HOUSE AND GARDEN 
503 
The Voice of Reconstruction 
| June, 1913 _ 
though hardly fit for use seem yet too 
valuable to be thrown away. Such a 
building at once protects them from the 
weather and keeps them out of sight. 
Laying Out the Flower Garden 
HE initial step toward laying out a 
flower garden is to make up your 
mind not as to the kind that you want but 
the kind that you ought to have. Although 
this sounds heart-breaking, it is not so bad 
after all; it is only a matter of adjusting 
the mental attitude. 
Of course, the kind of garden that you 
ought to have is the one that is best in the 
■circumstances. In the first place, as has 
already been said, it should bear a rela¬ 
tionship to the house. This does not mean 
that a house wholly impossible, or only 
half-way bad, ought to have those qualities 
duplicated in the garden; nothing could be 
more senseless than that. It does mean 
that there should be a certain harmony, if 
not actual correspondence, of character. 
True, there might easily be the sort of 
planning that would so violate the garden 
as to shut it out completely from any pic¬ 
ture of the house. This would satisfy the 
passerby and your neighbor ; but how about 
you ? Do you not want to feel that there 
is a certain homogeneity of atmosphere? 
Well, you ought to if you do not. If the 
house is not right architecturally, strive to 
■conceal its defects by beginning the gar¬ 
den there, so to speak. Sometimes a single 
vine or a few shrubs or evergreens will 
•chasten architecture wonderfully, and at 
the same time serve to bridge the house 
with the garden. 
An Italian villa would better have an 
Italian garden, a Georgian house a formal 
design of the English type, a rambling 
farmhouse an old-fashioned layout of no 
set form, a house built on rocky ground a 
rock garden, and so on. This is speaking 
broadly; in actual practice, so far as the 
average place of moderate size is con¬ 
cerned, the idea is not so much a garden 
that is technically accurate for its class as 
one that in its lines, or some distinguish¬ 
ing feature, suggests that class. Nor, as 
has previously been said, is there any need 
of its going by this, that or the other 
name; it may have a dominant Italian note 
in the broad view, as seen with the house, 
but at close range reveal such a variety of 
adapted touches that it can be called only 
the garden. 
There is no occasion to fear that this 
limitation of plans will be a serious bar¬ 
rier to the expression of individual pref¬ 
erence ; the combinations that can be 
worked out are endless. The real lim¬ 
itations enter when decision must further 
depend on climate, soil, exposure to sun 
and wind and whether the house is occu¬ 
pied at all seasons, not to mention the mat¬ 
ter of time. All these things must be con¬ 
sidered, and considered well. 
Time, that is to say the amount of leis- 
When a flood sweeps over a vast 
area, desolating the cities and towns 
which lie in its course, the appeal 
for assistance gets a unanimous re¬ 
sponse from the whole country. 
With all commercial and social 
order wiped out, an afflicted com¬ 
munity is unable to do for itself. It 
must draw upon the resources of 
the nation of which it is a part. 
In such an emergency, the tele¬ 
phone gives its greatest service 
when it carries the voice of distress 
to the outside world, and the voice 
of the outside world back to those 
suffering. 
At the most critical time, the near¬ 
est telephone connected and work¬ 
ing in the Bell System affords instant 
communication with distant places. 
And always the Bell System, with 
its extensive resources and reserve 
means, is able to restore its service 
promptly, and in facilitating the 
work of rebuilding, performs one 
of its highest civic functions. 
American Telephone and Telegraph Company 
And Associated Companies 
Every Bell Telephone is the Cente jf the System 
f gl . 
A COUNTRY HOME OWNER once said: “If I 
were to build again, I would first plan for water; 
all I could get, at high pressure; then I would lay 
out my grounds, and build my house to suit.” 
All prospective home owners should find out how logical 
Corcoran Tank Towers are for the country home, and 
all present home owners should learn how simply and 
economically a Corcoran Tank Tower could be installed 
to supply their present home. 
X 
Let CORCORAN submit estimate of complete 
cost, including designing material and construction. 
A. J. CORCORAN, Inc., 17 John Street, New York, N.Y. 
In writing to advertisers please mention House & Garden. 
