REPORTS OF AUXILIARY SOCIETIES. 367 



may come to the mau who beautifies the garden about his house, viz.: the consid- 

 erable increase iu its selling value. I am not talking now about the satisfaction 

 which the owner takes in looking at his house thus adorned with a frame- 

 work of trees and shrubbery, set in an emerald lawn, and touched up with a 

 tracery of delicate vines. I am not moralizing upon his duty to the community 

 which daily passes by his place to give them the same satisfaction. I say noth- 

 ing about the general fitness of things, recognized in all our arts and manu- 

 factures, and shown in every article we use, in which beauty of appearance is 

 combined with utility. All these are factors which ought to be considered 

 when a man builds a home for his own use, or for another; but I wish to speak 

 simply of the commercial value to the owner of such decoration of his place. 

 Now, there are a good many men in the city of Jackson who own their homes 

 (would to God there were more of them), but many of these, and many other 

 property owners, hold their places for sale, and I know of no way in which 

 money can be expended to better advantage in increasing the selling value of a 

 residence, than in making its surroundings neat and pretty. 



Not less effective than a coat of paint over the house, is a coat of nature's 

 handiwork over the grounds. No matter how convenient and pleasant and 

 well-appointed the house may be inside, it needs an attractive exterior to sell 

 it. The merchant understands that a rich and valuable stock of goods will 

 sell twice as quick if properly displayed, as it would if he piled it away in 

 shelves and drawers and depended on calling attention to its quality. Nay, it 

 is even the attractive display alone that often sells the goods at a good figure. 

 The attention of buyers must be attracted to a place by its first appearance 

 before they will even consider its purchase. The most prosaic of men will 

 take account of the difference in appearance between a house whose good 

 points are brought out and supported by the embellishments of the garden, 

 and whose necessarily ugly features are hidden by planting, and the bald and 

 bare look of a building set down in the middle of a piece of land with the wood 

 pile, clothes line, pump, and out-buildings all plainly visible, and gathered 

 together and held in place by the square corners and hard lines of a fence. 

 The one looks like a home — the other like a place to live. 



Speaking of the beauty of natural scenery as compared with man's productions, 

 reminds me of the way it was exemplified to me yesterday morning. I was walk- 

 ing past what would be called an unimproved piece of property., but so far as 

 appearance goes, it would be hard to suggest any improvement that could be 

 made. The foreground was a little valley, narrowing away from me to a mere 

 glimpse through the trees, to the dense woods beyond. The sides of the view 

 were shut in by hills, and were covered with trees and shrubbery, and over 

 all the soft masses of snow had fallen with a beautiful fleecy covering, light- 

 ing up each twig and stem in delicate tracery. It was a beautiful scene, and as 

 I turned away my eyes fell on a flat stretch of ground across the street which 

 had lately been covered with dwellings. There were few or no trees to be seen, 

 and the snow had fallen here on sheds and fences and roofs and posts; useful 

 enough things, to be sure, but what a contrast in appearance from the other 

 view! And I hoped that when the first piece of ground should be "'improved" 

 by being cut up into residence lots, that the owner would have the good sense 

 to spare a sufficient number of the trees to insure a little natural improvement. 

 The early settlers here, when the country was all woods, must naturally have 

 become imbued with the notion that the trees were a nuisance to be got out of 

 the way as speedily as possible; but let us not carry that notion too far. 



