Newark post., 1913-03-05
LANDSCAPE GARDENING
DELAWARE COLLEGE EXPERIMENT STATION
By PROFESSOR C.. A. McC,u

rr+roIuction. In the few years that |
,o,e lived in this State, have noticed
-, increased interest in the adornmcnt of
,,rvotc grounds, streets, parks, etc. Many
hovo sol.ght to improve their premises by
,.,,r+ino trees, shrubs, flowers, etc. In
oA ra~.s the effort has been a decided
,myor and in many others a dis
Tvol failur,, from the standpoint Of art
uo,v Of .hrsc failures and sometimes
r,l;rrol> mistakes could have been avoid
al had the owners known "A few of the
tundamrrtaI principles of landscape
work.
Whi.,, 'ayjug no claim or pretention to
hainp Il landscape artist, | have thought
.bat rrrharu> it might he worth while to
rrosent f. the readers of The Post few
.bor+ articles upon the principles of out
door adormrnt with trees, shrubs, and
flowers.
LANDSCAPE GARDENING AS AN
ART.
We ronluouly think and speak of but
three fine arts,-Painting, Sculpture and
Arcbitcrturr; but we have a fourth which
demands aS great II creative power and
as great aesthetic feeling. In many ways
# we'll deserves to rank with Painting,
snlturc and Architecture and in some
uay, SuuaS~pS them. This art is Land
.rape Gardening: the art which creates
beautiful pictures on the surface of the
ground.
The creation Of beautiful compost
tion with a number of related parts is
what makes a fine art. The production
of beautiful isolated detail is not the
work of an artist but Of an artisan. There
must be combination of related parts
to make a beautiful whole in all
arts. He who grows plants for their in
dvidual beauty is but a horticulturist, he
who constructs roads is an engineer; but
the man who combines plants, roads,
paths and other details upon the surface
of the ground with the single aim of
beauty Of effect, is an artists and his
work is an art comparable to all other
fine arts.
One reason why landscape gardening is
commonly ignored as a fine art is found
in the approved style of garden. In the
.+y-1D ,f bn ict
effects of nature and tries to produce eff
fects which might have been produced by
nature herself. The better the result the
less likely it is to be recognized as the
handiwork Of man. The very perfection
Of the art Obscures its origin. The see
Ond reason is that landscape gardening
as an art is unstable in the character of
its results. When the plants and other
elements Of landscape composition are
arranged, nature and man still must work
long time together before the true pie
<.are appears. The third fact that pre-.
Vents popular recognition of landscape
art is the term with which we speak of it.
The work gardening originally meant
pleasure ground and gardening then had
an artistic sound; but now the gardener
SIMPLY grower Of plants. The title
landscape gardener was then coined, l.tt
this title too has been assumed by men
who have no right to it, and the word has
fallen into djsrepute. The term land
scape architect has been used someN hat
but at the present time the term land
%ape IS most commonly in use.
LandScaro art stands among the fine
arts with aIntIHg and sculpture in con
Fast to architecture in that the inspira-
uon Tor the art, and the models used,
rome directly from nature. This classi-
aoaflon, however, will perhaps nos ap
Ply to the moIorn imprcssionistic artist
=" sculptor IN some respects landscape
"F' stands ajoHo The painter depends
entirely upon color, his forms are iIu-