4 MAKING HORTICULTURE PAY 



place, make a home instead of a group of barns and 

 houses, big and little. A farm with a home on it 

 has an increased value far in excess of the cost of 

 the gardens and grounds that make it a home. 



From such a home the rising generation is slower 

 to depart than from the farm where they are ab- 

 sent, and to it those who do leave will return more 

 gladly than to the bleak acres void of either. There- 

 fore, if it be true that human love is reached by the 

 highway to the stomach, and that digestion is better 

 where one is contented and happy, it certainly fol- 

 lows that love of home will rest upon a far more 

 secure footing where gardens and orchards are part 

 of the farm equipment than where they are not. 

 So the farmer who has both is the man who is not 

 only enjoying life as he goes along; but is fostering 

 a love of home, which is the bulwark of nations. 



There is still another way in which horticulture 

 will pay, and that is in the opportunity it affords 

 to help one's neighbors. At first this may seem to 

 be limited to giving away a few vegetables, fruits, 

 and flowers, or inviting friends to enjoy these lux- 

 uries on the place or at the home table. But soon 

 these hospitalities do their gentle work and one 

 neighbor after another will begin to slick up his 

 place a bit and plant an orchard and a vegetable 

 garden, and, perhaps, a little later, set out some 

 ornamentals. Thus the whole community will get 

 the benefit of one good example. Who can estimate 

 the value to the nation as this influence extends? 

 The way to estimate how horticulture pays is far 

 beyond any little dollars and cents measure, though 

 this must not be dropped from view. 



