128 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
DOES IT PAY TO BEAUTIFY THE FARM? 
A Prize Essay by Dorothy Loomis, Madison, Wis. 
Copyrighted by the Wisconsin State Horticultural 
Society. Published by courtesy of that Society. 
M ORE and more the American world is learning to 
appreciate beauty and Art and, American like, is 
willing to pay for it. It is surprising what the 
effect of this has been on some forms of business. Take 
the theatre for instance, or the department store. Stage 
settings have increased in beauty and consequently in 
the cost of production, and large sums of money are now 
spent in department stores for the decoration of show 
windows. In both cases the production of beauty is a 
well laid scheme for attracting the public, and the policy 
is pursued not for Art’s sake at all but because Art can 
be turned into pure gain. 
And as it is with these and many other widely diversi¬ 
fied trades so it is with the business of farming. Is a 
bare, ugly, farmstead a good business proposition? Gan 
you afford not to beautify your farm? No, especially 
when you think of your farm as the stage setting of your 
part in life and your front yard as the show window of 
your character. 
But this consideration, though true, is abstract. You 
wish of course to put things on a practical basis and that 
is first what I am endeavoring to do. You want to be 
assured that it does pay to beautify your farm and you 
want to know how it can be done so as to make the beau¬ 
tiful at the same time profitable. 
Most of us feel that our practical side must be satisfied 
before we try to please our aesthetic sense but if we can 
be made to feel that we are killing two birds with one 
stone in satisfying both sides of our nature we have rea¬ 
son to be pleased. And on a fruit farm more than any 
other we can have that feeling for the orchard and its 
accessories can be made to serve the double purpose of 
utility and beauty. 
Then getting down to brass tacks, in what ways does it 
pay to beautify the farm? 
First is the increase in value which is bound to follow 
any effort to make your place more attractive. Any 
farmstead whose house is framed with trees, whose 
porches are shaded with vines, whose front yard is a 
smooth expanse of lawn, whose objectionable features 
are screened from view by a pleasing arrangement of 
trees, shrubs and vines has risen in value entirely out 
of proportion to the money and time spent on it, while a 
neighboring farm with land just as good, and buildings 
just as expensive will not be so likely to sell for what it 
is worth as long as it stands bleak and bare, without any 
shrubs to soften the harsh outlines of the house, or vines 
to conceal discrepancies and the ugliness of its outbuild¬ 
ings, while no trees frame its view,, or that view is cut 
off by something ugly, and while its front yard is still a 
pigsty. 
Prospective buyers unless possessing a vivid and con¬ 
structive imagination will not look beyond difficulties 
like the foregoing and the psychological effect of the two 
different kinds of farmyard treatment will make an as¬ 
tounding difference when it comes to dollars and cents. 
But this is only making beauty pay if we are selling 
the farm, but what if we intend to keep it as most of us 
do. Does it still pay to make improvements? One 
would almost be tempted to say that it is more profitable 
to keep a beautiful farm than to sell it. 
The appearance of a place is the criterion of the kind 
of people who own it. Scrub cattle, dirty milk, wormy 
fruit, poor vegetables are expected from farms with un¬ 
painted buildings, a filthy barnyard, an unornamented 
house and scrub chickens running about the front yard. 
You do not care to see the farmer and much less do you 
wish to buy anything from him. And yet you can travel 
through the country and see just such or worse looking 
farms than this, and so numerous that the nice looking 
farmsteads are the exception and you come to feel that 
farm life must be a hideous thing. Would you prefer 
to trade at a farm like one of these or would you go far¬ 
ther up the road where a spick and span yard, fine trees 
and a well cared for garden indicate thrift, care and in¬ 
telligence? You cannot help but feel that anyone who 
will spend thought and care on beautifying his farm will 
bend every effort to make his produce desirable. You 
may not have thought out the relation of a well kept 
yard to the character of the owner and the nature of his 
goods. You have merely been attracted by the show 
window of his front yard, an advertisement which has 
brought you in and then prompted you to buy. 
And while we are speaking of the element of adver¬ 
tisement in the effect of an attractive farm upon a passer¬ 
by, let me say that nothing has a greater influence than 
the approach to a place and the view you get of it from 
the road. A good gateway above which is placed a neat 
and artistic sign giving the name of the place and its 
owner, does a great deal for advertisement. Your drive 
must be direct but let it be pleasing, and let it lead to the 
house in such a way that you get the best view of it. 
The house should be partly hidden, but not obliterated 
by trees, especially evergreens which give a gloomy look 
when planted close to the house. The lawn should have 
a graceful sweep and not be broken up by gaudy flower 
beds, and dotted with fresh shrubs and trees. The 
shrubbery should hang together and have a definite pur¬ 
pose. 
The annual beds and fancy varieties of shrubs and 
trees are not for the farmer. He has not the time nor 
money to spend on anything but what will grow in beanty 
and have lasting charm. Therefore he will plant the 
American elm and the oak, and will avoid those weeping 
and cut-leaved varieties of trees, of which he will 
quickly tire. All of his plant materials must be thor¬ 
oughly hardy to his region, for what he plants, must stay 
as he has not the time for replanting every year. And 
best of all those things which will make his grounds 
most beautiful are growing wild in his own woods or 
that of his neighbors and require little expense to trans¬ 
plant and make his own. 
This problem of beautifying the farm is as you see 
neither a great nor expensive one and is less so if you are 
a fruit grower, for the orchards may be so situated so 
that they furnish a delightful view from your porches or 
