68 TEANSACTIONS OP THE ILLINOIS 



very large pile of big yellow pumpkins. Perhaps that is the reason 

 why, upon reading this programme for the first time, the topic 

 ''Horticultural Adornment of Home" brought nothing to mind so 

 strongly as the long strings of pumpkins hung from the rafters of 

 my grandmother's kitchen. On further thought I remembered a 

 house, not a thousand miles from here, whose front yard was last 

 summer adorned with huge cabbages. Light dawned — horticul- 

 tural adornment then must be the kitchen garden in summer, and 

 the barrels of potatoes and turnips that grace the cellar walls in 

 winter. But, some one suggests trees and flowers, and I immediately 

 realize broad daylight on the subject, and look about for its revela- 

 tions. The first thing noticed is the " wind-break." In our western 

 climate nothing is so entirely indispensable as a good, long, high, 

 thick wind-break. Dwellers in towns are protected from wintry 

 blasts by the town itself, but country people must provide for them- 

 selves a shelter. 



Let me warn that young couple just now contemplating a home 

 of their own. Don't let any enthusiast persuade you to leave a wide 

 space for sunset views. It is wonderful how soon you will be con- 

 tent to let the sun set and the moon rise without your personal su- 

 pervision. But if you live in that home thirty-five or forty years, 

 each lengthening winter will teach you the chilling fact that the 

 wide space left for sunset views lets in an astonishing amount of 

 frost-laden, crack-finding wind. No home can be comfortable un- 

 less warm, hence let the wind-break be of the thickest pine and fir 

 trees, many rows deep. As the trees attain years, the lower 

 branches of the inside rows die, and may be cut away, leaving long 

 aisles of impenetrable shade, carpeted and roofed with fragrant piae 

 needles, where one may swing in a hammock, breathing in the 

 ''healing" Whittier says is in the pine. One may vary the monotony 

 of the pages of the book in hand by listening to the bird song at 

 his elbow, watching the bit of housekeeping going on overhead, or 

 by catching a bit of a nap to the lullaby of the wind in the branches. 

 With such protection on all windward sides of the house, we can safely 

 plant shade and ornamental trees. This, however, should be done 

 with a sparing hand, for one who plants a tree, watches its growth, 

 enjoys its shade, and eats of its fruit, can rarely be persuaded to cut 

 it down. You and I often see homes where moisture gathers on the 

 walls, the paper hangs in festoons, mould collects, and a musty at- 

 mosphere pervades every nook and cranny. Yet the " old folks" 

 charge it to the damp season. Never can they be persuaded that 

 their dear old trees are to blame. So, lest we fall into a like evil case, 

 let our trees be few and carefully placed. We may have shade from 

 groups of trees, where the children can play and the table be set for 

 occasional gala days ; but let them be so removed from the house 

 that the sun may bless its roof with purifying and health-giving 

 radiance all day long. Variety pleases the eye, and to this end ever- 



