72 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[May, 



" In support of this amendment I desire to 

 say tliat there is no officer comiected witli the 

 Department of Agriculture who renders more 

 efficient service tlian the statistician. All the 

 statistics in the agricultural reports connected 

 with the agricultural interests of tliis country 

 are compiled by this officer or under his im- 

 mediate supervision ; and I venture the asser- 

 tion that there is not an officer having the 

 same qualifications to be found in any em- 

 ployment, either private or public, who is so 

 poorly compensated as the statistician in the 

 Agricultural Department. The salary attach- 

 ed to this office was originally $2,500 ; and in 

 the anxiety of the Committee on Appropria- 

 tions to make reductions, I think they have 

 made a serious mistake in reducing the salary 

 of this officer to f 1,800. I therefore ofter the 

 amendment, and I trust it will be adopted. 

 The question being taken, the amendment was 

 adopted. 



COMMERCE vs. AGRICULTURE. 



It may not be known to agriculturists that 

 while the Agricultural Division of Statistics, 

 involving the preparation of two series of 

 reports issued in larger numbers than all other 

 ofBcial reports combined, has for the present 

 year appropriationsamounting to only $11,800, 

 the Treasurj' Bureau of Statistics of Commerce 

 has $47,35.3, besides $12,978 for work of ex- 

 perts for Senator Windom's Transportation 

 Committee Report relative to inland com- 

 merce ; and this is little more than half the 

 appropriation for commercial statistics in pre- 

 vious years. Not that this provision is too 

 large ; but the former is utterly inadequate. 



Yet this is but a drop in the ocean of ap- 

 propriations in aid of commerce. In the 

 present year of pinching economy, there was 

 appropriated for Rivers and Harbors .$5,016,- 

 000 ; and for the Light-house establishment 

 S!2,.375,800. For Custom Houses and other 

 public works appropriations have averaged 

 $12,000,000 annually for the past five years. 



The amount appropriated to the Treasury 

 Department for postage in 1877, exceeds the 

 expenditures of the Department of Agriculture 

 in six months of the present year. 



The mere "continuation" of the building 

 of the custom hou.se in Evansville, Indiana, 

 (acknowledged to be of greater importance 

 than that of Hull, Massachusetts) receives 

 four times as much as Agricultural Statistics 

 and the Reports of Agriculture for the current 

 year. 



The amount appropriated for fuel, lights 

 and water for the buildings under the control 

 of the Treasury Department,^s nearly double 

 that of the present appropriation for the De- 

 partment of Agriculture. 



Half the Ugal interest on the amount annually 

 appropriated for Commerce would suffice for tlie 

 customary annual dole to Agriculture. 



Even the interest on the cost of supplies to 

 Indians for fulfillment of treaties woidd more 

 than equal the current appropriations for the 

 current year. 



For this state of things there is|a remedy ; 

 it is suggested by the fact that the rural classes 

 of the United States hold in their hands four 

 MILLIONS OF VOTES.— J^rom the Congressional 

 Record. 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING FOR FARM- 

 ERS.* 



It is such an easy thing to talk of beauty 

 and beautiful things, in a sort of general way, 

 without giving any real genuine instruction, 

 that I hesitate at the very outset, for the sake 

 of making a resolution that my aim in this 

 short address shall not be to say pretty words 

 about pretty possibilities, but the rather to 

 suggest and point out a popular want among 

 the formers of Michigan, and state some prac- 

 tical methods of answering it. 



