3l6 ILLINOIS STATE HOKTICULTUBAL SOCIETY. 



across the British Channel into France or Belgium, the surroundings of 

 the farmer's residence is on a palatial style in comparison to those of our 

 American farmers. The French and Belgian farmers take as much interest 

 in the cultivation of fruits, vegetables and flowers as they do in general 

 farming. When a friend comes to visit the French or Belgian farmer, 

 after a social time in the house an inspection of the vegetable and flower 

 garden is the next thing in order, then the stock, and so on. Now, why 

 can't we form ourselves into a committee of the whole and advise our 

 farmers to imitate the French and Belgian farmers. I think it would pay 

 to send Mr. Scofield among them as a kind of a missionary. He would 

 tell them how to plant, when to plant and what to plant for; and then if 

 we could send Mr. Hunt along he would tell them all about our first 

 parents and the garden of Eden and about the daisies and pansies and 

 the asters and the hollyhocks and all the other flowers our First Parents 

 used to grow ; and last, but not least, we could send Mr. Slade along and 

 he would tell them all about bees and drones and greenbacks. (Laughter.) 

 A great many farmers would say, I would like all this, but I am not a 

 landscape gardener and don't feel like employing one. To such let me 

 say, you do not need a landscape gardener; only lay the foundation right, 

 for it is just as easy to build on a good foundation as a poor one. 



Now let me give you a bit of information, if you would like to 

 follow my advice : first, subscribe for a good agricultural and a flori- 

 cultural journal ; when you are adding to your foundation, and if you 

 are in doubt about anything, drop the editor a few lines and ask his 

 advice, he will gladly give it to you ; if you are going to put up a new 

 house or put an addition on the old one, put in a south bay-window in 

 your sitting-room, so as your wife can have a few nice winter-flowering 

 plants, and in front of this window will be a nice place for a few flower 

 beds ; don't have the chickens and ducks and turkeys and geese keep- 

 ing guard around the house, like the Huns and Saracens ; your wife will 

 have enough to do besides attending to this feathered militia. Whenever 

 a grove of shade trees can be improvised to the northwest of the house, 

 this serves admirably for a wind-brake ; the orchard should be between 

 this grove and the house, and a fence should be run across between the 

 orchard and house, so as hogs and poultry could be turned loose in the 

 fall and spring months ; orchards should never be located in front of a 

 dwelling, the drive-way should commence from the highway, and should 

 run about an angle of forty-five degrees, with a graceful curve at both 

 ends, and this drive could be continued direct from the house to the 

 barn. Evergreens judiciously clumped around a farm house add very 

 much to appearances, but I do not like this belting all around, it looks 

 too artificial ; it should always be the endeavor of the artist to portray 

 nature ; the weary mind and love-sick heart delight to drink in nature's 

 fantastic grandeur — even Cupid can poise his arrow all the surer under 

 the overhanging branches of the sheltering trees; and in the shaded 

 nooks and sparkling dells the wounded heart delights to make professions 

 of love and receive tender caresses — and its significance need not be 

 repeated. 



