IN THE FRONT YARD. 53 



with a sigh, ''I must go to Florida this winter, for 

 Fido is ailing.'^ 



Could such things cultivate flowers and dogs, too? 

 Here in l^ebraska a banker sent for quite a bill of 

 choice stock. He was willing to pay a good price. A 

 year after he wrote me that though the stock seemed 

 fine, yet it was not doing well. I went to see him, 

 and a more woe-begone and bedraggled lot of stuff I 

 never saw. The beautiful evergreens which should 

 have been a pride and a joy were sick and dying. 



^'How many dogs do you keep?" I asked. 



^^Six." 



^'I should think so, by the way they have got in 

 their work." 



I was angry to see the finest trees that money could 

 produce ruined in that way. 



I heard J. W. Manning, the leading horticulturist 

 of Massachusetts, say in the Horticultural Society of 

 Boston, '^that dogs ruined more evergreens and choice 

 shrubs than all other causes combined. The dog, like 

 death, loves a shining mark, and his peculiar system 

 of irrigation is death. So if you are bound to culti- 

 vate dogs you might as well give up flowers. On the 

 farm a good shepherd dog is often a necessity and he 

 has generally enough to do to keep out of mischief. 



I am often annoyed by great worthless dogs rushing 

 in among my flowers and breaking or tearing them 

 down. A dog has no more right to run at large than 

 has a cow or horse. 



It is sometimes pathetic to see a lady try to cul- 



