482 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



pleasanter it would sound. There would be no mistake about your destination, 

 there being perhaps half a dozen Joneses, Browns or Smiths within live miles of 

 your home, but only one "Hickory Hill." Then, when the young folks make 

 up their surprise parties during the long odd winter evenings in place of notify- 

 ing each other they are going to surprise the Jameses, the Joneses, or the Jack- 

 sons, it would be, we are going to surprise " Pleasant Valley," " Yiewfield" or 

 "Walnut Hill." 



Mr. Reynolds suggests the following as suitable names for farm homes: Ma- 

 ple Grove, Oak Lawn, Pleasant Hill. Wood lawn, Chestnut Grove, Hickory 

 Ridge, Beechwood, Cedar Cliff, Cypress Hill, Millbrook, Clover Hill, Springvale, 

 Longview, Ocean View, Lakeside, Riverside, Roundpond, Lilypond, The Glade, 

 The Grange, The Pines, Catalpa Grove, Locust Hill, Beechfield, Ehnwood, and 

 Rural Yale. 



Beautify the Farm. — " Rusticus," in the Rural Canadian, chats sensibly 

 about the tendency of farmers to belittle their own domain. He says : 



It is a pity that so many of our farmers pay so little attention to ornament- 

 ing their farms, simply because there is no visible return of profit in some 

 shape. Shade trees, hedges, flower beds, lawns, aud groves are in many in- 

 stances considered nuisances; and, if tolerated at all, it is in deference to the 

 urgent appeals of the female members of the family. This dislike of the 

 ornamental is gradually dying away; but, like other advances in farming, the 

 taste for it grows slowly. The taste for beauty, while imperfectly developed in 

 many minds, is more or less inborn, and is pretty sure to assert itself when the 

 means are at hand. In the case of the farmer, as he becomes more prosperous, 

 it often happens that in fixing up the old house or building a new one it is 

 probably placed in a pinched-up yard, instead of leaving around a large and 

 well laid out garden, with flower beds and a nice lawn ; the whole surrounded 

 by ornamental shrubs. Then, again, in many instances even when they have 

 well laid out grounds in front of the houses, with a picket fence facing the 

 road, the remaining front of the farm is altogether neglected, the sward just as 

 it was left by nature before the land was cleared. No attempt whatever is 

 made to improve its appearance, whereas this could be done at a very trifling 

 cost, by just plowing the sward, leveling the hillocks, seeding the whole 

 down again, and planting a row of trees with here and there an evergreen. De- 

 pend upon it, that if ever the property has to be disposed of, a purchaser will 

 be more readily found for a farm that looks pleasant than one that is void of 

 any ornament. 



The Orange County Fanner puts the case in this way : 



Make your rural home beautiful. Lay out spacious grounds about the farm 

 house, plant shade trees, lay graveled roads and plant flowers. Don't lay up 

 all your net earnings for the benefit of your heirs and the lawyers, but spend 

 some of it in beautifying your home. The farmer who always shuts his eyes to 

 aesthetic features of this life and screws himself down to the task of making 

 money, loses a large portion, and the best portion too, of his existence. His 

 home should be attractive to himself, to his wife, and above all, to his children. 

 Unpleasant homes in too many instances drive the sons of farmers to the 

 towns, to excitement and dissipation, and to wreck. Such sons do not general- 

 ly leave pleasant aud beautiful homes. 



