50 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



TUESDAY EVENING. 



On Tuesday evening, Hon. C. J. Monroe, of South Haven, presided. 

 All of the addresses were illustrated with the stereopticon. They re- 

 lated to the "Decoration of Home and Public Grounds" and to the more 

 destructive insects and plant diseases. 



HOME DECORATION AND CIVIC IMPROVEMENT. 



BY PROF. JOHN CRAIG, CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, NEW YORK. 



In the city, the individual home is the unit. Unfortunately, there is 

 no coordination of plan, architecturally or aesthetically from the land- 

 scape gardener's standpoint, between home dwellers, and the result is 

 incongruity and unattractive combinations of color and structure. In 

 the country, the homes stand by themselves so that there is no reason 

 why each, man's taste should not be given full expression because he is 

 not likely to offend his neighbor's style by proximity. It may be truly 

 said, I think, that the exterior of the home, whether in the city or the 

 country, expresses with some fairness the culture of its residents. May 

 not the drapery — nature's drapery, — climbers and vines on the outside 

 of the house, be likened to the drapery which the home-maker or home- 

 decorator uses in embellishing the interior? We will, however, discuss 

 this matter more in detail later on. 



Mistakes m laion making in country homes.- — One of the commonest 

 and most unfortunate mistakes we see in the country is that the house 

 is set too near the road. Curious, is it not, that the farmer with his 

 broad acres should so frequently plant his house almost on the road- 

 side as if he dwelt on a city lot? This building of the house so close to 

 the road boundary gises cramped yards and prevents any display of 

 good taste in lawn decoration and exterior embellishment. Another 

 common mistake is to use bright-colored flowers in beds directly in 

 front of the house thus breaking up the sweep of the lawn and giving a 

 garish and spotted effect rather than an appearance of free and flowing 

 lines. As a general rule, there are too few flowering shrubs and not 

 enough of the perennial class of plants. These latter are the easiest of 

 all flower-giving plants to cultivate, and one regrets to see that in the 

 newer gardens they are less frequent than in the good old-fashioned 

 gardens of the East. 



The planning of the place. — It is important that the house should be 

 set well up and that the land should fall away from the house slightly 

 on all sides. Good surface drainage, as well as good subsurface drain- 

 .age, should be provided. Permanent lawns cannot be secured and 



