Buildings and Yards. 



485 



and yards are well planned, there will be little mud in the yard. Roof 

 water must be carried away, the slopes properly made, the manure and 

 barn drainage taken care of. There is little excuse for a miry barnyard. 



4. The zuinter landscape 



A good part of the year in New York State is leafless. We are likely 

 to want to close our eyes to the out-of-doors when winter conies. Yet if 

 one is to be content in his time and place, he must be in sympathy with 

 the landscape the year round. It is essential, therefore, that we learn to 

 know the trees and the fields and the woods in winter. 



The winter aspect of trees is most interesting. The framework is all 

 revealed and the trees seem to be nearer to us than in summer, and they 

 will soon come to mean more to us. Trees differ remarkably in expression 

 when the tops are bare. How they differ is suggested by the photographs 

 that I have put in this Bulletin. Note the silhouette against the sky of a 

 maple as compared with an oak; of an elm as compared with a maple; of 

 a soft maple as compared with a hard maple. Follow out the curves and 

 crooks of the branches ; the method of branching and forking ; the kinds of 

 bark ; the dift'erences in the terminal spray ; the colors in trunk and twig. 



You will soon begin to observe the trees closely, and this will be the 

 beginning of interest in them. The well trained man fills his moments of 

 leisure with observation and reflection of one kind or another : as he rides 

 to town there is something to challenge his attention. It is well to plant 

 the home grounds with some reference to winter effects. I do not mean 

 merely the planting of evergreens 

 for protection, but the clumping to- 

 gether of red-twigged or yellow- 

 twigged or green-twigged bushes. 

 Even the weed stalks standing 

 above the snow may interest you. 

 We are likely to think of the 

 winter landscape as only black and 

 white, yet it shows a great variety 

 and depth of color. Yoii could not 

 paint it with black and white paint. 

 You would need to mix in much red 

 and other colors. By February the 

 color in twigs and buds may begin 

 to change : this, aside from the 

 lengthening days, is the first indica- 

 tion of spring. 



5. Making the la-wn and setting the plants 

 The first thing to be done in the actual making of a good yard is to 

 grade the surface to the desired contour. Then the permanent location of 



Fig. 



301. — The briishy part of a wild 

 plum, tree. 



