THE "ILLINOIS WAY" OF BEAUTIFYING THE FARM 



Hudson rent for about 20 per cent more than those that do not 

 face the Hudson. In the aggregate, the lake views in Chicago 

 make a difference of millions of dollars a year in rents. Every 

 millionaire's country home near Lenox and Stockbridge, Mass., 

 has been bought because of a view. Every farm that faces a 

 river in Illinois has a view, the value of which can be appraised 

 by experts. And the prairie view, which was formerly con- 

 sidered worthless, now has a value that is recognized by the 

 courts. If a man spoils your farm view, it is probable that you 

 can recover damages. 



Consider, therefore, the view from and to your front porch. 

 (See Figs. 25 to 28.) The ordinary farmer is likely to spoil 

 both these views while really meaning to improve his place. 

 For, when he suddenly awakes to the fact that his farm is bare 

 and ugly, he naturally falls an easy victim to the tree agent 

 with the gaudy colored plates, who tempts him to fill his front 

 yard with showy, foreign, artificial plants. These soon hide the 

 view to and from the front door. Now the farmer has a great 

 advantage over the city man because he can bring into this 

 view the scenery outside his front yard. In the city, everything 

 outside a man's property is likely to be ugly, commonplace, or 

 distracting. The city sights invade his privacy, make his place 

 seem smaller, and imprison him amid artificialities. Conse- 

 quently, a well-bred city man will often plant his boundaries 

 so as to shut out everything beyond his yard. But the farmer 

 can leave open the view to hills, water, church, neighbor's 

 house, or fields. And he can greatly improve these views by 



planting trees or shrubs near the front porch so as to frame 

 these views. (See Figs. 29 to 32.) 



HOW TO MAKE FLAT PRAIRIE INTERESTING 



It is a great mistake to suppose that flat land must be unin- 

 teresting. On the contrary, it is the vast breadth of the prairie 

 and of the sea that makes them such sublime symbols of the 

 Infinite. The peculiar glory of the prairie lies in the vast hori- 

 zontal lines of land, wood, crops, and clouds for even the 

 fleecy or cumulus clouds, though rounded on top, are flat on the 

 bottom. These horizontal lines are fundamental in the new 

 western or prairie school of architecture and landscape gar- 

 dening. (See cover.) Our great opportunity is to repeat this 

 fundamental idea of the prairie in a dozen subtle ways, "like 

 a faint and broken echo," as Ruskin says. 



The most valuable plants for framing prairie views are the 

 western hawthorns and crab-apples, for their uncountable 

 branches repeat endlessly on a small scale the peculiar beauty 

 of the prairie. That is why our great landscape gardeners, 

 like Simonds and Jensen, have moved thousands upon thou- 

 sands of hawthorns from farm pastures to the estates of million- 

 aires. Rich men will often pay $50 to $60 for a pair of haw- 

 thorns, such as the Illinois farmer can move from his own 

 pasture at no cash outlay. Nursery-grown hawthorns are 

 costly, because slow-growing, and a pair of cockspur thorns 

 7 feet high costs $16. Why not place a pair of hawthorns beside 



24. Why Not Frame the View of Your House with a Pair of Elms? 



The vase-formed type of American elm is the most beautiful. A pair of vase-formed elms will make a finer arch than this higher, and more pointed, like a cathedral. 



