Show STUDENT LIFE tive necessity blit it need not be a whitewashed picket fence and the Conless conspicuous the better sidered as items in an art composition based on the natural plan nearly all fences are bad But there are great degrees of badness The great high among fences board fences which are occasionally used are positive eyesores These fences serve a purpose it is true They answer to a keen and urgent want in the ordinary heart that is to the desire for seclusion and privacy and the unmolested and unobserved enjoyment of his home surroundings But this seclusion ought to be worked out in a way more in harmony with naturalness Good well kept hedges are very much to be preferred and are often pleasing and most satisBy placing trees irregufactory larly here and there in front of them their straight severe lines be may agreeably broken Everything which is used in decorating the home must be appropriate bearing some relationship to it Propriety is a universal test Every object or group of objects must submit to it A zoological collection or a lot of dog kennels would have no business in a garden because they would be inappropriate to the surroundings although thev might be beautiful and inter- Sometimes csting in themselves we run across a display of deformed plants or trees Deformity and monstrosity seem to have a strange fascination for some minds home-owner- ’s 103 Such disfigurements are frequently seen in city gardens as though those plants had been chosen which offered the most blemishes The commonest thing of this sort is the little weeping tree the distortions of one variety are grafted on the top of some straight courageous stock for better show In looking in the yards as we pass along the street we are often struck with the idea that such and such a plant or tree or object was selected for its striking incongruities rather than for its special appropriateness There ought always to be a sense of fitness and relationship And to the whole arrangement there must be a quality of finish Both richness and polish will to a certain extent be the resitlt of keeping In garfinish means a number of dening In first the it place things requires the best specimens Everything used must be good of its kind The important masses and the minor groups must be good Individual objects trees or plants must be excellent in proportion to their prominence and importance If a single specimen stands in a conspicuous it cannot be permitted to place wear a decrepit untidy appearance Good care is necessary to keep trees thrifty and plants growing vigorously Crowded clumps must be thinned out lawns must be kept mowed The walks and drives must be kept graded smooth and free from weeds Buildings must be kept painted and repaired and all the buildings on the place must be |