Page 30 



BETTER FRUIT 



May 



IMPROVING THE SURROUNDINGS OF YOUR HOME 



BY PROFFESSOR H. F. MAJOR, INSTRUCTOR IN LANDSCAPE GARDENING, UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI 



THAT the average true American 

 delights in clean surroundings and 

 plenty of fresh air is a most pleas- 

 ing fact. Most of the slothfulness and 

 slovenliness in our country seems to be 

 associated with new inhabitants unused 

 to our customs and ideals. 



Our country is large, our institutions 

 are large, our mountains, our streams, 

 our lakes and our fields are the largest 

 in the world, and it is this "bigness" that 

 characterizes the American people with 

 an individuality so different from all 

 other nationalities. Let us, then, nourish 

 and protect this individuality by estab- 

 lishing big and high ideals, and always 

 working toward a bigger and better end. 

 Let us always seek to improve our social 

 and economic conditions. 



God has given us a big sky, a big land 

 and a big field to work in and we should 

 maintain it as befits our highest ideals. 



It is not necessary that a man should 

 spend a million, a thousand or even a 

 hundred dollars in improving his place 

 if he cannot afford it. but he should be 

 willing and try to make the very most 

 of what he has to do with, and in this 

 way he will be doing the biggest thing 

 that he can do. 



Perhaps the first question that arises 

 is. "How large a piece of ground must I 

 have for my yard?" And I say anywhere 

 from a spot forty feet square up to 

 twenty-five acres or more, but never 

 more than you can afford to maintain 

 after you have once developed it. 



Some of you are holders of small city 

 properties, but in the main I direct my 

 remarks to the average farmer who can 

 afford to have from one-half to three or 

 four acres of ground about his house. 

 Now, this area is not to be occupied by 



COMMON SNOWBALL 

 Residence of W. Merriman, 304 East Si,xteentli Street 



WISTERIA 



barns, chicken houses and stable yards, 

 but is the ground given over to the lawns, 

 flower gardens and the out-of-door liv- 

 ing room that every farmer and every 

 farmer's wife delights in. 



I take it for granted you have all made 

 a choice of the land set apart for this 

 purpose and that the house is already 

 located in the lot. 



However, let me state an important 

 fact to be considered in the location of 

 the house and something about the style 

 of that house: First, the best exposure 

 is the south and east", and if possible 

 the better rooms — i. e., the living rooms — 

 should face in this direction. Second, 

 these rooms — i. e.. the parlor, living room 

 and dining room — should look out upon 

 a wide, open lawn. Third, if your house 

 has a lot of gables, ginger bread fret 

 work under the eaves and around the 

 porch railings and pillars remove them 

 and replace with straight line simple 

 trimmings. Remember that the highest 

 type of refinement and beauty is only 

 possible through simplicity. Fourth, 

 build a good, big, wide sunny porch on 

 the lawn side of the house and another 

 at the kitchen door; cover these porches 

 with roses and Japanese clematis and 

 see what a wonderful improvement is 

 then accomplished. 



The improvement of the grounds 

 about the house is not always in put- 

 ting in a shrub here or a tree there, but 

 more often it consists in cleaning up and 

 knowing what to take out. Too much 

 planting in the yard, sprawling, low- 

 hanging limbs of shade trees and over- 

 grown hedge rows often shut out a beau- 

 tiful view of a distant green pasture, a 

 gentle stream or a lofty mountain peak. 



It is this ability to see from a place 

 and to look toward a place from a dis- 



tance that is the secret of a beautiful 

 homestead. 



It is an old and true saying that "dis- 

 tance lends enchantment." At the basis 

 of all high class development of out-of- 

 door scenery is, first, simplicity and then 

 extent. 



Look out upon your field, your pasture, 

 your distant hills and streams and learn 

 the value of that greatest wealth — the 

 summer sunset — which is all yours. 



When you are clearing pastures, wood- 

 lands or fields leave scattered here and 

 there an occasional clump of good shade 

 trees to protect the cattle from the heat 

 of summer suns and shelter them in win- 

 ter from the bleak north winds. Where 

 there is a choice cut out the soft wood 

 trees and leave the nut trees and the 

 good timber. This latter increases very 

 rapidly in value as years go by. 



If there are no shade trees near the 

 grounds some should be planted in rows 

 along the road or along the boundary of 

 the yard. Do not plant them in rows in 

 the yard, for this is an orchard style of 

 planting, and one that suggests the eco- 

 nomic and the commercial rather than 

 the beautiful. Here trees should be 

 planted in groups of three, five or seven, 

 or occasionally singly where it is desir- 

 able to shade a particular spot. 



As a general rule shrubs should be 

 planted in clumps or masses along the 

 border of the home grounds and in the 

 rear against the outbuildings. They 



CLEMATIS JACKMANII 

 Residence of W. Merriman, 304 East Sixteenth Street 

 North, Portland, Oregon 



