164 
THE AMERICAN 
GARr>^5^: 
June. 
&IRLS IN THE GASDEN. 
K there is anything more conducive to the 
health of girls and young women than some 
regular, systematic, light garden work we 
should like to know what it is; surely it is 
not to be found in the drug store. Thou¬ 
sands of frail, listless, pale-faced girls to 
whom the world seems a burden, could 
transform themselves into healthy, liappy, 
ioyful beings, by this simple remedy. AVe 
offer it without charge, if you will only try it. 
Commence some pleasant, cool morning, 
after breakfast, not before, uutii you are 
considerably stronger—by making a small 
flower-bed, sowing a few seeds, planting 
some bedding plants, or tying up a climbing 
Hose or a Honeysuckle. Make it' your regu¬ 
lar business every day to spend an hour in 
your garden, watching and caring for your 
plants. It does not matter how small the 
beginning is. In fact, the less you undertake 
at first, provided you do • it well, the better 
will be your success. The main point to se- 
cm-e is to create an interest in your work, 
and this cannot be accomplished if you over¬ 
work yourself and become discouraged at 
the start. To be promotive of good the 
work must be a pleasure, not hardship. 
HOETICTILTTOAl AEOBNMENT. 
Near all our large cities there are many 
small or moderate-sized homes belonging to 
that highly-respected class of the community 
who are yet engaged in active business in the 
cities, and who have become possessed of a 
small tract of land in the country. It may 
be from a love of niral surroundings and an 
attachment for comitr}’ life formed in boy¬ 
hood, or from a desire to obtain more relax¬ 
ation for themselves and surround their fam¬ 
ilies with that abundanee of fresh air, pure 
water and the facilities for healthful enjoy¬ 
ment not to be obtained in a city home. 
This class, whatever may have been the mo¬ 
tives which have prompted them, is very 
numerous and rapidly increasing. 
The owners of these Iiomes are generally 
inclined to immediately cominencc to adorn 
their possessions, but are frequently igno¬ 
rant of how to do this, though iheoi-etically 
they may be well informed in book knowl¬ 
edge and catalogue literature. 'I'hey come 
to the country with an ardor and desire to 
partake of its comforts, luxuries and enjoy¬ 
ments. They purchase their cow and chick¬ 
ens and expect from them to derive at once 
all the benefits of an abimdance of milk, 
butter and eggs. They then look to the 
nursery man to sujqdy them with ti (;eH that 
will bear fruit the first season without fail 
and continuously during their mitural lives. 
Hiey have ojie acre or more of land, and 
usuiilly c,\pect from this all the pi’oducts of 
a place ten times the size, and frequently, 
as a consequence, their trees, pl.aiits and 
vines are set out so close together that the 
results from none of them are satisfactoi-y. 
’Twere well tor all when planting out an 
orchard or garden to consult the tables laid 
down by long experience as to the proper dis¬ 
tances for planting. I adjiiit to many the 
distance may seem unnecessary at the time, 
but rest assui'cd that if the trees grow and 
thrive as they should under good eultivutiou 
results 
they will eventually produce 
than if twice the number were P™' jj. 
•Our city farmer, having planted 1 us fud 
trees, desires the further adornmen of h 
rural home, especially so if 1“® f 
been built on a new site and laol'S Pi 
from the summer’s sun or wintci • 
He secures, most likely, the larges 
that can be transplanted and plao^s 
unnaturally close to his residence, and thinks 
it strange lie cannot stretch liis hammock 
beneath their luxuriant shade tlie first sum¬ 
mer. This planting of trees so near a dwell¬ 
ing as to prevent the free cireulation of air 
around it is an error. It is the shadow, not 
the branches, that should strike tlie liousc. 
Again, it is not necessary that a tree 
should be excessively large wlicn moved to 
make a quick and abundant .shade. A fine, 
thrifty, healthy tree, of moderate growth, 
in nine cases out of ten, will in live yeais 
give more sliade and become a finer tree 
than the excessively large one. 
An additional oruaiiientatlon of these 
homes with flowering shrubs and evergreen 
trees, judiciously interspersed, and fencing 
the lawn with an evergreen hedge of Ameri¬ 
can Arbor Vitie or Hemlock Spruce, will do 
much to beautify and adorn them botli in 
summer and in winter. For what can be 
more ornamental in summer than the con¬ 
trast between a beautifully kept greensward 
and a clump of handsome flowering shrubs; 
or in winter the dark foliage of ever¬ 
greens ill contrast with the snowy canopy 
of mother eartli? 
But there is another class of country resi¬ 
dents that, I fear, is not so fully convinced 
of the desirability and advantages of the em¬ 
bellishment of their rural homes. Many of 
our farmers consitler any outlay in this di¬ 
rection rather as an extravagance; they do 
not realize the effects of making home at¬ 
tractive in this way, and the influence it ma}’^ 
exert on the younger members of tlie family. 
