150 
THB 
BAOK&EOTnro FOB LAWS. 
A good background is an essential feature 
to a perfect lawn. No matter how taste¬ 
fully the lawn proper is arranged and planted, 
it has a bleak, unprotected appearanee, when 
lacking a warm background of natural color. 
Wlien the vision can wander through and 
over the lawn, and to a wide expanse of 
earth and sky beyond, it gives one the im¬ 
pression of a tiny grass-plot or pla 5 ^-grouud, 
even if it be quite extensive and varied in 
arr.angement. If there be bright colors on 
the lawn, they cannot be brought out satis¬ 
factorily without an immediate background 
of agreeable ch.aracter. A landscape is like 
a painting: it must have a suitable back¬ 
ground in order to bring out clearl}’’ the 
beauties of color and design that are placed 
in the foreground. 
There is nothing more appropriate for this 
purpose than a bod}’- of rich, dark evergreens 
of good, generous size. A dwarfed, scrubby 
tree is of no use in such a place. It is sim¬ 
ply an aggravation to the eye, and does not 
in the least answer the pm-pose for which it 
was intended. IITiat is wanted is a thick 
belt or grove of evergreens that will attain 
a growth of at least 15 or 20 feet. It is not 
a matter of very grave importance, if the 
tops are irregular, and the forms of the trees 
a little varied. AVe all like to see a lawn 
kept well-trimmed and regular, while a back¬ 
ground of Nature's own handicraft cannot 
shock the most fastidious. 
There is nothing more attractive and sug¬ 
gestive of repose to the pleasure-seeker than 
a cosyconierof the I.a-4\ni, formed by a boun- 
dar}"grove of evergreens. AVhile itmay beso 
an-anged as not to shut off from the house 
desirable views into the surrounding coun¬ 
try, it serves at the same time to concen¬ 
trate the obsen'er's attention on the lawn, 
something as the hood of the stereosco])e 
concentrates the g.aze on the photograph 
under observation. 
Those who have not given the matter close 
obsen'.ation, can hardly imagine what a 
wartn, bright effect, flowering slirnljs i)ro- 
duce when viewed .against a Inickground of 
dark green. Tlie hannony of coior and con¬ 
trast is most beautifui and pleasing. It not 
only lends an additional charm to the lawn 
in summer, but preseives the gi-ounds from 
that bleak, deserted aspect, which winter 
usuaily brings. In fact, a very cheering ef¬ 
fect may be produced, even in midwinter, 
with the aid of such a background, l>y jjiant- 
ing in the lawn such shrubs as bear brighU;ol- 
ored berries that remain on all the winter. 
AVith good ta.ste and ingenuity, a jjleasing 
design of color may Ije produced in this way, 
to soften and enliven the monotonous aspect 
of winter. 
.Such a background as I have referred to 
may also be considered profitable in point of 
utility. It serves as a windln’cak for tlie 
whole premises, and especiiilly screens the 
small lawn-shnibs from the ti-ying winds. 
It prevents blowing and drifting of smnv, 
that so often proves fatal to lawns by leav¬ 
ing the grass roots exj) 08 cd to snn and frost 
alternately. A lawn surrounded or j)ur- 
tlally surrounded by a belt of cvci-green 
will start- 
that has an open, bleak ^ jiiculle, 
In many sections for 
and Northern States, evergreens sui.. ^ 
s nurposc may be taken directly from the 
pense than that of the 
work. Those who have not , 
trees in a wild state, can easily pi oui 
from the be.st nurseries .at 
If bought at the nur.sery, only 
rieties that h.ave been thoroughly 
should be selected. AAniere they 
massed together in this w.ay 
white Pine is as suitable as any. It is a 
rapid grower, and very hardy. Some of tlie 
Spruce are also quite hardy, and rather more 
attractive than the Pine. 
AA^ D. Boynton. 
tested, 
lire to be 
the common 
POETET IN TEEE-PLANTING. 
“I have written many verses,” s.aid Dr. 
Oliver AA^endell Holmes, “hut the poems I 
have produced are the trees I planted on the 
liill-side which overlooked the broad mead¬ 
ows, scalloped and rounded at their edges 
by loops of the sinuous Housatoiiic. Nature 
finds rhymes for tliem in the recurring meas¬ 
ures of the seasons; winter strips them of 
their ornaments and gives them, as it were, 
in prose translation, and summer rec.lotlies 
them in ail tlie splendid phrases of their 
leafy language. AA'liat are these Majiles and 
Beeches and Birches, but odes and idyls and 
madrigals? AVliat are these Pines and Firs 
and Spruces but holy hymns, too solemn for 
the many-hued raiment of their gay decidu¬ 
ous neighbors? 
“It is enough to linow that when we jilant 
a tree we are doing what we can to make our 
planet a more wholesome and a ha]ipicr 
dwelling-place, tor those who come after us, 
if not for ourselves. As you drop the. seed, 
as you plant tlie sapling, your left hand 
hardly knows wluit your riglit hand is doing. 
