SURROUNDINGS OF THE HOME 245 



plants root the less likely they are to die in dry weather. 

 Frequent sprinklings in place of a thorough soaking of the soil 

 results in a shallow root growth. 



The care of a home garden is an excellent preparation for 

 the college courses in Agriculture that have to do with 

 man's part in shaping conditions so that the earth "may 

 yield her increase". Studies in plant biology, having to do 

 with the processes of plant growth and the perpetuation of 

 plant species, are made far more profitable because of 

 knowledge gained in the care of plants at home. 



It is by these labors in the garden, about the home, and in the 

 household that a love for the home place and its surroundings 

 is fostered. This is separate from and yet very closely 

 associated with a regard for those who make up the family 

 circle. It is these ties, wrought out perchance in weariness 

 at the time, which lead many a man and woman in the later 

 years of life to revisit and linger over the old home scenes. 

 Woe betides a nation whose young people grow up and never 

 learn through labor to make better some place that is to 

 them a home. In the surroundings of garden, trees, lawn, 

 and shrubbery, the home owner may find more of enjoy- 

 ment than in any restless wanderings to and fro in the world. 

 There is a dignity to labor, and a strength in citizenship, 

 closely associated with the maintenance of a home. We 

 may well suppose that the home of Longfellow's Village 

 Blacksmith was not far from the shop where it is said that in 

 honest toil 



"He earns whate'er he can, 

 And looks the whole world in the face, 

 For he owes not any man." 



John Howard Payne's "Home, Sweet Home" may well 

 be sung by each succeeding generation of American citizen- 

 ship as an expression of a healthy sentiment to cherish. 

 Love of home is a sure foundation for, if indeed it is not 



