538 



BACKWOOD GARDENS. 



no other thought than the city. A city cousin is 

 their delight, and the bits of slang they manage to 

 pick up are conned over and mouthed as delicious 



morsels. It is only 



natural then, I sup- 

 pose, that they should 

 effect an extreme con- 

 tempt for things green 

 and vernal, and at their 

 first opportunity follow 

 their cousins to town. 

 The country's hope is 

 in its boys, of course, 

 and tliis country's hope 

 is very faint — popula- 

 tion and land-values 

 decreasing together 

 and farming generally 

 going down. There are, for a fact, seventy less 

 inhabitants in this township now than there were 

 in 1820, and the same story is heard very often 

 elsewhere. The explanation everywhere given is 

 that " the larger farms west swallow up the little 

 ones east." So much for the cause of the Eastern 

 Backwoodism. 



Flowers and gardens consequently would have a 

 poor chance were it not for the women folk, and 

 even they, in their floral surroundings, are forced 

 to be unambitious — public sentiment being so thor- 

 oughly against them. The weakness for flowers, 

 when it exists, is amiably tolerated, but the universal 

 feeling seems to be that not too much time must be 

 wasted and no money expended. 



I know two or three gardens, quite extensive and 

 flourishing, that as far as plan goes are a mere 

 growth of the years, aided by expert bargaining 

 from time to time, and have cost not one cent of 

 money. It is on record that once a reckless woman 

 subscribed to a farmer's journal that netted her as 

 a premium a Storm King fuschia, but the poor Storm 

 King sickened and died and made such a melan- 

 choly example of itself, that the experiment has 

 never been repeated. * * * The neighbors, 

 when they indulge in a call, poke around among the 

 flowers while they talk, as a general thing, and 

 when they discover a plant new or rare to the 

 locality, hasten to take a "slip." It is a very 

 formal call indeed that doesn't produce for the 

 visitor a half-dozen acquisitions, and the hostess, 

 unconsciously business-like, makes a note of it, and 

 when the call is returned takes every care to make 

 the exchange even. This system of exchange is 

 the secret of the growth of the gardens of the 

 backwoods, and one result is that the same flowers 



re-appear at every farmhouse. Youth-and-old- 

 age (zinnias), lady-slippers, marigolds, queen 

 marguerites (asters), day lilies (at least three dis- 

 tinct lilies are so called here) are abundant, and 

 perhaps the most characteristic. Every yard has 

 them more or less in profusion. The zinnia is a 

 plant wonderfully well able to take care of itself, 

 and seems to take a special delight in blooming and 

 brightening the homes of the very poor. They and 

 marigolds may be plebeian, but I do not think I ever 



saw a more brilliant display than the beds of these 

 flowers that adorned the front of an old darky wood- 

 chopper's hut. He had but a small space between 



