THE "ILLINOIS WAY" OF BEAUTIFYING THE FARM 



11 



29. We Need "Accent" in Our Prairie Views 



To an Illinois farmer the most beautiful crop in the world is corn. But people complain 

 that everything about the prairie gets monotonous. They want something different from 

 the universal flatness, especially during the winter. Of course, the prairie is beautiful at 

 sunrise and sunset, but why not all day and every day? 



vines to grow, you can cover your porch the first year, without 

 spending a cent, by sowing seeds of wild cucumber vine or 

 collecting seeds of morning-glory in regions where it runs wild. 

 In the garden cities of England, such as Bourn ville and Letch- 

 worth, which are the most beautiful of their kind in the world, 

 many thousands of dollars have been saved by building very 

 plain houses, and providing different sets of vines for every 

 house. 



There is one vine that we should like to see on every porch 

 in the "Prairie State," viz., the Illinois or prairie rose. (See Figs. 

 41 to 44.) There is little danger of overdoing the matter, 

 because this plant is now available in thirty-nine varieties, 

 having different colors and degrees of fulness. 



And there is one evergreen vine that ought to be planted 

 on every brick and stone house in America where English ivy 

 is not hardy. This is the evergreen bittersweet (see Fig. 48) 

 not the common climbing euonymous (Euonymus radicans), 

 for that has a taint of variegation, but the round-leaved 

 variety, which the nurserymen call vegetus. It is free trom the 



30. The "Illinois Way" of Accenting Prairie Views 



Your cornfield will look twice as beautiful if seen through a pair of Illinois red cedars 

 jlanted beside your front porch. They will frame not only this view, but the view of your 

 rcouse from the road. They are far superior to Lombardy poplars because they are long- 

 lived and evergreen. They harmonize with the prairie by contrast. The prairie suggests 

 'infinite breadth. The pointed cedars are full of aspiration. 



Pi 

 hi 



weakness and nuisance of producing white leaves, and years 

 before the ordinary type it bears red fruits about the size of 

 holly berries, which are brilliant all winter. 



THE LAWN 



It is a fundamental principle of landscape gardening that 

 the open lawn, with shrubbery grouped at the sides (see Fig. 

 50), is more valuable than a lawn peppered with plants, even 

 if they are rare and costly. (See Fig. 49.) There is no doubt 

 that you can make every dollar stand on edge and scream 

 louder if you scatter plants over your lawn, but you cannot 

 make a beautiful home picture in that way. The gaudy style 

 of planting, which will always appeal strongly to a beginner 

 until the crack of doom, is to scatter over the lawn foreign 

 and artificial kinds of trees and shrubs (see Fig. 51), such as 

 golden-leaved elder, purple-leaved plum, blue Colorado spruce, 

 magenta Anthony Waterer spirea, Kilmarnock weeping wil- 

 low, variegated dogwood, grotesque weeping spruces, shredded 



31. Before Framing the View from Your Dining-room 



The broad, unbroken prairie does not make a picture. No artist would care to paint it. 

 It lacks interest and has no frame. This is not a picture; s~ "~ ' ' ' in. 



:.. _l L _ I . _l I I I _f _____ .1.1 



32. After Framing the View from Your Dining-room 



Your plowed fields will look twice as beautiful if seen through a pair of Illinois haw- 



r ; it is merely a photograph. But thorns. They illustrate the law of repetition, one of the ten laws which, as Ruskin tells 



it shows the bare, cheerless kind of view that depresses many families at their meals, and us in his "Elements of Composition," are fundamental in al! the fine arts. For their 



makes farmers' wives go insane from loneliness and monotony. Some little portion of your horizontal branches repeat many times, on a small scale, the great horizontal lines of land, 



big view has warm human interest and beauty. You can frame that and shut out the rest! woods, crops, and clouds, whicn are the peculiar glory of the prairie. 



