DEC. 24 
885 
THE RURAL WIW-YORKER. 
A ROCK GARDEN. 
SAMUEL PARSONS, JR. 
I need hardly ask the reader whether it has 
ever been his good fortune to light 071 stick a 
scene as heads these few remarks on the arti¬ 
ficial construction of natural scenery. It is 
sufficient to know that hardly any one not 
city-bred to an 
in con ceivable 
degree has fail- 
ed to come 
across similar 
nooks in the 
course of his 
Summer ram¬ 
bles. The fact 
that few real¬ 
ize, however, is 
that such 
quaint, broken 
landscapes can 
be made, out of 
whole cloth as 
it were, by pil¬ 
ing rocks and 
earthand plants 
together along 
a n otherwise 
uninterest i u g 
stream and hill¬ 
side. It is true 
we scarcely ov¬ 
ersee such work 
really executed 
even on lawns, 
much less i n 
back yards of 
farm - houses ; 
but there is no 
reason why, by 
a moderate ex¬ 
penditure o f 
money, such 
places should 
not often be 
thus ornament¬ 
ed. It is only 
necessary to 
learn the way 
nature tumbles 
rooks together, 
piles eartli in 
interstices, and 
sets out trees, 
shrubs and wild 
flowers over the 
whole. 
Work of this 
character has 
been done, 
though very 
seldom, in this 
country. Gardeners do not fail to give us 
ribbon borders of coleus and other bedding 
plants, but not wild gardens, and we all, for 
want of interest and originality, follow suit. 
Why it is I cannot Bay, but we seem wonder¬ 
fully tied down to conventional rules of gar¬ 
dening in America. Everybody does the same 
thing. We are so fertile and original in our 
devices in other ways that it is evident we 
must lack greatly in genuine love for garden¬ 
ing, or we could not rest satisfied with so much 
conventional work of this character. Nor con 
we find excuses in the non-existence of good 
instances of natural rock-work in America 
that the masses can reach and study, for ju.,t 
such nooks as we are uow considering have 
been made upon certain parks, both West and 
East, from entirely extraneous materials, and 
any one who will take the trouble and time 
can readily find out how the effect has been 
accomplished. But the expense of making 
such rocky nooks is, it will be said, too great 
for ordinary folks. Let it tie bo, though tiie 1 
expense is not really beyond the means of 
many owners of real estate in this country ; 
but how about the nooks throughout all lull 
countries, where the work is already n_>arly 
done by nature and only needs a little plant¬ 
ing, adjustment of rocks and turf, and a f.jw 
hidden paths to make the loveliest of r >ek 
gardens. Surely it is not right to neglect such 
opportunities. 
But let us study the parts of our picture in 
detail. Tho first thing we notice with pleas¬ 
ure is a copious stream; but thodush and play 
of its gliding and foaming waters are made 
particularly effective by tho rocks. These 
support, characterize and modulate it to such a 
degree that neither the picture nor the water¬ 
fall would be anything without the rocks under 
and on either side. This way and thut the 
rocks turn tho water, and beneath tho stress of 
their guidiug power the stream, like a Jiving 
thiug, dances and murmurs and surprises us 
in a thousand delightful ways. But if we ex¬ 
pect to succeed in putting these rocks together 
as we find them here, or as nature would pile 
them, it must bo no haphazard piling. If we 
would only discern the spirit and intention of 
the wo 1 k. we should find in full action definite 
principles of structure that must invariably 
govern the conformation of a similar, but 
really artificial mass. Tho rocks, we should 
find, have fallen chiefly from some one direc¬ 
tion, and always, evidently from above down¬ 
ward? ; or tiny show broad faces for the lich¬ 
ens on 1 mosses or the exquisite painting of 
time and weather to ornament. Like the de¬ 
tailed effect of the finest painting, no stone of 
the natural rock pile has fallen in its place with- 
0111 a definite dynamic as well as artistic reason. 
shrubbery stream down and dip into its flow¬ 
ing surface. The grasses, yuccas and wild 
flowers spring up alongside the rocks, the 
climbers creep over their surface and the en¬ 
tire grouping of sky and sky-line, bridge, 
waterfall, rocks, trees, shrubs, wild flowers 
and climbers fall in definite proportions into a 
charming artistic whole that nature beet 
knows how to create. We can only follow, 
not imitate, such natural features with any 
considerable degree of success, if we put aside 
conventional rules and study tho very spirit 
ROCK GARDENS.—(After the London Gardeners’ Chronicle.)—Fro. 554. 