The popular opinion too often would sneer 

 at placing in so intimate a relationship the 

 two extremes of my title— for the term Land- 

 scape Gardening brings up a picture of some 

 grand old place upon which the income of a 



*Read before the Michigau State Pomological Society, at 

 Pontiac, by Prof. C. W. Garfield, of Michigan Agrionltural 

 College. 



fortune has been expended, or a beautiful 

 park like those in our large cities, supported 

 by a general tax which private means can ill 

 afford to expend. While on the other hand 

 farmers are men of muscle, who follow the 

 plow and handle the spade from early morn 

 till dark, to raise the grain and vegetables for 

 the world to live upon, whose ideal of beauty 

 is supposed to culminate in a clover blossom 

 or a straight row of corn. I trust that these 

 ideas may be modified in time so tliat the 

 close relationship of the two will not only be 

 considered compatible, but will be a fact of 

 existence. 



The Landscape Gardening that I wish to 

 talk about is not a grand or expensive affair, 

 involving the necessity of a professional man 

 to conduct, or a large bank account to sup- 

 l)ort it. Far from this. It is a matter of very 

 little outlay ; it is a miserably cheap affair. 

 But water is cheap, and so is sunshine. What 

 among the most costly things you have would 

 you exchange for tliese ! 



Then the landscape gardening of which we 

 shall talk, has to do with such yearly, month- 

 ly, yes, daily modifications of our present 

 coimtry premises as shall transform them into 

 beautiful and attractive homes, render them 

 more valuable as property, and while we do 

 this, hint at the general principles of land- 

 scape art, upon which these details are found- 

 ed. 



WHY SHALL WE BEAUTIFY ? 



The first question that arises, the answer to 

 which is our incentive to the adornment of 

 our homes, is, why shall we beautify ? And 

 I answer first, for the beauty itself, and sec- 

 ondly for the inlluence that beauty has in 

 completing a rounded manhood and woman- 

 hood. Accompanying the development of a 

 tasty home, beautiful grounds, attractive 

 shrubbery, or delicate flower borders, is an- 

 other growth on the inside of the person de- 

 vising these embellishments, that is more 

 lasting and valuable than the outside modifica- 

 tions that seem so bbautifully transformed. 

 This is the growth of refinement; sometliing 

 that we can not measure by dollars and cents, 

 any more than we can measure faith and love. 

 But it has far more to do with tlie i>rogress of 

 civilization than the opening of the richest 

 silver lead, or the discovery of the largest dia- 

 mond held. These go up and down with the 

 supply, but the more retiuement we have the 

 greater premium there is on its acquirement. 

 We all see the necessity for more of it among 

 our farming people; from their isolation, there 

 comes a tendency to neglect the schooling of 

 the heart, in the channel of refinement, and 

 there is notliing that can so perfectly take the 

 place of society, and knowledge of its best 

 moulds, as close companionship with nature's 

 beautifid life forms, and the profuse employ- 

 ment of them in the adornment of a home. 

 There may be just as good a heart in the man 

 who in answer to a favor says : "That's a 

 good 'un, old fellow; if you want a lift call 

 around," as in the breast of another who 

 says : "Thank you kindly. I trust I can re- 

 turn the favor some time. " But while we ad- 

 mire the generous impulse of the one, we are 

 doubly pleased with the impulse and its deli- 

 cate expression in the other. We can not 

 come in contact with refined people without 

 unconsciously following in their wake, and 

 smoothing down the rough corners of our own 

 habits. So it is in the development of beau- 

 tiful grounds and attractive surroundings; 

 every new creation has its effect for good 

 upon the one that devised and moulded* it. 

 This in itself is a great reason for the adorn- 

 ment of our homes. Need I give others ? I 

 will suggest them. Secondly theu, I shall 

 name satisfaction of piossession. This I admit 

 is of much less consequence than the other, 

 still we are so constituted that the satisfac- 

 tion of having things is a stimulus to get 

 them. Of course the value of the acquisition 

 has much to do with the weight of this incen- 

 tive. The man who has a beautiful wife, 

 aside from all the pleasures she may bring to 

 his home, takes a great deal of comfort in the 

 thought that she is his own. (This instance 



is for my bachelor auditors). The woman 

 who grows a beautiful house plant, and by 

 her .skill succeeds in making it amodel of sym- 

 metry and floral wealth, has a little pleasure 

 in the fact of possession. The value of this 

 pleasure does not usually depend upon what 

 the acquisition will bring in ttie market, but 

 rather in om- interest and effort in the getting 

 of it. 



