It may be a matter of surprise to many to learn how intimately the arts of design are united with those of construction, or rather the great use made of a draftsman's skill in developing a work of art, exhibiting its effect, and conveying to the most practical mind its most simple form of production. In architecture, machinery, etc., this is admitted, because the general education of popular taste enables us to understand how we can execute an idea on paper, and carry out a practical result in accordance with it; but when we come to a more intricate form of construction, and more particularly that which relates to landscape adornment, we fail, as a general thing, to recognize any principle of design on paper as applicable to the tasteful results we would like to produce. There evidently is a want of knowledge of the manner in which positive results are attainable in the various departments of art. We are too apt to suppose that there is but the one step from conception to execution; that the brain originates, cherishes, and perfects an idea which the same skilful hand at once executes, while in reality we overlook the intermediate links, which step by step lead on from the first original thought to the perfect result - a result as finished and thorough in model or plan as in the final execution.

Effects, position, color, form, etc., are all studied in advance, individually and collectively, the details arranged, and the impracticabilities discarded. And where a superior mind is to fix its impress, it has then the ability to direct the execution by inferior minds and hands of the artistic work it has perfected. The artist can convey his plan and his thoughts to others, to execute those mechanical details which belong to every work of art, and which carry it forward to receive those Michael Angelo trifles which make up that " perfection which is no trifle".

In no department of the refined and cultivated arts, and more particularly in the arts of construction, do we see the principles of design so completely ignored as in that of landscape gardening; it is perhaps in this country one of the most experimental of all the arts, and consequently one of the most expensive.

That we all have, or think we have, an intuitive idea how a country place should be laid out, can not but be generally admitted, and with the supreme] folly of supposing that every one's taste, whether professional, amateur, or otherwise, is wretched bad taste unless it coincides exactly with our own. There are so many ways of beautifying a landscape, each of which shall be entirely unlike the other, and comprise the same amount of good taste, that it is surprising why those of little or no taste seek to fortify themselves by condemning the taste of others. There are some, however, who are not shrewd enough to conceal all their weak points, even when they are not able to comprehend why landscape work in the process of construction differs so completely from the finished effects of the original design.

Perhaps there is no department of art that so much requires the aid of those principles that facilitate the comprehension and execution of work as that of landscape gardening, nor is there any art to which a system of working drawings is more thoroughly applicable. As a matter of economy and taste, it is more satisfactory to experiment with a pencil than with real objects; it is better to work out your plan on paper, accept or reject your gratuitous criticisms, study well your chess-board series of combinations, and then execute with a thorough understanding of the result. In no other manner can excellence be reached; we must know effects, beauties, cost, etc., in advance; and improvements of every class can just as well be studied in the abstract, and the plans for their execution be as thoroughly perfected for any form of landscape adornment, as they can be for any form that is cut from marble or delineated on canvas. There should be adopted an intelligent mode of conveying impressions from the mind that onginatcs, to the hand that constructs; and this medium between the artist and the mechanic or laboring man must be an expression of a well-studied plan, free from all mechanical impracticabilities, and so plain as not to admit of a misunderstanding.

The range of art is so extensive, and its applications so varied and beautiful, as to leave no question unanswered in this triumph of mind over matter. And those who wish to attain the direct road to success, combined with the minimum of expenditure, will do well to investigate its principles.