But Nature knows, and in duo time the 
Power that sees and work's in secret will re¬ 
ward yon openly. Ahm have been warned 
.against hiding your talent in a inqikin; but 
if your talent takes the sliape of a Alaple-key 
or an acorn, and your nai>kin is a slired of 
tlie api-on that covers ‘ the lap of eartli,’ yon 
may liide it there unblamed, and wlion yon 
render in your account yon will find that 
youi dejiosii. has been drawing <’om|)ound 
intei’cst all tbe time.'’ 
I take as much pleasure in seeing and gath¬ 
ering them, as do the children themselves, 
to whom they are a constant sm-prise. and 
pleasure. They make D.andelion chains, and 
Daisy and Clover necldaces, "Fiolet mats, 
and Burdock ornaments; gather wild Straw¬ 
berries, and have a general good time in the 
not over-tall or rank grass, which they can 
wander in at will to pick the treasures which 
they so much prize. 
The whole plot is out of sight, in one 
sense, but yet is very ne.ar the home, and 
after being mowed, is cliosen as a play- 
o-round for croquet, ball, hoop, and other 
”amcs, as the surface is quite smooth and 
fevel. I do not know of another such a bit 
of undisturbed mature in the midst of culti- 
v.atcd grounds on all sides; and although I 
could c.asily transform it into a model laum, 
or a proflt.able garden, still I do not regret 
its neglect, nor do I believe that this piece 
of ground could in any other way produce 
more genuine and piu’C enjoyment than it 
does in its natural wildness. 
W. H. Bull. 
lit 
A BIT OF NATUEE. 
Behind the great barn .and the grape-ar¬ 
bor, and lietwcen the lield-road and tlio ad¬ 
jacent cultivated land, there lies a tract of 
about 100 feet square which has not been 
plowed for 20 years or more. What " rass 
grows iqion it is taken oil' once a yenr 'in 
the month of .Inly, and being near the lil..- 
barn doors, the ehance to cultivate is md; 
good, from the constant going in and out 
some seasons of the year. 
This spot has become very aUraetive to 
he children. Here they gatlier tlie blue 
.yejiiglits, the yellow Dimdelioim, tlie Vio¬ 
lets, blue and white; tlie Bnttercniis and 
I als.es, the ltedandWI,ite(;love,r; tl.e wil 
Hti'iwberr.es, the Crane’s-bill ami Lobelia 
‘‘"‘ iMnumerable other wild ilowers. nVr s 
and mosses grow under the barn eaves , 
Golden-rod lu.d Daisies later In the se.’ison 
Iho variety Is so great and so pleasing, that 
THE NEW PARKS FOE NEW TOEK AND BOSTON. 
In “A Plea for Picturesque G.ardening,” 
Mr. Koger Priordan, in Outing for May, 
writes .as follows concerning the new parks 
for New York and Boston 
'There arc comparatively few disagree.able 
objects to be removed; and the fact that a 
view of the sea, in each case, enters into the 
scheme, adds immensely to these advan¬ 
tages. Nothing more is necessary, to begin 
witli, than the opening of a few additional 
roads and paths, the placing of a few seats, 
the. erection of a feiv shelters. AAHi.atever 
else may property be added should be a 
work of time,—.should be thoughtfully con¬ 
sidered, and slowly and carefully executed. 
Above all, no such mistake should be made 
as was recently committed in the Laying out 
of tlic Hiversidc park, in New York, where, 
with a fool's economy, grounds were passed 
liy that might have been added, and which, 
a few yeai-s ago, were more beautiful than 
any spot included, and the money which 
miglit buy them was spent, and is still be¬ 
ing spent, in wholly unnecessary grading 
and sodding and planting, or, rather, in )>ay- 
ing voters for iiretending to do such work. 
.Now, it is, I believe, proposed to pass by the 
grounds at High Bridge, the most desirable 
anywhere witliin 50 miles of New York. In 
another year or two they will, probably, be 
ruined licyond redemption by beer-gardens 
and groggerics; yet the only charge that 
they need ever be to the city would be the 
Ktal.ion'mg of a couple of policemen there. 
In the proposed now parks, it the artists 
conlil have their way, few changes would be 
made from the ])rcscnt dispo.sition of the 
soil. It is mostly pasture-land, with .small 
woods, plantations, streams, and ponds, and 
here and there some tillagiL Nothing can 
be more generally pleasing tliau scenes where 
fields, verdant with growing vegetables or 
corn, or red from the plow, alternate with 
rocks and woodland. No trimmed and deco¬ 
rated landscape can be more interesting. A 
denizen of a great city, wo may be sure, 
will more (mjoy the sight of a field of Tota- 
toes In blossom, than that of a holriunisc 
full of blooming Century-plants; and the 
hindseiipe-palnter, too, will lioartily agree 
Avlth the citizens’ love of nature. 
