feet as the saving in cost is not propor- 
tionate to the loss of space. 
At the north end of the houses and attached to 
them, a shed must be built, generally extending 
the width of the houses and 10 to 12 feet wide. In 
this will be placed the heating apparatus, the pots, 
soil and tools, and the work of potting will be 
done here. A part of the shed can be partitioned 
off as an entrance room and the dirt dust and dis- 
agreeable features kept from the view of the 
visitors. 
A small lean to propagating house attached to 
the north side of the shed will be found a great 
convenience, though not essential. For two houses 
50 to TOO feet long, 6 or 8 feet by 15 or 20 feet 
will be sufficiently large for the propagating house. 
Chicago. Willis N. Rndd. 
( To he continued.) 
Rolling Country. 
All surfaces of land are either up the hill or 
down the furrow in a rolling country, unless indeed, 
as is sometimes the case, flat lands intervene. When 
such flat surfaces occur in the valleys they are com- 
monly wet, and should either be drained or flood- 
ed, the latter expedient is often advisable. 
Rolling country embraces a great portion of the 
earth’s surface, and is greatly diversified in charac- 
ter, not as much so as highland, for its contours are 
more rounded, but it is rich or sterile, wooded or 
grassy, well watered or desert, and sometimes even 
rocky. 
The rich woodlands and grass hills are mostly 
chosen for residence, and are most amenable to im- 
provement, but even desert lands may be made to 
yield to the gardener with water. 
Gently rolling hill sites are among the finest of the 
landscape gardener, who delights in such scenes, 
can be called upon to treat. Not infrequently they 
open upon extensive panoramas of mountain, plain, 
river and lake. In themselves they are often capable 
of the highest degree of culture and embellishment. 
They are commonly full of inhabitants, and it is rath- 
er an object to secure seclusion, than to invite such 
animation as would be desirable among mountains. 
They present all the desiderata of garden, park and 
farm. Their culture will therefore be higher than 
the mountain lands, and they will lack only in 
grandeur, solemnity, and perhaps picturesqueness. 
When the site is chosen for beauty, it will consist 
largely of the concave, and command as great a 
variety as possible. The human eye is naturally 
filled with delight when ranging over a hollow. It 
can take in all its expressions, all its sides, and a 
third more downwards than upwards from the hori- 
zontal line of sight. Frequently the vision may 
range over the upper surface of a woodland — a 
particularly pleasing sensation to those who have 
never before seen such a surface. 
In purchasing such sites it will often be found 
that the lumberman and the farmer have been 
there, and their operations have mostly been de- 
void of taste. They have been severely utili- 
tarian may be. Often they have been severely 
destructive, both of beauty and fertility. If the 
land has been cleared of every vestige of useful 
wood, the task of the gardener is simple and agree- 
able, for he can then perhaps find room to plant a 
full selection of all the series of trees, shrubs, and 
plants which are suitable to the climate. Generally 
however, sites are selected with more or less of 
woodland. The timber is but rarely useful, the 
trees are individually crowded, drawn and bare, 
as individuals they are failures, as groups they are 
frequently insipid and monotonous. They will of- 
ten require the nicest, and most discriminating 
treatment, they will need removing, thinning, and 
embellishing. Sometimes a site which is perfect in 
every other way, will be spoiled by a group of 
scrub woodland blocking the outlet to its choicest 
scenery. In such an event there should be no hesi- 
tancy; but a dynamite cartridge laid beneath each 
tree. Trees grow more rapidly than is often real- 
ized. Many of those also which have reputations 
for slowness are very fast growers. The English 
oak for instance will grow nearly as fast again here 
as in England, and if any piece of mixed woodland 
be examined, it will be found that the American 
oaks in their beautiful variety are among the lofti- 
est and fastest of hard woods, and they even over- 
take the maples in time. Opposite where I write 
all obtainable trees were planted forty years ago. 
Such as remain are now deemed old. 
It is one of the pleasant signs of the times that 
farms are being bought by people of culture and 
education — not so much for their profit, as for the 
superior beauty and salubrity of their sites. Chil- 
dren thrive upon the fresh milk and country air, and 
instruction and never ending interest may be pro- 
vided in the plantations, while they contribute to 
the embellishment and unification of the property. 
