Since the beauty of pleasure-ground, and the profit of a farm, are incompatible, it is the business of taste and prudence so to disguise the latter and to limit the former, that park scenery may be obtained without much waste or extravagance; but I disclaim all idea of making that which is most beautiful also most profitable: a ploughed field, and a field of grass, are as distinct objects as a flower-garden and a potato-ground. The difference between a farm and a park consists not only in the number of fences and subdivisions, but also in the management of the lines in which the fences of each should be conducted. The farmer, without any attention to the shape of the ground, puts his fences where they will divide the uplands from the meadows; and, in subdividing the ground, he aims only at square fields, and consequently straight lines, avoiding all angles or corners. This is the origin of planting those triangular recesses in a field surrounded by wood, which the farmer deems useless; but which, to the eye of taste, produce effects of light and shade.
