Buildings and Yards. 



479 



u O O O O O O O O Q- <^ 



■) o o & a o G a a g c o o 



the direction in which there is much travel ; the surface should be smooth 

 enough to allow of easy mowing; the walks should connect the different 

 parts in the most direct and pleasant way; the drive, if any, should be 

 such that it is easy to drive over and keep clean ; there should be no 

 objects or plantings that require the expenditure of much time in tending. 

 Everything about the yard should be " in keeping " or in good taste : if 

 a farm yard, it should be simple and unpretentious ; it should be large 

 and generous; it should have a good turf; in some part of it there should 

 be shade and an attractive place in which to sit or lie in warm weather ; 

 it should look "natural," — that is, naturelike, free, country-like, devoid 

 of primp and oddity, harmonious. It should express a home-like feeling. 

 The last remark brings up the saddest part of farm life, — the fact 

 that so many places are not home-like. Here lies the very root of most 

 of the discontent \\\\\\ the farm in the minds of the young. One cannot 

 blame a youth for desiring not 

 to remain in an unattractive 

 place ; we should rather blame 

 him or think him lacking in 

 gumption and imagination, if 

 he desired to remain in such a 

 place. I can drive over 

 almost any farm road and find 

 places in which nobody would 

 care to live. It would be un- 

 necessary to enquire at the 

 house why the boys and girls 

 are leaving the farm. Alost 

 of these places are either bare 

 or untidy, usually both. I 

 often wonder how it is possible for some persons to keep their places so 

 bare of attractive vegetation. It would seem as if they must spend 

 more efifort in preventing trees and bushes from growing, than would 

 be required to plant and tend a grove or a shrubbery. Did you ever 

 notice how soon many of the abandoned houses come to be attractive 

 because of the trees and bushes that grow about them unmolested and 

 unscared ? 



Fig. 295. — Plan sliowing a house witJi orchard 

 at rear, mass-planting, at the left, open laivn 

 and curved drive leading toward the barn. - 



2. The picture in the landscape 



There are some farm premises of which you feel that you would like 

 a picture to hang on your walls. There are others of which you would 

 riot possess a picture even though it were offered you in a gilt frame. 

 Recall the places that you know, and see in which category they fall. 



