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in 'strongest ties to the fireside. Our farmers and mechanics, 

 or their thoughtful and thrifty wives, are beginning to realize 

 how easily and economically, often without any outlay of 

 money, they can surround their homes with flowers, the Vir- 

 ginia creeper, grape vines or trees, and thus increase the 

 beauty, the attractions and market value of the homestead. 

 These embellishments of the home and grounds help to culti- 

 vate domestic sentiments. 



Without a Rural Improvement Association our best towns 

 fall far short of what they might be and ought to be. Too 

 often, neglected private grounds, dilapidated dwellings, barns 

 or sheds, or a street ugly with piles of decaying brush or 

 chips, discarded fruit cans, broken harrows, carts or sleds, 

 a front fence with missing pickets and a disabled gate, give 

 an air of shiftlessness that sadly mars the effect of an 

 otherwise beautiful village. Here an Association is needed to 

 develop that private taste and public spirit which will remove 

 such defects and disfigurements. When every citizen is thus 

 stimulated to make his own grounds and wayside not only 

 free from rubbish, but neat and attractive, the entire town 

 becomes so inviting and home-like as to give new value to 

 its wealth and new attractions to all its homes. Such affec- 

 tionate care and attention to the homes indicate a kindly, 

 intelligent, home-loving people, and no better praise need be 

 given to any people than that they tenderly cherish their homes. 

 A stranger can hardly drive through such a town without say- 

 ing " Here are people of refinement, who love their homes, 

 and therefore tastefully guard the surroundings of their daily 

 life." These surroundings, trifling as they seem to some, are 

 the more important, because they are constant forces in mould- 

 ing character. " Cleaning up, dusting, putting things in order," 

 are little matters in the parlor, sitting-room or kitchen, yet 

 how soon each becomes forbidding, when these trifles are neg- 

 lected. Just so in a village, these minor matters neglected, 

 and the comfort, content, reputation and prosperity of a whole 

 community suffer, but worst of all, home life suffers and char- 

 acter deteriorates. 



Modern civilization relates specially to the homes and social 

 life of the people, to their health, comfort and thrift, their 



