484 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of homelike conveniences within. 6. Never board hired men, but have cot- 

 tages for them. 7. Provide a home museum for the young people. 8. Sur- 

 round the dwelling with a smooth lawn, graceful shrubbery and blooming 

 flowers. 9. Give the shade of trees where space admits it. 10. Give beauty 

 and finish instead of disorder and waste. 11. Secure pure air with nothing to 

 impart odors. 12. Provide a complete circle of fruits. 13. Introduce horse 

 labor and clean, thorough culture. 14. Assist the young members of the fam- 

 ily in the study of sciences, collecting objects, in sketching and drawing. 15. 

 Cultivate as the most valuable of all attractions those benign virtues which 

 will always produce pleasant and kind faces in the occupants of the home." 



Beauty Cannot be Monopolized. — I sit in my friend's parlor, which is 

 filled with a great variety of beautiful paintings. I admire them as much as 

 he. The only difference in our possessions is, he owns the pictures ; I, their 

 beauties. 



I pass his lawn every morning on my way to work. It is a model of taste 

 and beauty. He is rich, and able to spend what he likes in embellishment. I 

 have not a copper in my pocket ; nay, not even a pocket in which to place a 

 copper; yet I am rich every time I pass that admirably arranged yard; its 

 beauty is all mine. Thus, whoever adds to the loveliness of his home is en- 

 riching others. This love of the beautiful is largely a matter of education. 

 The reason why so large a proportion of the people we meet have so little ap- 

 preciation of the beautiful things about them, is because they have had so lit- 

 tle that is beautiful in their homes to admire. The gefm of this love is in 

 every little one. It should be cultivated; it will bud and bloom in youth, and 

 bear abundant fruit in old age. I would have our homes the embodiment of 

 heavenly love, grace, harmony and happiness. The reward will be a glorious 

 inheritance in this world, which must certainly develop attributes of character 

 in admirable preparation for the world to come. S. Q. Lent. 



An Optimist on Farm Life. — John Burroughs says that it is a common 

 complaint that the farm and farm life are not appreciated by our people. We 

 long for the more elegant pursuits or the ways and fashions of the town. But 

 the farmer has the most sane and rational occupation, and ought to find life 

 sweeter, if less highly seasoned, than any other. He alone, strictly speaking, 

 has a home. How can a man take root and thrive without land? He writes 

 his history upon his field. How many ties, how many resources he has ; his 

 friendships with his cattle, his teams, his dog, his trees; the satisfaction in his 

 growing crops, in his improved fields, his intimacy with nature, with bird and 

 beast and the quickening elemental forces; his cooperation with the clouds, 

 the sun, the seasons, heat, wind, rain, frost. Nothing will take the various 

 social distempers which the city and artificial life breed out of a man like 

 farming, like direct and loving contact with the soil. It draws out the poison. 

 It humbles him, teaches him patience and reverence, and restores the proper 

 tone to his system 



Taste in Home Surrounding. — Walk, if you will, said James Vick, through 

 the avenues or resident streets of any of our large towns or cities, and carefully 

 note the manner in which grounds are arranged. Here we see a handsome 

 house with a large lawn, the trees are planted in regular rows, the evergreens 

 are shorn of all their beauty, they are deformed and made to assume shapes 



