230 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



consider the subject of a picture as well as the medium in which it is 

 done, and the quality of its execution. Things that are well enough to 

 see occasionally in a book or portfolio would not do to hang up on the 

 wall as constant companions. 



Good etchings are somewhat expensive, and are out of the question for 

 most of us. 



One can often get good half tone engravings or wood engravings from 

 the magazines, which would look well framed in broad mats and narrow 

 mouldings. Good photogravures of famous paintings may often be 

 obtained at low rates. 



One of the best ways to receive safe guidance in matters of art, and at 

 the same time get pictures in color, many of which are fine examples of 

 close imitations »of oil and water color paintings, is to subscribe for some 

 leading art magazine, such as the Art Amateur or Art Interchange. 



These contain articles on current art topics, drawing, painting, china 

 decorating, household decoration and furnishing, good engravings, draw- 

 ings of home interiors, etc., and each addition is accompanied by two or 

 more fine studies in color. A number of ladies in a neighborhood might 

 club together and take one of these, read the magazine and divide the 

 color studies. Frequently directions are given for framing the pictures. 



One is not likely to go far astray in following the guidance of these 

 standard magazines, and the pictorial matter so obtained is frequently 

 first rate. 



DISCUSSION. 

 MBS. SARAH SMITH, GRAND RAPIDS. 



Although the professor has told us a great many nice things about 

 paintings, hanging them, draperies, and many other things that are fine; 

 yet I think that he has left out two very important objects about a 

 home. They are the flowers and the children. What can be more beau- 

 tiful than plants in the window and about the yard? For our home is 

 not confined to within the walls of the house. 



The flowers have a refining influence on all that come in contact 

 with them and are attractive. I knew of a shanty with flowers in and 

 all about it, and across the street there stood a fine home without flowers 

 or shrubbery. The dwellers there complained that no passerby looked 

 their way, they all looked at the humble shanty with the flowers all 

 about it. 



As "Art is the employment of means to accomplish some desired end, 

 the application of knowledge or power to practical purposes," in what 

 capacity then can art be brought to better use than in the training of 

 children in the rural home? For, with all its beautiful embellishments, 

 nothing can compare with the living pictures of health, happiness and 

 intelligence of the impulsive children, ready to be trained for good or 

 evil, so easily turned this way or that, with the kind influence and con- 

 stant teachings of the mother. 



Great men often have weak children, great women seldom have; but 

 it is in the direction of moral training and the development of character 

 that the mother is most powerfully felt. What a faithful suggestion 

 lies hidden in that brief line of Holy Writ: "His mother made him a 



