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THE GEITESEE FARMER. 



most ornamental of pendulous tfees, both in sum- 

 mer and winter. Our engraving is taken from a 

 specimen growing in Knight's Exotic Nursery, 

 Chelsea, England. It is none too hardy here at 

 Kochester, but succeeds well when planted on 

 good, dry soil, where its shoots will ripen per- 

 fectly. It is one of the most beautiful of weeping 

 trees, and should he extensively introduced wher- 

 ever it succeeds. 



Formerly our collection of weeping trees was 

 rather meagre, but our nurserymen now propagate 

 five or six varieties of weeping ash, and several of 

 willow, besides weeping oaks, elms, poplars, beech, 

 birch, mountain ash, larch, linden, laburnum, so- 

 phora, thorns, and many others. 



ADOEinNG AND BEAUTIFYING FARMERS' HOMES. 



OuE ofter of a prize for the best essay in answer 

 to the question, "Should Farmers adorn and 

 beautify their Homes and Farms before they be- 

 come wealthy ? and if so, how may it be done in 

 the easiest manner?" has called out answers from 

 a great number of esteemed correspondents, and 

 we believe a few extracts from some of them wiU 

 prove interesting to our readers : 



Martin S. Gregg, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, 

 writes tliat he is in favor of adorning the house 

 before the farmer becomes wealthy. He says: 



" I am poor, and any one can do as I have done. 

 I have taken from our native forests some fine trees 

 and flowers, which cost me nothing but a little 

 labor. To these I added a few imported trees and 

 flowers. And now my farm will command twice as 

 much money as it would without these adornments.'''' 



"To neglect home attractions, to forego internal 

 conveniences, and those external adornments which 

 a just appreciation of the beautiful Avould dictate, 

 until our pockets are lined with superfluous wealth, 

 and many years and cares are weighing heavily 

 upon us, is like refusing to eat until our granary and 

 larder are overflowing with husbanded stores, and 

 our wasted frames admonish us of our imprudence. 



" With the many, a reasonable degree of comfort 

 is accounted as everything, and beauty nothing. 

 Such persons have no idea of the potency of influ- 

 ences. The tastes and characters of our children, 

 and the subsequent happiness consequent upon the 

 exercise of those tastes and the development of 

 those characters, are greatly dependent upon the 

 externals and internals of the home of their child- 

 hood." 



" In the construction of their homes, farmers are 

 apt to act with too little premeditation and thouLdit. 

 He who would build him a home, can never invest 

 money so well as to purcliase and study some reli- 

 able work on rural arcliitecture. He will tliere 

 learn that even a cheap house can be so constructed 

 asto combine internal convenience of arrangement 

 with exterior beauty and attractiveness. He who 

 -would adorn his grounds and beautify his home, 

 should read some work on landscape gardening, 

 and regularly and continuously some good agricul- 



tural and horticultural journal. Thus he will place 

 himself in communion with persons of cultivated ! 

 and refined tastes, and thereby be enabled to act 

 with more judgment, and with far more satisfactory- 

 results. Each year should add new attractions to 

 the surroundings of home, developing new beau- 

 ties: thus our cliildren will grow up with a strong 

 attachment to the homes of their childhood. 



" This work of beautifying our homes is easiest 

 done, where the work commences with the com- 

 mencement of agricultural improvement, and is 

 conducted with good taste and an enlightened 

 judgment. O. 0. G. — Frewslury^ N. Y. 



"If the farmer has sons and daughters, and 

 wishes them to grow up farmers and farmers' 

 wives — loving himself, their own old homestead, 

 and a farmer's life — there must be something more 

 than mere out-door labor, and the freedom of 

 healthy exercise, to engage their hearts ; the farm 

 dwelling and all its appendages must be pleasant 

 and attractive — a place that they can ever remem- 

 ber and love, not only as the home of their youth, 

 but as a beautiful place. If this is done constantly 

 while they are growing up, he will not so often 

 have occasion to lament that his sons are dissatis- 

 fied with the occupation of their father, and seek 

 something more congenial." 



"A good farm is worth beautifying, and should 

 appear as well as it really is ; but it is in very bad 

 taste to see the exterior of anything nicer than the 

 interior: it reminds one of the dandy parading 

 Broadway. Let the house be a rural home, appro- 

 priate to its position, surrounded with shade trees, 

 for the two-fold purpose of greatly adding to the 

 comfort of its occupants and the beauty of the 

 place. Spare for a grove on the highway, those 

 trees most sound and thrifty, and one here and 

 there over the pasture lands; it will give the farm 

 a more natural appearance, and it will not present 

 so barren an aspect; and the panting ox and sheep, 

 reclining beneath its refreshing shade, will return 

 a look of gratitude. Fences should be constructed 

 with a view first to permanency, and their adapt- 

 edness to the wants of the field, and then built 

 neatly as well as substantially, — strait as possible, 

 every board of its proper size and in its proper 

 place, — the posts perpendicular, and not one peer- 

 ing over its fellows. The farmer need not be afraid 

 of paint; it gives durability as well as beauty to 

 his buildings and farm implements. It is an agree- 

 able sight, as well as economy, to have "a place for 

 everything and everything in its place," and a bad 

 sign to find the farming utensils scattered over the 

 farm where last used. In a barn, utility, conven- 

 ience, and adaptation to the wants of domestic 

 animals, are essential. 



"Let the exterior of the dwelfing look as well as 

 the interior, for we lose nothing by endeavoring to 

 procure the favor of others. Adorn the inside with 

 a library of works, whether treating of agriculture, 

 science, art or religion, the tendency of which is to 

 lift a man up, intellectually and morally, and place 

 him where he was designed to be, ' a little lower 

 than the angels.' 



" There are, we might say in truth, a thousand 

 ways in which a farmer's home may be beautified ; 

 but it is a fact that everything looks well, that is 

 appropriate to its peculiar place and work. Fine 



