CORNELL 



TReabings'Course for ^farmers' ^Otves 



Published by the New York State College of Agriculture, at 

 Cornell University, from November to March and Entered at 

 Ithaca as Second-Class Matter under Act of Congress of July 

 i6, 1894. L. H. Bailey, Director. 



Martha Van Rensselaer, Supervisor. 



SERIES V. ITHACA, N. Y., FEBRUARY, 1907. No. 24 



SUPPLEMENT TO BULLETIN No. 2. 



Farmers' Wives' Bulletin No. 2, Series i, " Decoration in the Farm 

 Home," besides suggesting principles in home decoration, emphasizes 

 the desirability of simplicity. We gather too much about us ; it collects 

 in the cupboards and on the shelves ; it has to be dusted ; it occupies a 

 place where space would be more expressive; it has become meaningless 

 in our lives ; it seems too good to throw away but it is really doing more 

 harm than good ; it troubles us as any other clutter will. Our tastes have 

 changed since certain ornamentation was placed in our parlors. We may 

 have thought it a desirable acquisition at the time and no doubt it did 

 us good then. If it does not do us good now, it has served its usefulness. 



Beauty is in the mind of the observer and we have a right to change 

 our m.inds. Our larger fault is in clinging to old sentiments. We need to 

 throw away many of them and to get new ones. Our lives need this 

 rejuvenation. 



The question arises as to what to do with the mats, the vases, the 

 mottoes, the picture cards, the poorly framed pictures, the lambrequins 

 and what-nots. A good motto is to keep that which is uplifting as long 

 as it remains so. Then if it is likely to be helpful in the life of some 

 other person, it may be passed on. If it is not calculated to serve that 

 use, it should help to make a bonfire. 



We may not understand the principles of art, and yet be possessed 

 of artistic temperament or capable of artistic training. We may hold 

 the erroneous idea that to be artistic one must express it bv painting a 

 picture. Every one may express an artistic temperament either in dress, 

 in house furnishings, or even in the arrangement of flowers in a vase. 

 This is the adaptation of the artistic sense to life itself, which is the best 

 aim in education. 



One simple and effective standard is nature itself. A pot of flowers, 

 a vase of flowers, effectively placed is worth all of the questionable orna- 

 ment which can be supplied. Life has zest just in the contemplation of 

 these simple forms of art. 



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