SUMMER MEETING AT LOUISIANA. 55 



"Without money and without price," nature says to her children, 

 as she displays her treasury of tree and shrul, flower and vine, grasses, 

 mosses and tubers. She never neglects, and she only asks guidance 

 .and selection in order to make of your home a very picture of beauty. 

 How prodigal she is ! What quantities of gold and scarlet, crimson 

 •and purple, yellow and blue — georgeous dyes and delicate tintings she 

 scatters about if you will allow her ! Look at her banks of sweet peas, 

 .petunias, phloxes, verbenas, portulaccas, pinks, asters and chrysan- 

 themums ! And all summer long she will pile about you her filmy laces 

 and glowing tapestry, pouring over all the most costly perfumes. 

 Even the neglected fence corners she fills with her berry bushes and 

 blossoms, and every hedgerow and highway flame with her lavishness. 

 Even the waste places are redeemed, and the sturdy grapevines 

 clamber from bough to bough of the lofty forest trees. iSTot content 

 with fruitage and flowers, she brings the sweetest of bird song to please 

 the ear. And then, when the harvest is ended, she empties her re- 

 maining dyes over wood and wold, and the glory of the autumn time — 

 who shall portray ! 



With an occasional lift from masculine hands and the helpful fin- 

 gers of the little ones, added to some taste and training of your own, 

 all tliis prodigality of fragrance, flowers and fruitage c^n be yours. 

 Taste and care has more to do with creating a home than money. 

 Home should mean more than a shelter, and if financial reasons alone 

 should influence you, every added evidence of taste is an added dollar 

 to the financial value of your place. Limited means and lack of leisure 

 is the farmer's plea for neglecting the ornamental, but a half hour 

 taken from your field, an acre less of something planted, will not count 

 when weighed against the pleasure which you must derive from the 

 sight of and pride in your beautiful home. 



The location of the house is a matter of taste ; but when the house 

 is built, be it one room or many, be sure to allow a thick sward of 

 grass to creep up even to the door-sill, either by " sodding " or sowing 

 lawn seeds. A bare yard is a bad advertisement of your h me life. If 

 you have a ground work of green, it is an easy matter to dot it here 

 and there with bits of bright color. Don't attempt too much at first. 

 JBegin with a few hardy shrubs and perennials. Don't forget the hardy 

 roses. Take care of these, and add to them as you can care for them. 

 They need no coaxing, but will repay attention. Don't plant trees in 

 front of the house, at least not close enough to shut out the air and 

 sunshine. Plant plenty of vines, the woods are full of them, and the 

 florists will supply you]with ivys, creepers, clematis, roses, honey suck- 



