12 

 WALKS AND DRIVES. 



View. 



Walks and drives are necessary evils, so far as the looks of the 



41 place are concerned. Therefore, have only those that are 

 absolutely necessary. If possible, do not allow a drive to 

 bisect the lawn. If a walk is less than 50 feet long, make it 

 straight. Make all longer walks and drives on a direct double 

 curve; avoid serpentine curves. 



WHAT WILL IT COST? 



The first question that the farmer asks is: "What will it 

 cost?" feeling that these things are all very nice, but that he 

 can not afford them. Making a farm home attractive need not 



42 cost a cent. All it need cost is a little work. The first item of 

 improvement, greater neatness, costs nothing but an effort. 

 The second item of improvement, the plan, costs nothing but 

 study. The third item of improvement, the plants, can be 

 mostly or wholly secured from the wild in nearly all parts of 

 the country. This is especially true of trees. Nothing is 

 better for home planting than the common trees of the sur- 

 rounding woodland elm, maple, oak, basswood, beech, pop- 

 lar, hickory, black walnut, willow, ash, sycamore, pine, 

 spruce, wild crab apple, and the like. No shrubs purchased of 

 a tree agent are superior to the kinds native to a large part of 

 the country, such as the osier, dogwood, thorn apple, sumac, 

 witch-hazel, wild rose, rhododendron, elder, spicebush, and 



43 viburnum. No bought vines can beat the wild Virginia 

 creeper, honeysuckle, clematis, bitter-sweet, and grape. 

 Many of the choicest wild flowers, such as the asters, goldenrods, 

 hepaticas, and violets, do well when transplanted to the 

 flower border; there they grow much larger than in the wild, 

 so that they are hardly recognized as wild flowers. Some of 

 the most attractive farm-home grounds are planted almost 



44 entirely with plants dug from the woods and fields. The wild 

 trees and shrubs do not usually grow as well for the first year 

 or two as the nursery plants, but they soon catch up. Home 

 improvement need not take money, but it does take interest. 



45 The next four slides show what can be done when people are 

 really interested. This farmhouse certainly looks unpromis- 

 ing enough. It is ugly, unpainted, and without a plant in 

 sight except a little grass. It is simply a house; you would 



46 not care to live there. This shows the same place three years 

 after. The house has been transformed into a home. A little 

 paint, a few vines, a shrub or two, and some grass have wrought 

 the miracle. Probably the whole improvement did not cost 



No. 14 



