178 STATE BOAKD OF AGEICULTUEE. 



the whole family in order to accomplish what is most desirable, viz. : congruity 

 of parts. To illustrate, a place I now have in mind, and no imaginary one 

 either, has a delightful frontage ; the lawn is smooth and green, the evergreens 

 tastefully grouped, climbers are delicately turned about the verandah posts, and 

 flower beds just at one side, neatly kept, give an air of loveliness to the whole 

 yard. But every day as I pass the place, when just beyond the yard fence, I 

 cannot help but catch a view of the lane which leads to the barns. It is filled 

 with an aggregation of indescribable odds and ends, such as could accumulate 

 nowhere but on a farm, with a generation for time. At best it is a muddy, 

 filthy, slovenly, ill-kept alley. We lose all the effect of the beautiful yard in 

 that lane, and the loathsomeness, rather than the preceding beauty, haunts us. 

 The story is told when Ave say that the mother and children have charge of the 

 first part of the home surroundings, while the head of the family believes in 

 having everything handy on the farm. But unity of action must move in the 

 right direction, for I know another farm where the man and wife, and for that 

 matter the whole family, are actuated by the desire to have everything handy, 

 and everything upon tlie place bears the impress of a total lack of taste or order. 

 They spend enough money in trees, plants, trellises, and ornaments, but some- 

 how each new one adds another to a most unfortunate combination. I will 

 particularize a little in my hints, and first touch liglitly upon 



The House. ■ - 



I am not a house builder, and do not purpose to give instructions in any of 

 the details, but just mention a few points that come within my province. 



Although the house is the main thing upon the farm to which every thing 

 else should be tributary, still it should not be so grand or elaborate as to be out 

 of character with the surroundings. If one has only money enougli to build a 

 large house, and its connections must await a season of greater prosperity, it is 

 far better to build smaller and start everything at once. ]S"othing looks more 

 out of place than a great, glaring house with no appropriate accompaniments. 



I have seen an old, weather-brown house so relieved by climbers and plants 

 as to be really beautiful, and because one lives in such a house is no e?vcuse for 

 not exercising taste in landscape gardening. 



The first thing to consider in building a house is to have it so arranged that 

 the living-room will be the most beautifully located of all. Our finest views 

 should be from the windows where we do the most of our looking, and we 

 should avoid the plan of having a large house and then living entirely in the 

 back kitchen, the view from which commands simply the wood-pile, the drain, 

 and the clothes yard. The house that is most in keeping with the farmer's 

 business is a quiet, unostentatious, home-like building, devoid of all appearance 

 of showiness and fancy paint or moulding. The farm-house is close to nature 

 and should accord somewdiat with the trees, the turf, the rolling ground, and 

 the flowers. There is true refinement in modesty, and a wonderful lack of it 

 in glaring gaudiness. The farmer can choose a far better way to exhibit to the 

 world his prosperity, — if he so desires, — than in flaunting it abroad through a 

 great house covered with "gingerbread and flumadiddles." 



Quite an important element in the building of your houses is such an arrange- 

 ment of the exterior tliat it may be an index to the interior ; this to guide the 

 stranger at his approach that he may enter properly. Only the other day I was 

 reminded of the propriety of this ; for, upon entering a yard, I brought my 

 best judgment to bear upon the matter of going into a man's house, and the 



