TRANSACTIONS OF CiALESBLRG IIORTICULTLRAL SOCIETY. 301 



along our streets. A few thrifty trees or plants well cared for answer the 

 demands of home ornamentation. Almost any tree or shrub, grown where 

 it has plenty of light and air, is a beautiful object. Think of a yard des- 

 titute of grass and trees, with the accumulated debris of years, in the 

 shape of old tin pans, boilers, oyster cans, paper from the walls, straw, 

 chips, bits of coal, barrel hoops, etc., scattered everywhere, and you have 

 a place (hardly a home) without adornment. Compare such a picture 

 with what you may see by looking out of these windows, and imagine, if 

 you can, the difference of results in respect to the cultivation of taste and 

 love of the beautiful. One home tastefully ornamented elevates the 

 standard of taste in the whole neighborhood. Barn yards, chicken coops, 

 wood piles, will be banished from the front and sides of the house to the 

 rear, and concealed by hedges or fences, and some attempts at improve- 

 ntentwill be apparent even with the most busy and practical. Once in a 

 while we see ornamentation overdone. A small yard, for example, is 

 cut up into a great many little flower-beds, and great masses of petunias, 

 poppies or hollyhocks grow without order or arrangement everywhere. 

 The stumps of defunct trees are capped with old stove bottoms, tin pans, 

 or wornout chopping bowls, in which grow a few withering, stunted starv- 

 lings of plants; a walk of coal cinders, gravel, grass, plantain and weeds 

 leads through this scene of deformity into a house whose walls are covered 

 with pictures made of corn and beans and pumpkin seeds framed in rustic 

 style. Everything is so rustic that rusticity itself is made to blush at the 

 caricature. But, even these mistakes are better than that cold, calculative 

 spirit which never spends a cent to gratify the love of the beautiful. 



Mr. Hale said : I do not care to say very much on the subject this 

 evening, but I do not think the right thing has been said yet, and, as the 

 record now stands, a very erroneous impression will be created. Home 

 adornment is not expensive; it is cheap, and any one may gratify their 

 taste to a very satisfactory degree, if they will try, but they must begin 

 at the foundation. The basis of home adornment is neatness ; without 

 this, you cannot accomplish anything, no matter how much money you 

 expend. It requires clean culture. It will not do to let the grass grow 

 in the corners and in ugly, uneven-looking spots about the yards. It 

 should be cut smoothly, and at the same time not be allowed to grow 

 until the horse gets hungry. Don't let the limbs of your trees drag on 

 the ground, making it impossible to get around so as to cut the grass, but 

 trim them up and cut the grass neatly under them, and you will add 

 greatly to the appearance of your homes. The greatest trouble is, people 

 try to do too much. Capt. Fuller has too much ground; Mr. Dieterich 

 has too much ground ; Knox College has too much ground. If Knox 

 College would sell off all the ground not needed for college purposes, and 

 then fit up the remainder in a style dictated by good taste, it would be a 



