834 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Attention to detail will bring better results in all lines of 

 farm work, and better results will add more enthusiasm; and enough 

 enthusiasm makes all work a labor of love and brings about the true 

 joy of living, the ideal for which we strive. Neighbor, let us, you and 

 I, go home and shut the hogs out of the door yard, nail the loose boards 

 on to the barn and sheds, get a barrel of paint and brighten things up, 

 haul the rubbish and scrap iron out of the front yard and have a general, 

 detailed fixing up around the place where we live, so that when we go to 

 town we will want to hurry home before sundown just to get a daylight 

 view of the handsomest place on our road. It is time for us to get in 

 line with the new deal being ushered in with one hundred dollar land. 



With rural free delivery the farmer has become part of the great 

 arterial system of the world and the thoughts from the very confines 

 of the earth course through his mind every day. The telephone posts 

 him promptljf over a very extensive "neighborhood" and extends his 

 business proportionately. The township road system is building bet- 

 ter roads and the King road drag is keeping them smoother, enabling 

 the farmer to add town entertainments to county joys, and the near 

 by rural trolley lines will soon bring the city to our doors. Farmer's 

 organizaions and the detail of more thorough government supervision 

 is promising a more even distribution of the good the things of life. A- 

 bout all we have need to do is to get ready for their reception. The 

 shadows of these coming events are being cast across our thresholds— 

 the substance is knocking at our gates. Rate legislation is about to open 

 the highways of commerce to all alike and tariff ajustment by reciprocity 

 treaties is about to open the world's markets on a more equitable basis 

 and put a handle on the farmer's side of the jug. 



BEAUTIFYING THE HOME GROUNDS 



THE PAINFUL CONTRAST BETWEEN DOING THE THING RIGHT AND DOING IT 



WRONG, ILLUSTRATED AND EXPLAINED, BY M . J. WRAGG, 



WAUKEE, IOWA. 



Landscape Gardening, as an art, may not be studied by the planter on 

 the ordinary grounds in the West, but a few elementary principles can 

 be applied without much tim.e and study, and these may result in com- 

 pletely changing the appearance of the place. The ideal landscape con- 

 sists of open spaces and pretty vistas through a fitting frame-work of 

 trees, shrubs and flowers. Some where about the ground usually the 

 center should be a broad unbroken sweep of grass. The outskirts should 

 be planted in beds and masses, with large bays and projections where, 

 later on, new shrubs and plants may be added at the owner's pleasure. 



Every well-laid-out lawn should have an abundance of shade and orna- 

 mental trees. There should be planted as a background by the sides of 

 the house, with the conifers and ornamental trees in front of the shade- 

 tree groups. One of the fundamental rules in landscaping is that no 



