354 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



country that we have no word coined to lit the case, and, if so, I fear 

 to the practical mind it would savor strongly of sentiment and 

 therefore be frowned upon; so that few writers who have touched 

 upon the subject have used the French phrase, partly, I sxippose, on 

 the principle that a nose that is slightly ''retrouss6" is much more 

 artistic and unobjectionable than when described in plain English. 

 Perhaps, the very use of this foreign expression hag impressed some 

 who inight otherwise have profited by ^vhat Avas w^ritten that it was 

 a subject which had very little to do with the Atnerican agriculturist. 

 But I think this is not quite so, and that many a farmer, studying 

 his farm this winter, would find opportunities for improvements 

 that, while comparalivelj^ inexpensive, w^ould in the end be of finan- 

 cial benefit and also render an annual income of beauty and hap- 

 piness that he would never again willingly forego. 



Few farms do not contain areas which give scanty returns for 

 cultivation, and from a business standpoint the owners should con- 

 sider a change of methods; some hillside is being tilled until the 

 rains have washed away most of the fertility, or some couK'e is, 

 with every storm eating farther into the arable land; these places 

 need attention and by trees and shrubs from our native forest 

 growth should be controlled and reinedied. Some slough or bog 

 lies waste or produces a scanty crop of wild hay, and the owner 

 hopes for the time when he shall be able to drain and cultivate it. 

 This may be the best thing to do, for I firmly believe in drainage, 

 especially underdrainage; but I also believe as firmly, though I am 

 probably in the minority, that the present craze for draining 

 lakes and sloughs which have hitherto served as reservoirs and 

 sources of moisture, will, if persisted in, at last produce results 

 much akin to and only less disastrous than arise from the reckless 

 reduction of our forest area, and which can be but partially atoned 

 for by the slight addition which may be made to our farm acreage- 



So let our friend stop and weigh the question carefully if it be not 

 in the end more profitable to devote this extra labor and expense to 

 the more thorough cultivation of the land now in hand, and let the 

 swamp be made a little lake stocked with fish or a reservoir for irri- 

 gation purposes, and the slough become a tract of woodland from 

 which the household supplies may be obtained, and if in time it 

 should afford the boys a little sport in the way of fishing and 

 trapping it will not lessen their love for home. If there is any place 

 to which I look back with a twinge of homesickness it is the old 

 " pasture" where I used to set my snares and tr»ps, and although I 

 caught more gairie in my dreams than in reality, still it seems to 

 me, even now, that the most delightful spot I ever saw was these 

 same old woods, now, alas, mostly devoted to "city improvements." 



If there be a permanent pasture connected with the farm has it an 

 occasional clump of trees or a protecting border of timber, giving 

 welcome shade and shelter to the stock, and variety and beauty to 

 the scenery? If not, then draw upon the riches of the nearest wood- 

 land or nursery, and in locating tlie trees let it be done in reference 

 to their effect on the landscape, by framing and empliasizing the 

 distant view or concealing some disagreable object nearer at hand. 



