STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 125 
give away of this excellent fruit. On the remaining ground, which will be al- 
most one eighth of an acre, plant Wilson strawberries. On this you can easily 
grow five hundred quarts, and if you have good luck, twice that number. From 
this half acre of fruit garden you can market enough each year to pay for the 
care of the whole acre. It has been truly said of the strawberry, that ‘those peo- 
ple who buy their fruits do not know what a strawberry is,’’ and the same 1s true 
of the other small fruits and the vegetables. There is a dewy freshness about 
all these things, taken direct from your own garden, that will not follow them 
half way to the nearest market. This acre of ground then, willbe credited with 
producing all the asparagus, radishes, lettuce, beets. beans, peas, sweet corn, 
cabbage, cauliflower, cucumbers, onions, squashes, parsnips, ete. All the cur- - 
rants, raspberries, grapes and strawberries your family can possibly use in a 
year, and some to spare. 
This then makes it the most profitable acre on your farm, beside contributing 
largely to the health of those dependent on you, for it is a settled fact that fruits 
and vegetables are a hygienic necessity and that those families have the small- 
est doctor bills, who partake liberally of this class of food. Many of our most 
intelligent physicians are enthusiastic horticulturists. They recognize fully its 
healthful influence. We will leave the garden fully believing that if you can 
come to think seriously of the matter, you will immediately begin to reform your 
farm gardens. 
Rural adornment is to me a most important subject. By this I do wish to be 
understood as writing for the farm only, but for any city or village lot, large 
enough on which to plant a tree or shrub, or locate a flower bed. It is a ques- 
tion that you, in this beautiful, picturesque country, should study. I do not 
mean that you should employ landscape architects, and with grading and filling 
and rolling and terracing, you should expend all the profits of your labor. Do 
this in proportion as you can afford it. I will simply make suggestions and lay 
down a few general rules, by which you will be enabled to assist nature in mak- 
ing the most of the material at your disposal. Within a few years popular taste 
‘has developed wonderfully in this respect. We cannot ina country as new as 
this, accomplish triumphs of architectural taste, but we can make our places at- 
tractive and enjoy the beauties of nature about our own” homes. 
The location of the house should be sufficiently back from the public road to 
afford an unbroken expanse of ornamental lawn in proportion to its width. On 
small lots it is best to place the house at one side of the center. Straight roads, 
straight walks and sharp angles should be avoided. The course of the walks 
should be graceful with easy curves, not serpentine, by which we mean that a 
eurve is not a graceful one if it consists of a series of small curves, all tending to 
follow a general straight line, or as a farmer would describe an ironwood whip- 
stock—crooked but straight. Let us have a natural sweep, first leading to the 
front entrance, and then passing to side entrance, around the house to the rear 
doors, or the road may entirely encircle the house, rejoining itself in the rear 
and finally leading to the stables, either directly from the rear or by rejoining 
the road near the main entrance and entering the barn at another gate. In any 
case there should be a strip of lawn between the drive or walks and the house, 
wide enough to accommodate afew small flower beds or ornamental shrubs. 
The lawn forms the basis of all omamental grounds. By the term lawn, in this 
case, we mean that plat of ground about your houses usually termed door yard, 
front yard or house yard, Abolish these terms altogether and call them lawns, 
