MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. — 99 
Out, Planting and Care of Small Door-yards was read, ordered on 
file for publication, and the thanks of the Society voted for it. 
The following is the paper in full: 
Mr, President: 
I have been requested to furnish a paper on the ‘‘ Laying out, Planting 
and Care of Small Door-yards,” and it has been suggested that I should con- 
sider the subject with a view of assisting the farmer as well as the city or — 
town resident. I am glad that this Society, largely composed as it is of 
agriculturists, is at length making an effort to induce farmers to improve 
their surrounding. This is a subject in which all farmers should take an 
interest, coming as it does right home to their very doors. I have often 
wondered why it is that they, more than any other class, should fail to sur- 
round their houses with neat, well kept lawns and cheerful flower-beds. 
Instead of these we generally find a bare yard or arank wilderness of weeds. 
I do not mean to say that there are not some exceptions, but these are very 
few and far between. I hope the time is fast coming when it will be a rare 
thing to see a farm house without its flower garden, as well as a spacious 
and well-stocked vegetable garden. And why not? The requisites are very 
‘few, and these the farmers possess in ample abundance. A favorableaesitu- 
ation, good soil, a little labor, and avery small amountof expense, properly 
guided and directed by good taste and judgment, would doit. And I think 
it is due to the want of taste that we so often see around farm bouses 
this lamentable desolation. Of course we are not to expect farmers any 
more than others to lay out their grounds with the skill of a practical land- 
scape gardener, but what little taste they have they might make use of. 
: Public Examples. 
And right here, let me ask what the various Educational Institutions of 
the State are doing to improve the taste of the people? What has the State 
University done? I do mot wish them to have a Professor of Landscape 
Gardening, as they have a Professor of Agriculture, whose business it shall 
be to teach the art, but let it be by example rather than precept. The site 
of the University is the finest which coald be found, perhaps, in the State. 
Now, let the University Regents show us what art, going hand in hand with 
nature, can do. Let the farmers’ sons, and daughters too, who attend the 
University, have something better to see than the present desolate and 
neglected aspect of the University campus, looking as if nobody owned it. 
Let them see lawns, and terraces, and flower-beds, and flowers, and arbors, 
and shady walks, and when they go back home they will not be satisfied till 
they have something of the same kind there. Then let the Regents do their 
duty, and instead of causes of complaint give us grounds for approval. Why 
cannot the boards of education, in city and country, lay out the lots around 
the school building with some little regard ‘to taste, and instead of their 
present unsightly appearance, make them “‘ things of beauty” and ‘‘joys 
forever.” The cost need not be much, and the expense would be repaid 
over and over again by the refining and educating influence which could not 
fail to be exercised on the children; for, at their susceptible age their sur- 
roundings have a great influence on their minds. ° 
