75 
PARK AND CCrtETERY. 
less. They are especially dangerous when horses 
become frightened and shy to one side or run away. 
They prevent rainwater and melting snow from 
running off from the road surface and soaking in- 
to the ground on each side to the great benefit of 
trees and grass. With a brick or wooden pave- 
ment the curbing is necessary but it should be 
kept low, a projection of two inches above the 
adjacent surface being sufficient. 
Having, perhaps, spent enough time in crit- 
icism, let us consider what can be done to make a 
street attractive. We will assume that a pleasing 
variation in grade and proper drainage have been 
secured, and that, while the grade is an easy one, 
it has been placed so low as to do the least damage 
and be of greatest benefit to the property on 
each side. It is nearly always desirable to have 
residence lots somewhat higher than the street. 
The appearance is also improved by having the 
houses placed some distance back from the lot line. 
While it is by no means essential that all houses 
should be placed the same distance from the street 
line, it is a wise measure to have a line established 
in front of which no building can be erected. 
Houses can sometimes be built at various distances 
back of this line with good effect. When the grade 
is properly taken care of and the houses correctly 
placed, the planting can be commenced. Care 
should be taken not to plant in such a way as to 
keep sunlight out of the windows, and some open 
spaces along the street give to it a better appearance 
than it it would have in continuous shade. The 
planting of shrubs and vines about verandas and 
along the blank walls of buildings, will help to 
make them attractive and homelike, but this is a 
matter for individual taste. The street planting 
ought to be designed with a view to its effect as a 
whole. The United States is wonderfully rich in 
its variety of trees and shrubs, very few of which 
are unattractive or objectionable. A walk of a 
mile or two along a suburban or village street 
ought to show all the variety of tree growth, shrub- 
bery and hardy herbaceous plants that can be found 
in the surrounding country or in the best parks ex- 
clusive of their greenhouse and aquatic plants. 
The upper outline of the planting should drop here 
and there, showing an expanse of clouds or sky, a 
beautiful house or attractive grounds. This varia- 
tion can be made by using for the taller trees, elms, 
maples, oaks, beeches, lindens, tulip trees, honey 
locusts and many others. These should be placed 
in irregular groups, such an arrangement being far 
more pleasing than straight rows and the only 
arrangement which would admit of the selection of 
different species. Trees placed in a row should be 
of one kind, at least for one block, and as nearly 
alike as possible. For a smaller growth use June- 
berry, sassafras, red bud, the larger dogwoods, the 
various thorns, blue beech, ironwood, etc. These 
are all beautiful trees and will often shade a side- 
walk while allowing the'sunshine to reach the house. 
Then I would urge the use of a still smaller growth, 
such as witch hazel, sumachs, including rhus arom- 
atica, the smaller sized dogwoods with red bark, 
barberries, Japan quince, buckthorns, syringas, 
sweet briar, etc. These will hide, to some extent, 
the naked trunks of trees and give a soft, varied 
outline to the street view. They separate the side- 
walk from the driveway, giving an agreeable seclu- 
sion. They help to make a beautiful and interest- 
ing walk from the railway station or office to our 
homes at all seasons of the year — in spring and sum- 
mer, with the variety and freshness of their foliage 
and flowers, which are placed where they are most 
e^asily seen; in autumn, with their foliage and 
and fruits, and in winter, with the soft colors 
fine spray of their branches. Finally, I 
would recommend the use of hardy perennial 
herbaceous plants — -snowdrops, crocuses, hepati- 
cas, trilliums, lupins, golden rods, wild sunflow- 
ers, asters, etc. It will be said, of course, that 
these flowers as well as those of the shrubs will be 
picked and the plants destroyed. The same objec- 
tion was urged in regard to flowers in public parks, 
before these parks came into existence and proved 
that such fears were for the most part ground- 
less. To learn to enjoy a flower without picking it 
and to see or hear a bird without wishing to throw a 
stone at it, should be a part of every child’s edu- 
cation — yes and of every grown person’s too. At 
more or less rare intervals we go miles to enjoy the 
beauties of a park, and this is quite right and justi- 
fiable. But how much enjoyment would be added 
to our lives if we could have these beauties distrib- 
uted along the streets that lead to our dwell- 
ing places, where we would see them every 
day; and not to our lives only, but to those of 
strangers and visitors, who after seeing how 
attractive a public thoroughfare might be made, 
would perhaps imitate the example in their own 
neighborhood. 
The general public has not yet learned to 
appreciate what a very useful person a landscape 
gardener is. They fail to recognize the fact that 
by following his suggestions they save money, en- 
hance the value of their property, and, what is more 
important, add to the pleasure of living. The 
landscape gardener’s name does not appear 
on the city pay rolls, but the engineers has a hold 
on the public, and so I appeal to him to give more 
thought to the artistic side of his profession. If there 
are natural variations of surface, running brooks. 
