50 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



I plead for is not only that we should strive to develop the sense of beauty 

 in our children and in ourselves^, but we should think of it as we do of 

 liberty, as a universal heritage which becomes more and more precious 

 as it becomes universal and which we should strive to hpnd down to those 

 who come after us in increased measure. 



AS TO PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS 



to accomplish this: It is far more difficult to speak wisely than to urge 

 its importance. A definite plan for the treatment of roadsides carried 

 out in the same w^ay all over the State would be very unsatisfactory, for 

 our enjoyment of the beautiful comes largely from its evidence of design 

 and loving, thoughtful care, and without these the most perfect form and 

 richest color give little pleasure. The enjoyment and good which we 

 get from beautiful things is measured largely by the degree to which we 

 or some one put heart and life into them. A clump of elms or a single 

 one saved from the forest is far more beautiful to me than a formal row 

 of soft maples, but if the latter seem beautiful to you, set them and I 

 shall enjoy them because of the love which prompted yon to plant them. 



AN INSTANCK. 



Some sixty years ago a teacher in a country district school, in a little 

 town in Vermont, interested her pupils in setting some trees and shrubs 

 in the schoolyard, continuing her efforts from year to year until the chil- 

 dren became enthusiastic in their work, and not only beautified the yard, 

 but took into their loving care the roadside and a bit of w^aste land in 

 front of the schoolhouse, and between the road and a babbling brook 

 which ran parallel with it, and made the place one of the most beautiful 

 I ever saw. Some twenty years ago a native of an adjoining tow^n who 

 had made an immense fortune in the west was looking for a place to 

 build a summer home, and was so charmed by the beauty w'hich had been 

 developed by the work of those school children that he was led to locate 

 where his house would overlook it, and he has spent over one hundred 

 thousand dollars on the estate, and through his influence others came, 

 so that the result of that teacher's work was the determining cause of 

 adding nearly a quarter of a million dollars to the tax roll of that town. 

 But the financial gam of such work is a trifle compared to the good which 

 comes to those who do it. I believe that every boy w^ho climbed down in 

 that ravine was a better boy and a more loyal citizen of that town because 

 of what he did that day. I believe that many a boy and girl went from 

 that Vermont school yard to make their ov»'n homes more beautiful. 



LET ME TURN FROM W^HAT I THINK TO WPIAT I KNOW". 



Some forty years ago a school boy in a Massachusetts town sat one 

 evening on a ledge of rocks in a pasture, from which a beautiful sunset 

 view of the w^estern hills could be obtained. As he sat there it occurred to 

 him that the scene would be more beautiful if there were some trees 

 and shrubs to partially hide another ledge some distance down the hill. 

 The following day the boy ran away from school, accepting with com- 

 placency the consequences thereof, and set out a dozen or more trees and 

 shrubs from a neighl)oring wood, where he thought they would be most 