They may have provided an abundance of 
Grape-vines and small fruits, and an inex¬ 
haustible supply of orchard fruits, thinking 
in doing this they had done all that M'as 
necessary to make home attractive and com¬ 
fortable. But not so, according to the hi- 
junction,—“These ought ye to have done and 
not have left the other undone.” 
The expenditure of a small amount of 
money in the ])nrchase of orn.amoiital trees, 
shrubs, Hoses and climbing jilants, and their 
proper ari'angemcnt, so as to produce the 
needful shade and at the same time to hide 
any unsightly objects from view, will well 
repay for the investment. 
Many farmers look iiiion gi-ound devoted 
to a lawn or yard as little better than wasted, 
and feel that they can 111 afford to set aside 
half an acie or more around their dwelling, 
ill which they may in all probability spend 
tin; remainder of their lives. They count 
the loss thus sustained by the miinher of 
hiishels of Gorn, Oats or Potatoes that said 
land would yield annually. But too often I 
fear these same farmers imglect to count the 
land wasted in improvised rockeries, covered 
with Oewherry and J’oisoii Vines, unsigl,tl v 
fenci! corne.rs or hedges of .Sumac and ICI,!,,,. 
that in all probability infest tlnflr farms 
Have your yard and dispense with these un’ 
sightly objects, and your farm will he 
as profitable and far more attractive. 
Tliwe is spnnitlilng pleHSiiifi iil^oifl; a rural 
quite 
home that has been laid out and planted 
with some degree of taste and propriety. 
Thou<rh the buildings may be nothing more 
than ordinary, yet if there has been an ap¬ 
propriate interspersing of evergreens and de¬ 
ciduous trees in a manner that will break 
the winter’s blasts from coming with un- 
diminislied violence against the dwelling, 
and a further adornment by shrubbery and 
licdo-es, there is something about such a 
hoine that will exert an influence on the 
younger generation, and may be the means 
of cimsing them to form aprcfcrcnccfor 
a country life instead of seeking their for¬ 
tunes in the large cities. 
Surely the remunerative ]jrices these farms 
with attractive farm buildings and pleasant 
surroundings bring when placed on the 
market should bo an incentive to try to 
make our own so. When we couple with 
this the satisfaction there is in having one’s 
lot cast in pleasant places, and one’s family 
gatliercd around, as it were, beneath one's 
own Vine and Fig tree, there is that inde¬ 
scribable satisfaction and liapplness which 
cannot be measured by mere dollars and 
cents, but will go very far toward compen¬ 
sating for the outlay necessary for the “Hor¬ 
ticultural Adornment of our llural Homes.” 
— IF. 11. Moon before the Penn, llort. Society. 
COUNTRY JOTS. 
Every industrious and healthy person, 
even if he begins life with nothing and se¬ 
cures a small yearlj'^ suiqilus from his earn¬ 
ings (and discards all worse than useless 
luxuries miscalled such), says John J. 
Thomas, may secure for himself a pleasant 
and comfortable place of his own. 
I once counted within the contracted en¬ 
closure of a friend living in a compact part 
of New York city, no less than forty species 
of ornamental jilants, besides his Currants, 
Easpberries, and Grapes. But the country 
resident has greater opportunity than this, 
and a much wider field for working. It is 
here that influential horticulturists - may ex¬ 
ert an iininciise benefit in the way of adding 
to the enjoyment and happiness of others by 
promoting such improvements. Thej' can 
show how practicable it is to obtain a supply 
of fruits the year througii, and the beauties 
and benefits of ornamental planting. 
The horticulturist lias, within his own 
grounds, the opportunities for constant in-, 
tellectual enjoyment. The pleasure aflbrdcd 
by the laliors of propagation, planting, 
pruning, and culture—in watching the swell¬ 
ing buds of spring, the bursting blossoms 
and the development of the various fruits of 
summer—the grandeur of nature's foliage, 
and the magnificence of the wide landscape 
with its clouils and skies, these enjoyments 
cannot bo obtained by those who spend all 
I'heir time and every thought in bending 
down to the earth in making money. I do 
not say that the e.nit.ure of fruit and flowers 
can completely (111 the measure of haiipiness 
in this present life, nor supply what Christ¬ 
ianity alone can give, which stands, in its 
iMihicnce, ahovo all else, like an edillco of 
glory, perfect in form and radiance; but 
I'orticultnre may continue its spotless col¬ 
umn with wreaths of heanty, and thus hiv 
come an Invaluable aid in benefiting the 
niinan race. It is here that nur.servmen and 
•"■ists have before them a noble'and sub- 
ilmo mission in exalting nmilart. 
