80 BOAllD OP AGRICULTURE. 



it on your hands with all the responsibilities to work it out — each 

 one for himself. 



If I have my plans for the renovation of my house, to include 

 the modern improvements ; if I have determined on what trees to 

 set upon my place for shelter, for timber growth, for their effect 

 on the landscape, or for their fruits ; if I have a hundred things to 

 add to my surroundings to contribute to my comfort, and to add 

 to your enjoyment when you visit me, and if I have a clear compre- 

 hension of the time and the manner to do it all, they ai-e all mat- 

 ters applicable to my place alone. If I study my place and 

 succeed in making it endurable, what I have learned is not appli- 

 cable to your individual cases, only in a general way, even if I 

 had the faculty and the will to impart to you all the knowledge I 

 may have thus gained. There must be a plan — a conception, and 

 an execution for each home, and there are a great many links or 

 steps between the two. While these homes are taking form and 

 comeliness and substance under your hands, your best capital is a 

 boundless love for the thing. This is particularly true when you 

 deal with the vegetable kingdom. It is wonderful how much may 

 be done with trees on no capital but a little time, with the taste 

 and the love. 



The humblest farmer may venture in some things, in which his 

 wife may join, with no fears that they may go out of fashion. He 

 may invest in trees, in flowers, and green turf, and may spend 

 around his home with such grace, such affluence, such economy of 

 labor, such unity of design, as shall enchain regard, and ripen the 

 instincts of his children to a finer sense of the bounties they enjoy. 

 We have here a great class of small landholders, who control the 

 most of our rural landscape, and the fashioning of our wayside 

 homes; "and when they shall take pride, as a body, in giving 

 grace to these homiCS, the country Avill have taken a long step for- 

 ward in the refinements of civilization." 



I have aimed to read a practical lesson, with a purpose deeper 

 and more substantial than the amusement of the current hour ; 

 and before leaving the platform, desire to make sure that my raft 

 is well launched in the right current. 



The suggestion has often been thrown out in tlie sessions of the 

 Board of Agriculture and elsewhere, encouraging agricultural 

 societies to offer premiums on home improvements. The Cumber- 

 land County Society once set a good practical example by carry- 

 ing on for a time a plan of this kind, which resulted in much good. 



