WAY-SIDE HINTS 



have lands adjoining upon these iron clamps 

 of our present civilization. A great accession 

 of responsibility comes to them by reason of 

 their position. A slatternly wall, a disgrace- 

 ful method of tillage, a reeking level of un- 

 drained land, in far away districts, may cor- 

 rupt but few young farmers and confirm them 

 in bad practices, by reason of their isolation. 

 But upon a great highway of travel, where a 

 thousand eyes measure the shortcomings day 

 by day, a good or a bad example will have a 

 hundred-fold force. 



It would seem, indeed, as if a shrewd busi- 

 ness economy would commend care and nicety 

 of tillage. The adventurous hair-dressers and 

 fabricators of a myriad nostrums, paint their 

 advertisements on the rocks; what better ad- 

 vertisement of a farm or garden, or nursery 

 or wood or meadow, than such equipment of 

 them all with the best results of thorough care 

 and culture, as to fasten the eye and pique in- 

 vestigation? I know a suburban architect 

 who, by the harmonies and order of a home- 

 stead, in full view of a thousand travellers a 

 day, has doubled his business. So the grace 

 of a parterre or the artistic arrangement of 

 a terrace or a walk in the eye of so many, may 

 make the reputation of a gardener. Every 



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