1 [t )MES NEAR TO NATURE 



333 



Vol 



ume 



V 



APRIL, 1913 



Number 12 



The Successful Improvement of an Old-time Farm, 



BY EDWARD F. BIGELOW, Arcadia: Sound Beach, Conn. 



HE essential point is in that 

 word, improvement. Im- 

 provement may be trans- 

 formation, but transforma- 

 tion is not always improve- 

 ment. To take an old. run- 

 down, well-grubbed farm 

 and make it picturesque and a thing' of 

 beauty, without destroying its identity 

 as a farm, is to create a masterpiece ol 

 art. Give a farm a good location, and 

 the owner plenty of money, and the 

 simplest thing in this world is to 

 transform that farm and others adjoin- 

 ing, bought by some one who seems 

 intent on syndicating all the farms in 

 the vicinity into one extensive estate. 

 But that is not improving the farm. It 

 is transforming the farm, and that may 

 be entirely different. One of the prin- 

 cipal charms of a farm is that it is a 

 farm, and not a collection of gorgeous 



acres. To improve anything is not so 

 simple matter as it may seem. There 

 is always the danger of transforming 

 it. Skill is needed to develop the de- 



THE APPROACH TO THE ORIGINAL OLD 

 FARM 



sirable qualities, without annihilating 

 the good qualities and the charm of 

 the original . 



TAKEN FROM THE MEMORY BOOK— AS IT WAS IN PRIMITIVE DAYS. 



Copyright 1913 by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Conn. 



