IMPROVEMENT SOCIETIES 



bery and trees, and what is true of the village 

 lot is also tine, to a considerable extent of the 

 country home, therefore what I have to say will 

 apply with equal force to both. Nothing im- 

 proves the appearance of the home more than 

 good trees and fine shrubs. Perhaps the ma- 

 jority of our houses are not specially attractive 

 in themselves, but give them a setting of 

 " green things growing," and the eye is at once 

 attracted by it, the house ceases to be the over- 

 poweringly prominent feature of the place. 

 It is an easy matter to cover up a great deal of 

 positive ugliness by a vine. It is just as easy 

 to grow trees and shrubs in such a manner as 

 to break up bare spaces and hide much that 

 cannot be made beautiful in itself. Many a 

 house cannot be remodelled into an attractive 

 one, but the judicious use of vines upon its 

 walls, and of trees and shrubs so planted as 

 to relieve its angularities and lack of graceful 

 lines, will make the place a pleasant one in 

 spite of its drawbacks, because beauty is em- 

 phasized by making it prominent, and ugliness 

 retreats to the background in proportion as 

 beauty comes to the front. The eye is natural- 

 ly attracted by the beauty of a tree or a shrub 

 or a vine, and by using them liberally we draw 



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