it-garden may flank the least frequented side of the house.
Neat and tasteful flower beds may lie beneath the windows of the rooms
appropriated to the leisure hours of the family, to which the smaller
varieties of shrubbery may be added, separated from the chief lawn, or
park, only by a wire fence, or a simple railing, such as not to cut up
and _checker_ its simple and dignified surface; and all these shut in on
the rear from the adjoining fields of the farm by belts of large
shrubbery closely planted, or the larger orchards, thus giving it a
style of its own, yet showing its connection with the pursuits of the
farm and its dependence upon it.

These various appointments, however, may be either carried out or
restricted, according to the requirements of the family occupying the
estate, and the prevailing local taste of the vicinity in which it is
situated; but no narrow or stingy spirit should be indicated in the
general plan or in its execution. Every appointment connected with it
should indicate a liberality of purpose in the founder, without which
its effect is painfully marred to the eye of the man of true taste and
judgment. Small yards, picketed in for small uses, have no business in
sight of the grounds in front, and all minor concerns should be thrown
into the rear, beyond observation from the main approach to the
dwelling. The trees that shade the entrance park, or lawn, should be
chiefly forest trees, as the oak, in its varieties, the elm, the maple,
the chestnut, walnut, butternut, hickory, or beech. If the soil be
favorable, a few weeping willows may throw their drooping spray around
the house; and if exotic, or foreign trees be permitted, they should
take their position in closer proximity to it than the natural forest
trees, as indicating the higher care and cultivation which attaches to
its presence. The Lombardy poplar, albeit a tree of disputed taste with
modern planters, we would now and then throw in, not in stiff and formal
rows, as guarding an avenue, but occasionally in the midst of a group of
others, above which it should rise like a church spire from amidst a
block of contiguous houses--a cheerful relief to the monotony of the
rounder-headed branches of the more spreading varieties. If a stream of
water meander the park, or spread into a little pond, trees which are
partial to moisture should shadow it at different points, and low, water
shrubs should hang over its border, or even run into its mar