FOR BUSINESS MEN. 
21 
the expenditures about a suburban home. All men, who are not 
either devoid of fine tastes, or miserly, desire to have as much 
beauty around them as they can pay for and maintain ; but few 
persons are familiar with the means which will gratify this desire 
with least strain on the purse. Two men of equal means, with 
similar houses and grounds to begin with, will often show most 
diverse results for their expenditures; one place soon becoming 
home-like, quiet, and elegant in its expression, and the other fussy, 
cluttered, and unsatisfactory. The latter has probably cost the 
most money; it may have the most trees, and the rarest flowers; 
more rustic work, and vases, and statuary; but the true effect of all 
is wanting. The difference between the two places is like that 
between the sketch of a trained artist, who has his work distinctly 
in his mind before attempting to represent it, and then sketches it 
in simple, clear outlines; and the untutored beginner, whose abun¬ 
dance of ideas are of so little service to him that he draws, and 
re-draws, and rubs out again, till it can hardly be told whether it is 
a horse or a cloud that is attempted. If the reader has any doubt 
of his own ability to arrange his home grounds with the least waste 
expenditure, he should ask some friend, whose good taste has been 
proved by trial, to commend him to some sensible and experienced 
designer of home-grounds. 
It may be set down as a fair approximation of the expense of 
good ground improvements, that they will require about one-tenth 
of the whole cost of the buildings. Premising that the erection of 
the dwelling generally precedes the principal expenses of beauti¬ 
fying the grounds, this amount will be required during the two 
years following the completion of the house. If the land must be 
cleared of rocks, or much graded, or should require an unusually 
thorough system of tile-drainage, that proportion might be insuffi¬ 
cient ; but if the ground to be improved is in good shape, well 
drained, rich, and furnished with trees, a very much smaller pro¬ 
portion might be enough; and almost the only needful expense, 
would be that which would procure the advice and direction of 
some judicious landscape gardener. As a good lawyer often best 
earns his retainer by advising against litigation, so a master of 