Again, there is the greatest good comes to 

 us through the development of all our facul- 

 ties, and it the germs are given us, why not 

 give them opportunity to grow, and thus fit 

 us for a wider field of work and appreciation 

 of what is created ? In the work of land.scap- 

 ing the farmer brings into use a new set of 

 faculties, and he is given opportunity to make 

 himself a broader man. A few years ago, 

 while land prospecting with a friend, in Kent 

 county, after passing across the fields for some 

 distance we came ;into a tangled woodland 

 undergrowth. We pushed our way through 

 this for some distance, and to make a bad 

 matter worse, we were obliged to cross a long 

 stretch of mire and sphagnum, which tested 

 our powers of endurance to the ntnio.st. .Inst 

 before we emerged from our difficulties we as- 

 cenrZedjin more open woodland, quite an eleva- 

 titm, and at its summit came upon the most 

 beautiful landscape I had then ever seen. In 

 the distance hill overtopped hill, until the 

 wavy outlines of blue only indicated the char- 

 acter of the country. Nearer to us, in a quiet 

 valley, lay the Grand river, pursuing a wind- 

 ing cour.se, and reflecting to us the sun's rays 

 iu such a manner as to convey the impression 

 of a river of silver. Here and there in the 

 valley and on the hillside new farmhouses, 

 and tile alternations of woodland and cleared 

 fields gave a beautiful variety to the distant 

 view. But best of all, at the foot of the hill 

 upon which we stood, snuggled into a quiet 

 retreat, almost surrounded by natural groves 

 of oaks, silver maples, and aspens, lay a calm 

 little sheet of water. It was the embodiment 

 of quiet, modest beauty. I had but just taken 

 in the outline of the.se beautiful views when 

 the rough salutation of a Teuton brought me 

 to a realization of the ground upon which 

 I stood. I was unconsciously treading 

 out a few heads of clover seed in my en- 

 deavor to grasp the grandeur of the scene be- 

 fore me. He unceremoniously reminded me 

 of the fact, and to mollify him I spoke of the 

 favored position he occupied in commanding 

 such a view. " Yaas, it was purty nice, but I 

 can show you somedings dat is better as all 

 dat, right by mine house." Glad that he was 

 turned from the cloverseed matter, I followed j 

 him to find, first, that his house, which was 

 very cleverly built, and indicated a thrifty j 

 farmer, was so placed as to have the barn be- 

 tween it and all this loveliness I had admired, ] 

 and imagine my disgust when I found "his] 

 ting dat vas so nice," was nothing more than 

 a pen full of fat pigs, evidently the pride of 

 the farm and the joy of the household. The 

 front porch where my new friend sat and 

 smoked, looked out upon this yard of swine, 

 and his ultimatum of the beautiful lay in their 

 fat sides. What this man lacked I would 

 have every farmer cultivate, and it is for the 

 development of the faculty which enables us 

 to appreciate the finer beauties of the world, 

 that I submit this answer to the question — 

 why shall we beautify ? 



Simply as a matter of benevolence we should 

 beautify our premises. I would not have you 

 think that I mean by this that we should 

 make our places tasty and attractive for the 

 sake of showing off to other people our ability 

 in this direction, but for the same reason we 

 would assist our neighbor in taking off his 

 wagon box. He is not able to do it alone, 

 and we can help him. There are hundreds 

 who pass your doors that can not fix up a 

 home and yard because they have none, but 

 who can keenly appreciate the neatness and 

 attractiveness of yours. 



Only a few days ago a man said to me, " I 

 passed your mother's yard a great many times 

 last summer, and never once without stopping 

 to admire a magnificent bunch of Magenta 