But to get mere rocks together in this fash¬ 
ion would be of little more value after all than 
to collect the heaps of stones that deform 
prominent spots on many lawns with their 
chaotic and obtruding nakedness. To con¬ 
struct a natural piece of rock-work like that of 
the picture, it is necessary to unite turf and 
plants with the rocks in definite, artistic pro¬ 
portions, Of a natural, and therefore properly 
made, piece of rock-work at least two-thirds 
should be of turf and soil; and the molding of 
this turf and soil to the valleys and slopes of 
the rocks requires a feeling for the ways of 
nature that can only be obtained by the study 
of nature itself. Rules are useless. It is well 
to remember, too, for convenience of construc¬ 
tion, that the upper surface of the rock is all 
th it shows above the turf, and that conse¬ 
quently it matters little if the rock section de¬ 
scends no more than a few inches below the 
nr face, provided that it be well bed¬ 
ded The rustic bridge is perhaps the 
easiest feature of all to contrive. If we 
look at the plants we shall find them con- 
sistint of trees, shrubs and herbaceous 
plants or wild flowers. Notice bow they all, 
every one in its own way, play an equally im¬ 
portant part in the scene. First, the back¬ 
ground of large trees, oaks, maples, elms and 
chestnuts to individualize, emphasize and se¬ 
clude the seine; then the trees and shrubs, 
upper and lower growths, that should always 
in some degree go together, flanking and 
masking the extremes of the bridge on either 
side of the water-fall. The pleasant surprise 
of entering on a bridge iu this way is 
always peculiarly effective. Birches, aiders, 
spruces, hemlocks, cedars commingle in these 
t pots. 
An occasional single tree of similar kind 
strays down the hillside, sometimes partially 
bare and sometimes completely clothed at the 
base with shrubbery, elders, dwarf wiilowR, 
spincas and tho pieturesqne foliage of the su¬ 
mach. Broad spaces of turf and bold obtru¬ 
sion of rock surface extend throughout dotted 
with wild flowers. As we approach the edge 
of the main water in the foreground, tufts of 
wild grasses grow up and thick masses of 
of nature as displayed among rocks, water, 
trees, shrubbery and wild flowers. 
DIVERSIFIED HUSBANDRY. 
The Prairie, Park and Timber Belts of 
Central Minnesota. Their Promi¬ 
nent Commercial Center. 
MESSRS. HOLMES AND SWEKTLAND. 
[Special Correspondents of the Rural New-Yorker.] 
During the past three months we have 
written nearly a dozen letters for the many 
thousands of readers of the Rural, giving 
pen-pictures of the topography, information 
about the soil and climate, glimpses of the 
development, and statistics of crops, products, 
etc., in Northwestern Minnesota and North¬ 
eastern Dakota. The kindly admonition to 
deal with facts rather than fancies, and give 
figures as a substitute for the Action indulged 
in by many journalists in writing for the 
Eastern press, has been constantly in view 
and closely adhered to; and yet, as a legiti¬ 
mate result of our travels, we are impressed 
with the fact that Minnesota is in many re¬ 
spects the most attractive State in the Union; 
and doubtless many who have perused care¬ 
fully the correspondence referred to are simi¬ 
larly impressed, and the reading of this will 
obviate the necessity of recapitulation here. 
This letter briefly sketches the section of the 
State from the head of the Red River of the 
North, easterly to the Mississippi at Minneap¬ 
olis and St. Paul, a region near the geographi¬ 
cal center of the most densely populated part 
of the State. It includes a combination of 
the prairies, of the valley world-renowned 
for its wheat product; the park region dotted 
with groves, meadows and lakes, inviting the 
culture of cereals, root crops, and fruit, and 
affording every facility for stock-raising and 
dairy business; and the timber belt abounding 
iu lumber, ties and fuel, with numerous thrifty 
farms and herds, in tho good-sized openings 
and clearings with which it is interspersed. 
