190 Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society. 



Children reared in rural homes take their tirst object lessons from the 

 great book of nature. The love of the beautiful, which all possess in a greater 

 or less degree, is strengthened by association till it becomes a safeguard from 

 evil, and the grand incentives for labor which are constantly presented in 

 rural life create habits of industry, and young men and young women go 

 out from country homes fitted for usefulness in any vocation, and with a 

 love for the beautiful in nature so strong and so lasting that, in later years, they 

 turn from any and every calling to secure a home somewhere in the coun- 

 try. In all the hurry and worry of business life they sigh for the clover- 

 scented fields, the daisied slopes, the green hills and valleys of childhood, and 

 the accumulation ■, of years are expended to purchase a rural home, where 

 the evening of life can be passed among the beauties of nature. 



Besides the benefits of delightful surroundings to the young and the ex- 

 ample and incentive which a beautiful home presents to every beholder, the 

 pleasure of adorning and beautifying a place for ourselves and our loved 

 ones is beyond all computation. We do not appreciate as we ought, the fact 

 that if we choose, we can possess a portion of this beautiful earth ; our gov- 

 ernment is most generous. Somewhere in our vast country we can have, 

 almost for the asking, a purt of the footstool of God for our inheritance; Na- 

 ture is lavish with her gifts; we can select from her storehouse the best of 

 her treasures; we can surround ourselves and our children with excellence 

 and purity, with grand incentive and high example, and with all that can be 

 expressed in those thrilling words, the comforts of life; we can make our 

 homes lovely if we choose; we can shade them with trees, decorate them 

 with vines, and adorn them with flowers. Wherever we dwell nature has 

 something delightful for those who love her. The artist spends years of 

 labor upon a bit of canvass which is only a picture of some of nature's lovli- 

 ness. We who grow her beauties in field and garden can make a living 

 landscape, more glorious than an artist's picture, or a poet's dream. 



In writing of the rural homes of our land it must be remembered that we 

 tell you of the simplest of nature's beauties. 



It is folly to expect that the people of the country can attempt the care and 

 culture of the wonderful beauties of the greenhouse and conservatory. 



Hundreds of new homes are constantly sj^ringing up all over our land, 

 and it is a question for the owners to decide, whether these shall be all bleak, 

 and bare and desolate, with nothing to shelter or shade them, or shall they 

 be adorned with the beauties of nature till they become ornaments to the 

 landscape, a second Eden in which to dwell? For the new home on a West- 

 ern prairie, or among the forests of the Northwest, or here in the South, it 

 matters not where, so there is great love for the work, we will make some 

 prudent suggestions that can be safely followed and which will give the most 

 pleasure for the labor bestowed. 



Just here it must be remarked that it should not be expected that the en- 

 tire work of ornamenting the lawn and garden should be done by the male 

 members of the family. That would be an unequal division of the pleasures 



