THE SURROUNDINGS OF A COUNTRY HOME. 433 



THE SURROUNDINGS OF A COUNTRY HOME. 



MRS. C. t,. HIU,. 

 (So. Minn. Hort. Society.) 



There are a good many families who seem to act on the convic- 

 tion that home ends with the door-step, and that if the house inside 

 is well furnished and kept in order it is of little consequence as to the 

 condition of the dooryards : whereas, the immediate surroundings 

 of a home bear the relation to it that a frame does to a picture. No 

 matter how beautiful and costly a picture might be, if it was set in a 

 shabby frame its beauty would be cheapened thereby. The door- 

 yard is the frame to the home picture. 



The country home, with its gene'rous acreage, has the advantage 

 over the little, cramped town lot for pretty surroundings. There is 

 space tor trees, evergreens, shrubbery, flowers, vines, driveways and 

 walks. There is the advantage, too, that but a small outlay of money 

 is needed for such improvements. It is not money so much as in- 

 clination and labor that is needed, particularly the inclination. For 

 where there is a. will to do a thing, a way is sure to follow. 



Judging from the appearance of some of the dooryards one sees 

 in driving through the country, there seems to be a painful absence 

 of home pride. The front yard, unworthy of the title of lawn, grows 

 up to weeds and tall grass ; no evergreens or shrubbery, and the only 

 flowers on the place are the ones that adorn the ladies' hats. As 

 to the back-yard, O, horrors ! it is the dumping ground for all the 

 worn-out rubbish on the place. 



It is strange how any family can become accustomed to such con- 

 ditions, and drift on year after year without realizing what they are 

 losing. For certainty there is a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction 

 to be had in pretty, well-kept yards, and, besides this, they have a 

 moral influence on the inmates of the home. They stimulate pride 

 in the home, and a love for the beautiful is always uplifting and re- 

 fining. Children raised in homes where the parents are indifferent 

 to the care and beautifying of the grounds around the house, lose 

 much from their lives. The child heart delights in nature's growths 

 and beauties. No artificial creation of beauty can give such keen 

 delight to their little souls as to watch the development of a rosebud 

 or snowball as it bursts from bud to flower. The child who learns 

 to love nature through the beauties of his home, whose interest in 

 plants, trees and flowers is awakened in the tender, loving years of 

 young childhood, carries with him a love for these things and a ten- 

 der memory of them all through life. 



