THE "ILLINOIS WAY" OF BEAUTIFYING THE FARM 



believes in "local color." Its home is the Cliff Dwellers' Club, 

 in Chicago. These men no longer fear or despise the prairie; 

 they love it, and are opening our eyes to its true wonder and 

 beauty. Among them are Lorado Taft in sculpture, Hamlin 

 Garland and Nicholas V. Lindsay in poetry; Louis H. Sullivan 

 and Frank Lloyd 

 Wright in archi- 

 tecture; Frank C. 

 Peyraud and 

 Charles Francis 

 Browne in paint- 

 ing; O. C. Simonds 

 and Jens Jensen 

 in landscape gar- 

 dening. 



We want 

 something better 

 than the type we 

 see everywhere 

 in 1 1 1 i n o i s the 

 wooden, citified 

 house, that is 

 loaded with gin- 

 gerbread, painted 

 in a half-dozen 

 gaudy colors, and 

 without a single 

 tree or shrub to 

 reconcile it with 

 natural surround- 

 ings. (See Fig. 7.) 

 Our first job is to 

 build houses that 

 will fit the prairie 

 climate, soil, labor 

 conditions, life, 

 and landscape, as 

 does Joseph E. 

 Wing's house in 

 Ohio. (See Fig. 8.) 

 His house fits the 

 country because it 

 is long and low 

 not tall and nar- 

 row, as city houses 

 have to be. It 

 fits the labor con- 

 ditions, because it 

 is a servantless 

 house, arranged 

 to save the house- 

 wife's steps, and 



easy to care for 



with such devices What wild 



as the vacuum- and fragrance wlen in blooml 



cleaner, power-washer, mangle, and other apparatus described 

 by Mrs. Eugene Davenport in "Possibilities of the Country 

 Home." (This pamphlet may be obtained free of charge by 

 addressing a request to the Illinois Agricultural Experiment 

 Station.) The Illinois farmhouse must be better adapted to 

 our climate than the tenant house . of the Corn Belt, for the 

 winter winds sweep right through such a shell, and during 

 our hot summers it is "a regular oven." We want a house 

 that is warm at twenty below zero, and cool during corn 

 weather, by reason of its sleeping- or dining-porch and its 

 overshadowing eaves or trees. So, too, with planting; we want 



an "Illinois way" of landscape gardening that will be like 

 an old-fashioned ship every line for use, and not a single 

 dollar for mere show. Let us plant only what is necessary, 

 profitable, or reasonable, and the result cannot help being 

 beautiful ! 



WINDBREAKS 

 FOR PROFIT 

 AND BEAUTY 



"The greatest 

 enemy of the 

 farmer," says 

 Theodore Roose- 

 v e 1 1 , "is the 

 wind." Clearly, 

 the first step in 

 the "Illinois way" 

 is to provide 

 shelter from the 

 biting winds of 

 winter and the 

 drying winds of 

 summer. The 

 pioneers did this 

 before they built 

 their cabins, but 

 many of their de- 

 scendants are cut- 

 ting down big 

 trees because they 

 believe trees are 

 not worth the 

 space they take 

 especially on land 

 worth $200 an 

 acre. 



Opinions differ 

 widely as to the 

 best trees for 

 windbreaks, and 

 the best way to 

 arrange them ; but 

 much help can be 

 had from the most 

 elaborate work on 

 the subject, viz., 

 "Windbreaks," 

 by Carlos G. Bates 

 (Bulletin 86 of the 

 Forest Service), 

 which can be had 

 at a small price 

 from the Super- 

 intendent of Pub- 

 lic Documents, 

 Washington, D. C. L. H. Bailey gives thirteen points in favor 

 of windbreaks and four against them in his "Principles of Fruit- 

 Growing." See Figs. 9 and 10. 



SCREENING UNSIGHTLY OBJECTS 



An Illinois farmer wanted to sell his farm, but could not 

 find a buyer. The reason for this, which no one realized, was 

 the ugly, bad-smelling barnyard right across the road from the 

 house. One night the barn burned down, and after that the 

 farmer sold his farm for more than he had asked before. The 

 reason was two-fold: The unsightly barnyard was removed, 



n. The "Illinois Way" of Screening Unsightly Objects 



I, at no cost, in seven years in Champaign County, four miles from Urhana. Imagine its beauty 



