Semi-Formal Style.
—In what precedes much has been said about beautifying the highway by proper planting. Perhaps one of the nicest and most ornamental pieces of road is that with a single row of trees, uniformly set and of uniform size, down each side; the grass from the roadway out neatly clipped; and the edge of the roadway where it joins the ditch a distinct line parallel to the road center line. This is the geometrical or formal style fully carried out. Hard maples set, say, 75 feet apart will give satisfactory results. For long level stretches the Lombardy poplar will give a pleasing variety to the landscape. Careful attention to the small details of keeping the road surface well smoothed, the side lines straight and the grass and weeds mowed, will add wonderfully to the pleasure of traveling on any highway. It is not the intention to have the grass smoothed with a lawn mower—however, with the horse-drawn and motor driven mowers now available that would not be impossible, and the road would look all the better for such clipping—but to have it mowed two or three times a season to give the grass a chance to overcome ugly weeds. For this reason the side ditches should be as wide and shallow as possible in order that they might grow grass on their bottoms and the mowing be done with a machine.