116 Ornamental Planting. 



transient and speculative owner would never make, and it would tend 

 to the more solid foundation of our public institutions generally. The 

 man who settles temporarily for business, and expects to depart when 

 he becomes rich, spends no money upon public libraries, and cares noth- 

 ing for the charitable and educational establishments of the place, pro- 

 vided they do not burden him while he remains. His influence will 

 generally be adverse, if these objects require expenses that bring no 

 return during his stay, and he wUl prefer temporary expedients to per- 

 manent investments, if they but serve to bridge over the time of his 

 sojourn. The solid and substantial foundation of our institutions is 

 laid by those having a permanent interest in the prosperity of the 

 places where tliey are located. It is this class alone that erects 

 monuments, and that leaves evidence that its members have lived 

 for the welfare of those who are to come after them. It is a point 

 worthy of inquiry, as to whether much of this indifference to the 

 home of childhood and to the possessions of ancestors with which 

 Americans have been charged, is not due to their bleak aud cheer- 

 less surroundings. We can not doubt that the influence of a pleas- 

 ant rural homestead and the choice memories of refined associations 

 in early youth, are as capable of making as strong an impression 

 upon our native population as in any country whatever, and although 

 in the absence of laws of entail, and under the impulse of adventure, 

 or motives of interest, or the force of circumstances, a change of 

 ownership may often happen, and the choice and cherished homestead 

 become the property of a stranger, still the chances become less as 

 the attractions are greater, and a motive worthy of earnest and hon- 

 orable effort is presented, in favor of mainteuance in the family 

 line." 



458. In the choice of a site for farm buildings, while there is an 

 obvious convenience in having them near a highway, there are ad- 

 vantages to be considered in placing them more or less in the interior, 

 where a spring of water or perennial stream may offer conveniences 

 tliat money could not carry to a roadside residence, and a gentle 

 swell of land a site for building that a prince might envy. The 

 saving of labor and team-work, in cultivating such a centralized 

 farm, should not be overlooked. 



459. A neatly painted gateway should distinguish the main 

 entrance from others opening upon the highway, and if the farm be 

 of size to warrant the steady employment of a laborer with his 



