396 STATE rOMOLOGlCAL SOCIETY. 



Distorted, it develops into oxtnivagiince of apparel, and is only satisiicd with 

 ))ublic display. I tiiink nearly every child ui)ward of a few months old pos- 

 sesses this love of beautiful things. Is it worth while to encourage its growth, 

 or shall it be repressed and the animal in his nature be allowed to gain ascend- 

 ency over the si)iritual? It needs no instruction to make a child of four years 

 love a llowcr; it Avill need very little to teach him which is the corolla, which 

 the calyx, which the stamens and pistils, and the use of each. This is culti- 

 vation. He has then a new interest in the blossom. I plead that for woman's 

 sake, and for the children's sake, there be pleasant grounds around the farm- 

 er's homestead. 81ie needs it as a relief from a round of exhausting toil, they 

 as a means of culture, as a help to their mental and moral growtli. It is a 

 matter of consequence whether, in iicr round of work, tlie farmers wife looks 

 oiit upon a scene of beauty, or u})on the general debris of the farm. Do you 

 say that woman should be cheerful in doing her duty whatever her surround- 

 ings? Granted, but love is a sweeter word than duty, and love is an outgrowth 

 of circumstances. Will your wife and children love you as well if you jirovide 

 nothing to make their home pleasant? Granted that woman should be happy 

 in doing her duty, — "Rejoice evermore" is authoritative. But docs God give 

 this precept and not at the same time provide means which make obedience 

 possible? He has done his part in surrounding us with elements of happiness. 

 He sends the angel of change to bring out the spring flowers, to clothe the for- 

 ests with greenness, to glorify them in autumn, and to drop ujiou them in win- 

 ter those soft snow fleeces that make the landscape in tiic golden morning seem 

 like a symbol of resurrected life. Indeed God has done his part to make meu 

 happy I This shows how he regards happiness; and the farmer's wife may 

 well claim a liberal share of enjoyment of natural beauty. With all her cares 

 she will get none too much, if her husband is considerate in this matter. 



It is not really so much a lack of time, and money, as of their proper appor- 

 tionment to meet the varied wants of human life, that jirevents a greater atten- 

 tion to farm adornment. There is too mucli forgetfulness of the aesthetic 

 nature. A man remembers that his sturdy boys need boots ; they wmH hardly 

 allow him to forget this, as the winter nears with its pinching cold; but does 

 he realize that the demands of tiie soul are quite as urgent as those of the 

 body, none the less so because less clamorous? It is pinched, starved, for lack 

 of that which an hour's thoughtful work could readily give. 



But if the farmer really finds he has not time to beautify his farm, let him 

 give the boys and girls a chance. They may not be adepts in landscape garden- 

 ing, but it requires little labor to teach a boy of a dozen years how properly to 

 set a tree. Show hinr how once or twice and just let him learn the first verse 

 of Bryant's " Planting of the Apple Tree," and see if after that he does not 

 succeed as well as you ; only it might be well, lest he take poetry too literally, 

 to suggest that mellow plowed ground is better than "green sward" to plant 

 apple trees in, that it is jwssible too much tenderness in pressing the soil about 

 the roots may endanger loss from drouglit. Encourage this work by the gift of 

 an occasional quarter to buy something new, and sec if your desert farm does 

 not soon "blossom as a rose." The arrangement may not exactly suit a criti- 

 cal eye, but the verdure and the bloom will be pleasing for all that, and a rich 

 means of culture. I shall not too persistently urge a clocely clipped lawn at 

 all times, — I know about planting corn, haying and harvest, and potato digging. 

 But I will urge this, that the house iiave grounds of its own, sacred to the uses 

 of bcautv, that it I)c situated awav from the road dust and the stable yards, 



