417 
PARK AND ce:me.te:ivy 
Prof. L. H. Bailey, Professor of Horticulture at 
Cornell University, and author of the Cyclopedia of 
American Horticulture and many other works on this 
and allied subjects, says that “so far as the fine art 
and gardening sides of landscape work are concerned, 
it is a vocation eminently suited to women,” but doubts 
“whether they are likely to make a business success of 
it in competition with men.” 
It seems not amiss to here allude to the opinion of 
the lamented editor of Garden and Forest during the 
ten years of its existence, whose judgment and 
taste made it the authority on all branches of horti- 
culture which it continues to be. He said, apropos of 
the scarcity of men of the right temperament and 
training : “A class of practitioners may be advantage- 
ously developed who, while not being landscape gar- 
deners in the broadest sense, may yet do much to re- 
deem country and suburban places from the common- 
place look that too many of them now wear. This 
work may well be done by women. Those whose nat- 
ural tastes induce them to take it up, should prepare 
themselves for the work by taking such landscape 
gardening courses as offer, or by study with practic- 
ing professionals, and after undertaking work alone, 
should cling to the best traditions and methods of the 
profession. Let it be said that the relation of the land- 
scape gardener to his client should be strictly profes- 
sional ; that he should place his talent, training and ex- 
perience at the service of his client and have no busi- 
ness obligations to others. I meati that the profes- 
sional landscape gardener cannot afford to indulge in 
any side issues. He or she should be known to accept 
no commissions and to be free to buy materials to 
the best advantage.” 
It certainly would seem that there is room in every 
community for at least one woman of taste and train- 
ing to secure in this work an assured position, to gain 
recognition from men of standing in the profession. 
and, in time, to earn a fair income. It is work that 
sadly needs doing. Natural beauty is everywhere be- 
ing irreparably defaced and destroyed, and is often 
replaced by expensive artificial ugliness because there 
is no one on the ground to recognize and save the one 
or to protest intelligently against the other. Now, 
when Outdoor Art seems at last to be coming into its 
own, is a good time for women to seriously consider 
the profession of landscape gardening as a medium 
for the expression of that creative faculty which is 
the strong factor of the artistic temperament. 
A Springfield (Mass.) publication gives an account 
of an improvement society composed entirely of wom- 
en that was organized three years ago in a Vermont 
town, but neglects to name the place. After organ- 
ization, the women went to work to earn money with 
which to carry out certain needed improvements. 
They are credited with giving sociables, entertainments 
of different kinds, town meeting dinners, etc., “any- 
thing to get money.” One of them says : ’ “We 
worked hard, and the men patronized us very well, 
but made fun of us. Now we have a mile of nice 
gravel walk, nearly equal to concrete, have relaid a 
fourth of a mile of old stone walk, at an expense of 
about $250, and have $25 in the treasury. The men 
make no more fun of us, and are ready to do what 
they can to help the Ladies’ Vermont Improvement 
Society. We have a regular business meeting once a 
month and an annual meeting for the election of of- 
ficers.” 
One would like to be able to give these energetic 
women credit specifically, for they deserve it. 
The “Village Improvement Association,” of Sau- 
gerties, N. Y., is making arrangements to erect a 
fountain, and would like to have catalogues showing 
designs and prices. Communications should be ad- 
dressed to W. F. Reber, Secretary. 
Frances Copley Seavey. 
The Revival of Geometric Landscape Gardening. 
What has landscape gardening done that it should 
bend its lofty purpose to the caprice of fashion ? Do 
the supposed high and ennobling titles of “Landscape 
Architect” or “Landscape Engineer” need such a di- 
version? If this be so, many a good landscape gar- 
dener will be glad he never got over being a gardener. 
If landscape gardening, as Downing declares, be- 
longs to the fine arts, it must not take a step back- 
ward ; for it seems to me that those landscape archi- 
tects or engineers, who desire to follow the pure geom- 
etric model or its mosaic French, or its more pleasing 
Italian artificial style, have missed their vocation ; they 
ought to have followed the trade of carpet-weaving or 
paper-hanging. 
Modified gardening as it is used in California in 
connection with architecture ought to satisfy the art- 
istic feeling even if it does not come up to the stand- 
ard of artificiality. We have the wall paper and even 
the carpet designs, but fortunately the cost of labor 
prohibits this kind of gardening to some extent, ex- 
cept where Coolie labor can be employed. The China- 
man outstrips the Caucasian gardener in the geo- 
metric form of gardening, at least so far as the exact 
work of labor is concerned, and his designs in this 
style are not generally inferior. Thus Chinamen have 
found at last one “fine art wherein they are equals.” 
For music and painting they do not seem to have ad- 
vanced so far. George F. Pentecost, Jr., quotes Rus- 
kin in an article in the Agricultural Record : “The 
punishment which all the laws of design render inev- 
itable, is that those who thus pursue nature will wholly 
lose sight of art.” He means that the landscape 
