Vol. LXXVIII. 
Published Weekly by The Rural Publishing Co., 
333 W. 80th St., New York. Price One Dollar a Year. 
NEW YORK, JULY 19, 1919. 
Entered as Second-Class Matter, June 2G, 1ST?, at the Post 
Office at New York. N. Y.. under the Act of March 3, 1879. 
No. 4543. 
Beautifying, the Home Surroundings 
Within Reach of the Country Women 
Part I. 
T IIE NEED OF BEAUTY'.—The plea of “A Plain Farm Woman.” on page 
1001, for vines and morning-glories at the windows, and the whole 
yard polka-dotted with 
flowers and shrubs, ha - 
set me to thinking of 
the great transforma¬ 
tion a few flowers would 
make around the homes 
of many farmers, or 
probably the majority 
of farm homes. In 
driving through the 
country and noting the 
absence of effort to add 
a little beauty to the 
home by flowers or 
shrubs well placed, on 
so many farms, one oft- 
times wonders at the 
cause, and it has 
occurred to me that 
probably part of it is 
due to the very reason 
that H. 8. K. W. gives: 
that she is terribly ig¬ 
norant regarding flowers 
and iues. I suppose 
one sometimes loses 
sight of the lack of 
facilities in such mat¬ 
ters in the environment 
of others, when one lias 
so many opportunities 
for observation and ex 
periment as we natur¬ 
ally have owing to our 
working with flowers 
throughout the entire 
season. 
FLOWER - LOVTXG 
WOMEN.—T have never 
met or spoken to a 
woman who did not 
love flowers, some ap¬ 
parently being more in¬ 
terested in them than 
in any other subject, 
though unite frequently 
I have heard men scoff 
at the idea of wasting 
time on anything so 
silly. 1 wonder if the 
farmer who would as¬ 
sist his wife with a lit¬ 
tle energy, time and 
money to plant a few 
flowers, and encourage 
the kiddies with the 
love for them, to assist 
in their care, and to 
plant some for their 
own pleasure, would 
not be doing a very wise 
thing to keep those chil¬ 
dren contented at home as they grow older. When we see a house with abso¬ 
lutely no attempt made to beautify it in any manner does it not impress us as 
a place to get away 
from rather than one 
where we would care to 
live? Another question 
in my mind is whether 
or not H. S. K. W. 
would be perfectly sat¬ 
isfied after she had a 
row of hollyhocks along 
the front walk and the 
lawn polka-dotted with 
flower beds. It would 
seem to me that the for¬ 
mer would rather be too 
tall for such a location, 
and they would require 
staking to proven t 
storms blowing them to 
pieces. 
PLANT I Nf; PLANS. 
—-The prevailing prac¬ 
tice in planting- flowers 
and shrubs is to cover 
the bare foundation 
walls of the dwelling 
with some kind of shrub 
or flowering plant, or 
usually a well-selected 
mixture of the two. 
Where economy is a 
consideration .T apanese 
barberry is an excellent 
material to use. though 
a few dwarf evergreens 
or broad-leaved ever¬ 
green shrubs in mixture 
will add variety and give 
a background for flow¬ 
ering plants in the front 
of the shrubs. If the 
house is brick red flow¬ 
ers should not be 
planted too close to it. 
best contrasting results 
being obtained by using 
white or yellow, and in 
like manner if the house 
is very light use red or 
other deep-colored flow¬ 
ers. After planting at 
the. base of the dwelling 
the next step should be 
along the rear and sides 
of the lawn, rather than 
at the front, or in small 
round or various odd- 
tnaped beds scattered 
toward the front of the 
house. There are many 
beautiful flowering 
plants that can be used 
When the Lilacs Were in Bloom. Fig. 306 that will give a succcs- 
