A Country Place
Area 250 acres, composed as follows:
| Cultivated fields | 36.0 acres |
| Pasture | 35.4 ” |
| Garden | 3.4 ” |
| Orchard, golf-links, and tennis courts | 10.0 ” |
| Lawn and shrubbery near garden | 2.0 ” |
| House-grounds (lawn, shrubbery, perennials, ¹⁄₄ mile of road, complex design) | 4.0 ” |
| Cottage grounds (lawn and scattered trees) | 4.0 ” |
| Woodland, about | 150.0 ” |
Rate per year (average) = 25 acres per man.
APPENDIX B
More in detail, our ideas as to the Rhododendron Glade and the ends to be aimed at in its establishment are as follows, subject, of course, to modification by further conferences with Dr. Britton.
The scheme of planting would be such as to produce in a large general way and at all times the esthetic qualities of beauty and picturesqueness. The effect of hybrid rhododendrons or azaleas in variety at times of bloom could be gorgeously magnificent so that the beholder might be fairly carried away in his admiration.
At other times the display of bloom, while perhaps in equally large masses and equally effective in stirring the beholder, would be of a more delicate kind, such as is produced by the mountain laurel, which might be further enhanced by being combined with ferns, some of which, notably the gossamer fern (Dicksonia punctilobula), are at their most delicate stage of beauty when the laurel is in bloom. When not in bloom, there would be the beauty and interest of variety of form, of varying shades of green, of the play of light and shadow produced by the thoughtful disposition of the plants in masses and groups or as individual specimens. During the leafless season of deciduous plants there would be the pleasing contrasts between the greens and the bronzes of these evergreen ericaceous plants and the leafless branches and twigs of deciduous subjects.
Hybrid rhododendrons, Carolina rhododendrons, azaleas, lily-of-the-valley shrub, Japanese fetter-bush, Japanese bell-flower, would be some of the kinds occurring in large numbers, particularly over large areas on the slopes; and sorrel trees would rise above the general mass here and there. Combined with these would be such smaller growing plants as heath, heather, bearberry (effective cataracting over rocks), box huckleberry, lambkill. All of these would be distributed well up and down the slope, some of them even occurring sparingly on the floor of the valley.
The many ledges and little rocky declivities would be taken into account in planting so that these would not be unduly concealed, because they would be an important factor in the beauty and charm of the place and could be made to compose and contrast agreeably with the vegetation.
In passing it might be mentioned that Rhododendron maximum and Rhododendron catawbiense would not occur in this scheme except as a few plants of each merely to represent the species, because they have been used abundantly elsewhere in the Garden and because to make them effective scenically, they would have to be used in such large numbers as would seriously curtail other more important effects.