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TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



a humble cottage, is painted a soft and quiet shade ; in the back ground are seen those 

 appendages to every -well regulated farm, the orchard and vegetable garden. While the 

 fruit garden, well stocked with the choicest peaches, pears, cherries, grapes and the vari- 

 ous small fruits occupies a prominent position. Belts and groves of trees are planted 

 about the buildings in such a way as to shield them from the scorching summers heat 

 and the cutting winter's storm. Shrubs and flowers adorn the yard, and a Wistaria or 

 Prairie Queen may be seen clinging to the wall or rambling over the porch. Enter the 

 house and you will find pictures upon the wall, books and papers on the table, and all 

 the evidences of a refined and cultivated family. 



Another presents a different spectacle ; it stands upon the open bleak prairie and to 

 save land is built near the road. To use an expression of Downing, there it stands, 

 white, glaring and ghostly as a pyramid of bones in the desert. Not a tree or shrub to 

 cast a grateful shade or relieve the monotony of the dreary landscape. It is inclosed 

 with a miserable apology for a fence, and the gates are in the last stage of dilapidation. 

 The yard contains a numerous collection of old wagons, sleds, plows, reapers and hay- 

 racks, old barrels, empty boxes, broken rails and piles of brush, while the family wood- 

 pile occupies the roadside immediately in front of the house. 



Enter into conversation with the proprietor and you will find that he does not believe 

 in book farming ; that he never reads the agricultural papers ; considers science as ap- 

 plied to agriculture a humbug, and agricultural and horticultural societies a wicked 

 waste of time and money. He sees no use in beauty, no good in trees and flowers, and 

 though he may have a comfortable investment in 7-30's and a satisfactory bank account, 

 yet he enjoys no recreation, indulges in no luxuries, and has no love for anything but the 

 almighty dollar. 



But, says one, I have not the necessary means or taste to carry out my ideas of iraproy- 

 ment. This is all wrong, and if farmers will only think of it they will find they possess 

 greater facilities for beautifying their houses than any other class. Go to work in the 

 leisure days of early spring, repair the fence and gates, fix up your house, gather up the 

 rubbish, go to the woods and carefully dig some maple3, walnuts and elms, and plant 

 them by the road side, and about your house. Then order from a reliable nurseryman 

 some of the most desirable evergreens, among which are the Norway Spruce, Scotch 

 Pine and Balsam Fir. But if you want a greater variety add Arbor Vita?, White and 

 Austrian Pine, Irish Juniper and Hemlock. Tou will also want a few of the hardy 

 shrubs, among which might be named, the Lilac, Syringa, Weigeila, Snowball, Spirea 

 and Fringe Tree. 



The man that has established an orchard and garden, and surrounded his home with 

 trees, has done much toward making it attractive ; but still he feels a want, he plants 

 flowers — and the picture is complete. The Quakers have a saying, that beauty is tempt- 

 ation, but there was peculiar force in the reply of the young Quakeress, when reproached 

 for loving so ardently the bright and beautiful things of earth : " God made the flow- 

 ers and the rainbow, surely He would not have painted them such brilliant tints or 

 created so much material beauty, if He had not intended that we should enjoy it." 

 May we not, therefore, assume that beauty is purity, and that the man who enjoys the 

 gorgeous colors of the rainbow, the soft and pleasing tints of the vernal flowers and 

 the gay plumage of the birds, stand higher in the scale of being than the man who 

 looks upon these beautiful illustrations in the book of nature with no emotions of 

 pleasure. 



