17th January, A. D. 1876. 



ESSAY 



BY 



JAMES DRAPER, Worcester, Mass. 



Theme — Our Home Grounds and our Roadsides: Their Influence 

 on onr Lives and the Lires of Others. 



In pi'esenting some thoughts upon our home grounds and our road- 

 sides (their influence on our own lives and the lives of others), I 

 am well aware that I am not entering any new field, but simply offer 

 some suggestions as they occur to me, growing out of my own ex- 

 perience and observation, that may possibly prove helpful to others. 



My object is to touch upon rural or suburban homes, rather than 

 those within city limitations, where the landscape architect has perfected 

 his work in the homes surrounding, and where the municipal authori- 

 ties have full domain over the streets or roadsides. 



My ideal home is not the one of broad domain, where abundant 

 means enable its owner to employ a professional landscape gardener 

 to lay out and plant on a most magnificent scale, but rather the typi- 

 cal farm home, nestled here and there among the hills, valleys and 

 woodsides of our own native New England, be they near or remote 

 from city or town advantages. 



And here let me state, that having been privileged to visit nearly 

 every section of this country, nowhere, in this broad land of 

 ours, do I find so many comfortable and attractive farm homes and 

 illustrations of ideal home life as exist right here in the land of the 

 " Pilgrim Fathers." 



" Nothing exerts a greater influence on character than the homes of 

 the people " is an oft expressed saying. 



How important, then, that these homes should be surrounded with 

 such comforts and attractions as will contribute to this one great 



