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FARMERS' HOUSES. 



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shall jilant it. Thereupon slie sots lier wits to work for the most foasihlo and econo- 

 mical way of doing it. A noi<:;:hlior''s IMiish Rose need the trimming, and she gets the 

 offshoots. She remembers that her cousin Patience Grownrusty's yard, in town, 

 lias an old lilac bush whose uncared-for roots had tlirown up a multitude of suclcers : 

 so, the first ti?no she goes to town, some of them are got. With these and the 

 "posy" bed on cither side of the walk fnuii dndr to front gate, the sum of her decora- 

 tive art is well nigh exhausted. Consistence is an indulgent man, and looks quietly 

 on all this transforming process in a way which reads unmistakably — "what's the 

 use i" — " extravagant !" She has a want or two unsatisfied yet. Passing their friend 

 Benjamin's well kept nursery on a fine spring morning, she would fain thin it a little 

 for the good of her yard ; but her good Consistence has been quite a long time 

 making his money, and has no mind to spend much of it for "show," She is easily 

 persuaded ; though an Elton or a Uartletf, costing little more than one of the hundred 

 apple trees in lier husband's orchard, would have combined beauty and utility. The 

 pretty Norways, Pines, and Spruces, that stand out so vividly in the nursery rows, and 

 which, transplanted to their own door yard — small as it is — might add greatly to its 

 beauty, as well as keep off the hard winter winds, fail to entice them. The little yard, 

 with its rose and lilac bushes, and its two flower beds, has not the elements for growing 

 better. Is was "made" long ago. 



Now, Consistence is but a type of a large class of farmers whose " strivings" to 

 be tasteful are as uncertain as the flesh. What I especially wish to call attention to 

 in his case is this : that possessing, as he does, quite his share of acres, he should so 

 grudgingly " set off"" (as though it were a dangerous associate of the rest of the farm) 

 only that stingy little enclosure he designates " front yard." The few square rods of 

 ground favored (?) by this exclusiveness, give a stiffness and prude air to the farm. 

 The fence enclosing it draws attention to what should always be the best ornamented 

 part of a farmer's grounds — the part which all members of the family, as well as 

 passers, must look at the oftenest. The mistake made by Consistence involves a 

 point in decoration in which nine in ten stumble in making their improvements : that 

 all fences not really required for j^urj^ones of division, should be studioiisly avoided 

 cither on village lot or farm. A fence should be as much out of the vision as possible. 

 With the greater number a " handsome fence" is of higher moment than the shrubs 

 and trees surrounding the house, and too often answering the place of them. AVliat 

 more provoking than wlicn passing a good collection of shrubbery in town yard to 

 have your view of it cut oft" by a fence nearly twice as tall as there is any necessity 

 of — a boardy barrier that the owner thrusts ujwn you as the greater beauty, but which 

 you consider sheer snobbery. In villages there must be fences between the grounds of 

 adjoining proprietors, if not neighbors in the true sense ; but far prettier a neat 

 fence of Osage Orange, Privet or Arbor Vita? to mark the line. On the front, so long 

 as the laws are not enforced against marauding cattle, carpentry must generally be 

 used ; but it should always be as low, light and open, as strength wdll permit. Much 

 display in ornamental fencing is quite inadmissable about a farm house ; more than 

 in the town we expect trees, shrubs, and green vines, and grass to look at, and don't 



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