No. 4.] NEW ENGLAND A(}KICULTUKE. 103 



about the homes. No luattcr how much one gathcr.s, how 

 bright the c-olors, how attractive the spot, if the touch of 

 the artist is not seen in straight I'uiiows, clean hedgerows, 

 neat, tidv outbuildinirs and well-tilled fields, wc know that 

 life there has been shorn of its ambition and SAvept of its 

 enthusiasm. 



Along one of j^our main trunk lines there are two pictures 

 which I would that 1 might paint so that you w^ould not 

 forget. Across a broad field, through which runs a brook, 

 I see, backed by a hill, a neat white dwelling and long red 

 barn and outbuildings. The fields, naturally rocky, are well 

 kept, the buildings attractive, the yard clean, and the whole 

 a picture to be cherished. Again, I see another field; the 

 fences are down, the weeds growing rank in the corn, the 

 brush is along the fences and through the fields. The loca- 

 tion is a pleasing one, but the buildings are unpainted, 

 except the house ; the farm implements are scattered about 

 the place, the stani}) of shiftlessness is clearly to be seen ; 

 but the farm is named, for on the roof I read, in large let- 

 ters, "Allcock's plasters cure pain.*' Are not these two 

 men artists, and have they not painted pictures which will 

 not be forgotten ? 



No more attractive sight meets the eye of the traveller 

 than the name of the farm clearly painted on the gable of 

 the barn, when in harmony with the sun-oundings ; but no 

 man with a shadow of self-respect will sell his home for an 

 advertising bill-board. 



You cannot promote your agriculture on this low level. 

 We must have more pride in our farms, until we are able to 

 put a stop to the decorating of rocks, trees, fences and 

 buildings for the profit of merchandise. Every roof or wall, 

 tree, rock or fence, so blemished, is a barrier in the path of 

 agricultural development, in that it belittles the picture of 

 the home and loAvers the conception of the farm. 



Sir Humphrey Daly, the great English artist, once said 

 that he " never allowed himself to look on a poor picture, 

 because of its influence upon his own hand and brush." 

 Subtle influences, of seemingly trivial im[)ortance, often 

 change the whole tenor of one's life ; and, for the l)est 



