ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 41 



The vegetables used by the people of that locality at that time were chiefly of field 

 growth, — potatoes, Swedish turnips and pumpkins. The fruits were apples, from seed- 

 ling and ungrafted trees, and the wild berries of the country, — strawberries from the 

 meadows, raspberries from the pastures and roadsides, and " high-bush " oranberries from 

 the swamps. The raspberries were spread on sheets of hemlock-bark, and dried in the 

 sun for winter use ; the strawberries and cranberries were preserved with maple-sugar. 

 I remember my only experience of cranberry jam. It was at a party to which I was 

 invited. I found myself incommoded by the large, flat, crustaceous seeds with which the 

 preserve abounded. I stole a glance around to see how my neighbors disposed of these 

 seeds and I found that the orthodox plan was 1o swallow them whole. I tried this for 

 the occasion, but from that day forth I carefully avoided " cranberry sass " — as it was 

 called in the vernacular. 



Happily the race I have spoken of have passed away. Many of them were seized 

 with the " Western fever," and moved to North Dakota aDd other distant places, to 

 retard civilization in them. Their rude dwellings also are gone, or have been altered out 

 of recognition. The succeeding generation is more enlightened and refined; The change 

 has been largely brought about by the agricultural association and county fairs, which, 

 through their prizes given for the best-cultivated farms, the best gardens, the finest 

 vegetables, fruits, and flowers, and the choicest productions in the arts of life, have done 

 a vast amount of good. Improved schools, superintended by well-trained teachers, have 

 fitted the rising generation to appreciate the agricultural and horticultural literature that 

 has been widely circulated — reports and bulletins from our Experimental Farms and 

 Scientific Associations ; papers and magazines on rural affairs ; and last, and I venture to 

 say not least, illustrated catalogues from our seedmen and florists. These last have done 

 much to create and foster a taste for horticulture. Now moreover improved machinery 

 and garden implements enable the farmer to carry on his gardening operations with ease 

 and expedition ; so that good results around the homestead may be obtained without 

 detriment to the operations on the farm at large. 



My ideal of a farmer's homeatead is this : a house facing the road, but a little back 

 from it, having convenient verandahs — that to the front being furnished with wide- 

 meshed wire netting extending from its base to its roof, for the support of such climbing 

 plants as the English honeysuckle and Jackman's clematis. The Virginia creeper, which 

 is a favorite on account of its free growth, is apt to hold moisture and rot the wood-work. 

 If grown at all it should be often trimmed. 



Behind the main building should be an extension connected with the dairy, wood- 

 shed j etc., and facing this a yard, approached by a sideroad, and bounded by a shed for 

 vehicles. Beyond this shed should be the cattle-yards with shelter for the animals, and 

 then the barns. 



In the lee of the buildings, though not in their shadow, I would have the ground 

 for small fruits, and beyond it the orchard. The bushes should be planted in rows, and 

 far enough apart to allow a steady horse with a cultivator to pass between them. Nothing 

 is gained by crowding plants. The use of the cultivator and hoe should keep the ground 

 around and under the bushes clean. 



The kitchen-garden proper should be unincumbered with bushes and permanent 

 paths, so that the manure carts may be driven anywhere over it, and the ground 

 thoroughly ploughed in the fall, and again in the spring. I would have no partitions of 

 beds except such as might be made with the hoe or shovel as occasion required. 



The drive to the front of the house should come with a sweep round the central 

 bed, and be flanked with flower-borders. Beyond these would be the lawn, with orna- 

 mental shrubs planted singly or in clumps : syringas, Tartarian honeysuckle, viburnum 

 plicatum, the purple-leaved berberry, and lilacs white and purple. 



