loss. It was the maxim of a successful farmer, always to 

 have work under cover for rainy days, and never to work in- 

 doors in pleasant weather. 



No fiirnier who cares for the health and comfort of his fam- 

 ily will be without a good vegetable garden, the real value 

 and luxury of which cannot well be reckoned in dollars and 

 cents. 



A neat and well kept flower garden is always a source of 

 pleasure and refinement, and it is surprising to notice the im- 

 provement in floriculture, within a very few years. Nearly 

 every door-yard contains asters, verbenas and geraniums, for 

 which ten years ago any florist in the country would have 

 taken first prizes. 



The farmer should think as Avell as work. His library, 

 however small, should contain a few of the best standard 

 works, and the leading agricultural papers ; none of them 

 but will suggest some idea, and the thought goes before the 

 act. 



A farmer's club is of great value always, both for its prac- 

 tical utility and for drawing out the best social qualities. The 

 rural town where I live has sustained such an one uninter- 

 ruptedly for over twenty years, and although many of the 

 earlier members have left us, their words, their thoughts, still 

 live in our community. 



Shade trees, which are indispensable in their proper place, 

 are often planted too thickly and too near our dwellings, es- 

 peciall}^ in towns and villages, thus causing them to be dark 

 and unhealthy, when they should be light and cheerful. The 

 larger species of evergreens are very much out of place on 

 the sunny sides of our houses, while they would be very ap- 

 propriate and necessary as screens and windbreaks along the 

 cold and exposed sides of our buildings. I would recommend 

 that a permanent committee on planting and locating shade 

 trees be chosen in every town and village ; the office would 

 seem almost as important as that of the architect or landscape 

 gardener. Rows of deciduous trees, planted along our road- 



