428 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
that is not improved, with very little money, very little time, and 
still less help, has the means at hand of beautifying that home if 
he will only think so. As soon as the farm is purchased, the 
work of adorning it should begin, and should ever keep pace 
with the other improvements ; but he must be contented with a 
small beginning, and not wait until one hundred trees can be set, 
or costly shrubbery purchased, but plant ten trees, or five, or one,, 
and set the simplest flowers that may be had almost anywhere for 
the asking ; soon he will see a way to purchase other trees, and 
raise flowers, and he will work easier and better, and accomplish 
more, and be all the happier for doing it. Whatever is done for 
one’s home is ever present to be enjoyed by the whole household, 
and that which brings most true enjoyment pays best. How to 
invest labor so that it will bring the greatest possible benefits, is 
quite as much of a problem as how to invest money so that it will 
bring the greatest per cent., and one on which the farmer, more 
than any other man, may study upon long and with profit. There 
must be no waiting for the new house. The Spanish proverb may 
be fulfilled: “The new house is builded, and the hearse is at the 
door.” It is around the simplest cottage that nature’s jewels 
should be set. If there is one where flowers are most charming, 
it is when they are brought to adorn some humble abode; the 
lowliest home may have vines to cover it, bright flowers 
bloom near it, lovely trees shade it, poets sing about it, and 
artists picture it upon canvass ; but there is a living reality, 
an ever increasing beauty about it, that no pencil can ever 
portray. Children will catch the spirit of the loved spot; they 
will feel better and act better when surrounded with beautiful 
things. “ Fine feelings make fine manners,” says Dr. Holland. 
From these come the refinement; from the culture of the flowers 
comes the want for knowledge of the mysteries of their life and 
growth ; books and paper must be read to learn this ; from these 
come increased intelligence ; next comes a desire for the society of 
those engaged in the same work; this will cause sociability, and 
from these come pleasures and improvements in countless ways. 
Sons and daughters will become enthusiastic in this delightful 
work, and one, as he turns the dark soil beneath his feet, will long 
to know more of its wonderful properties, and of what it is com- 
