NEW YORK, MARCH 6, 1909. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR. 
Vol. LXVIII No. 3084. 
BEAUTIFYING A FARM HOME. 
Landscape Art in Rural Conditions. 
In the late Summer, having sold our 
Pennsylvania farm, we had a series of 
photographs taken as mementos of the 
old home. While inconveniently lo¬ 
cated from a business point of view, we 
loved the place for unexpected financial 
returns, and still more because with a 
little care it had grown to be really pic¬ 
turesque. As some of the few simple 
features of home adornment may be 
of interest to others, the pictures are 
here reproduced in Figs. 85, 86 and 87. 
It should be understood that there had 
been no attempt to lay out and plant 
from the viewpoint of the landscape 
gardener, but just such inexpensive 
touches as with a little labor, thought and 
care would lend an exquisite charm to 
many a shabby country home. I wish 
I could illustrate that point by pictures 
of the same place as it appeared 10 
years ago. Imagine a number of almost 
useless, unsightly and dilapidated fences 
scattered about the place; the small vine- 
covered building constructed as it is of 
logs and daubed with mud, standing 
askew, stark and bare a short distance 
from its present location, and almost 
in front of the house; a whitewashed 
board structure serving as springhouse 
standing in the glare of the sun where 
now a neat stone building nestles in 
the shade of a willow grown from a 
twig to goodly size in a few years; the 
house of uncouth structure with its 
severe lines only slightly relieved by a 
few scant grapevines, and apparently 
clinging to the hillside by considerable 
effort, and assisted in the effort by a 
tumble-down wall in front. To the pic¬ 
ture add a rickety hoghouse and the di¬ 
lapidating effect of irregular lengths of 
board in gable of lean-to of barn where 
the arch now appears, and the place is 
fairly complete. The combined expense 
of building hoghouse, springhouse and 
terracing lawn was about $300, but it 
will be noted that with the exception of 
terracing lawn, which cost about $100, 
and could have been made quite satis¬ 
factory for one-half that sum, the strik¬ 
ing features of change are altogether in¬ 
expensive. Yarding the poultry and re¬ 
moving useless fences; moving two 
.'mall buildings bodily a short distance; 
planting a small vineyard, which by the 
way has been very profitable, on the bleak 
1 lside behind the house; placing a 
?rry tree and two willow twigs in ap- 
i’ :,) priate places; planting one Wistaria 
■ 1 a honeysuckle bv the log structure 
t serves as a shop, and two of the 
magic-like growing Japanese Kudzu 
'aKs, one at each end of the house; re- 
' ing the unsightly wall and terracing 
11 (why are ugly stone walls so 
common where inexpensive and hand- 
mo terraces would serve every pur- 
P°»e) ; together with trimming the un- 
■ ■ 11 gable to an arch have wrought al- 
't the entire change. There were, of 
course, opportunities for many other 
improvements, some at least of which 
u °uld have been made, had it not been 
HIDING THE UGLY ANGLES. Fig. 85. 
: **£ 
BEAUTIFYING A PENNSYLVANIA FARM-HOUSE. Fig. 86 . 
WHAT A FEW VINES WILL DO. Fig. 87. 
that for some years past we have 
planned a change of location. 
Florida. d. l. hartman. 
CELERY AS A MONEY CROP. 
Big Returns When Well Cared For. 
I raised and sold at retail the past 
Fall $645 worth of French Golden Self- 
Bleaching celery from a little less than 
an acre. The sales were as follows: 
August 29, $18; September 5, $20; Sep¬ 
tember 12, $23; September 19, $22; Sep¬ 
tember 26, $32; October 3, $28; Octo¬ 
ber 10, $16.80; October 17, $26.20; 
October 24, $33.20; October 31, $42; 
November 6, $52; November 13, $50.90; 
November 20, $37.40; November 26, 
$73.20; November 28, $26.50; Novem¬ 
ber 30, $1.65; December 5, $37.10; De¬ 
cember 12, $27.90; December 19, $21; 
December 24, $26.60; December 31, 
$25.70. A wagoti was run the last two 
days of each week from August 29 to 
December 31 to the following places: 
Mendham, Morristown, Bernardsville, 
Peapack and Far Plills, and a man was 
sent on the train for a few weeks to 
Succasunna, Dover and Rockaway and 
three times to High Bridge. The celery 
was delivered to private customers. I 
regard this celery trade as about the 
most constant and the surest source of 
ready money during the Fall months. 
The average sales were $35 per week 
for 18 weeks. A wagon has gone to 
most of these places each Fall for sev¬ 
eral years, and the sale is always about 
the same. The wagon can always re¬ 
turn with from $25 to $35 in cash for 
the last two days of each week during 
the Fall. The celery crop, if well taken 
care of, has no diseases and no enemies. 
It is a sure crop and there is prac¬ 
tically no risk. I have raised celery 
for eight or nine years, and have never 
had any disease in the plants or crop 
except rot, caused by pushing the boards 
too close together in the Summer, or 
hilling it up too early in September. 
If the growth of the celery is pushed 
rapidly so that it is brittle, and it is 
fresh cut, it will sell against any amount 
of shipped celery that may be in the 
market. 
After customers learn that it is fresh 
and brittle, that only good stalks are 
put in the bunches, and that the bunches 
are always of uniform size, many of 
the people in each town will take it 
every week, whatever other celery may 
be offered. In Morristown there are 
eight vegetable* wagons running all the 
time, all selling shipped celery, and most 
of the butcher shops and grocery stores 
also sell celery. It is also regularly 
sold in all of the other towns mentioned 
above except one, but the fresh cut 
celery always has its customers who will 
wait for it. A town of 800 to 1000 
people will take about $100 worth of 
celery in the four months, and this can 
be raised on less than a quarter of an 
acre. A town of twice the size will take 
twice as much. Celery will grow well 