Here are combined beautiful topography, fer¬ 
tile soil, healthful climute, ample railway 
privileges, good schools, cultured society, and 
busy, prosperous towns. 
At the junction of the Otter Tail River 
with the Bois de Sioux, whose united cur¬ 
rents form the Red River of the North, on the 
line between Wilkin County, Minn., and Rich¬ 
land County, Dakota, are Breckinridge and 
Wahpeton; the former the county seat of 
Wilkin with semi-annual terms of court. The 
population last census was 321, now estimated 
at 500. A school building to cost 15,000 is in 
process of construction to supply graded 
school facilities, 
and the Con¬ 
gregational So - 
ciety will build 
a church edifice 
in the Spring. 
The Wilkin 
County Record, 
published week¬ 
ly, supplies the 
necessity of a 
local press, and 
would prove 
valuable in re¬ 
sponding to in¬ 
quiries. The A. 
F. & A. M. have 
a prosperous or¬ 
ganization ; and 
the hotels, 
stores, comely 
residences, 
grain eleva¬ 
tors, rich agri¬ 
cultural sur¬ 
roundings, and 
the advantage 
of being a di¬ 
vision point for 
terminal train 
service on the 
St. Paul, Min¬ 
neapolis and 
Manitoba Rail¬ 
way,which here 
has a round¬ 
house as well as 
machine shops, 
turn-table, etc., 
give assurance 
of growth and 
perman ency. 
Another road 
from Moorhead 
via McCauley- 
v. 'e son the ta¬ 
ins, 1 nd the Wa¬ 
de na Branch 
of the Norther a 
Pacific is assur¬ 
ed. The anni al 
grain market is 
about 150,000 
bushels. Lots range from *40 to $250 
each; and land iu the vicinity from $4 
to $25 per acre. We incidentally learned 
that upon three acres, IX mile from 
town, there were grown this year 000 bushels 
of potatoes, mar keted for $400. 
Wahpeton, the county seat of Richland 
county, Dakota, is one of those Western mar¬ 
vels which are occasionally, but rarely, seen in 
the new Northwest; its population in June, 1880, 
was 100; and the census which has just been 
completed again for election purposes, shows 
618. There are two churches, two newspa¬ 
pers, good schools, prosperous civic or¬ 
ganizations, ample banking and business 
capital, stores well stocked and busy, 
lumber yards, grain elevators, and rich 
agricultural surroundings. The commercial 
business during the past year apgregahd 
$o00.l)00, and 150,000 bushels of grain were 
marketed here. The St. P., M. A M. R. R., 
branching from Breckenridge, across tha 
river, really has its base for Dakota trade at 
Wahpeton, and the section of country to the 
northwest which it penetrates is very rich and 
productive, as also is almost the entire area of 
Richland County. Two other projected roads 
are coming to Wahpeton, of which we shall 
write more in detail next week, as the space 
we can devote here is entirely inadequate for 
un extended reriew of the interests of the town 
and county. There are many Eastern people 
here, and their aesthetic characteristics are 
finding expression in cozy residences and social 
and intellectual entertainments, as also in orna. 
menting the broad streets, planning for future 
lawus with trees, shrubs and flowers, and in 
many ways presenting special attractions fo 
the town. 
Walcott, 27 miles from Wahpeton, on the 
St. P., M. it M. R. R., with its 100 popula¬ 
tion, was platted only lust Spring by Mr. 
Frank E. Walcott. Nearly thirty buildings 
have since been erected on the site, most of 
them since J uly hist. The location is high 
and pretty, being near the Cheyenne, Wild 
Rice, and lied Rivers, all of which are bor¬ 
dered with timber. The place has a promi¬ 
nent, handsome hill to the northwest. Its 
gicwth is notable; there are four stores for 
general merchandise, besides one each for 
