olden willow. Against that as a
background blazed out row upon row of the most brilliant flowers,
graduated down to the edge of the road, and extending as far as half a
city block or more. Think what a beautiful surprise for every one that
turned that corner. I think the occupants of the house must have enjoyed
sitting on their porch watching the people in the cars start with
pleasure and turn to look as they flew past. That farmer (or his wife)
knew something of the value of horticulture to the farm. Perhaps it was
a device of the farmer's wife to divert the gaze of the passer-by from
the porch, for you know we do stare shamelessly when we are on a joy
ride. At any rate, that farm would not be forgotten by any one that
passed it. The advertising that beauty spot gave his place would exceed
in value a column a week in the county paper, and not cost a tenth as
much.

Lowell remarks, "Nature with cheap means still works her wonders rare."
And there she stands with arms extended, offering the farmer all the
wealth and beauty he will put forth his hand to take.

Last fall I passed another farm down in Iowa, whose owner had tried to
make his place conspicuous by putting a concrete wall and gateway in
front of his house, and making lavish use of white paint in decorating
his buildings and grounds. He succeeded, but I cannot help thinking that
if he had put the money that useless concrete work cost into shrubbery
and vines, it would have made his place twice as attractive. I dislike
pretentious adornments to the farm, especially where the rest of the
place doesn't measure up to them. Like Senator Blaine, who, at the time
the Queen Anne style of architecture became popular, on being asked why
he did not have his old fashioned house Queen Anned, replied that he
did not like to see a Queen Anne front and a Mary Anne back.

A farm home can be something better than a city park. One of the
beautiful things that I shall always remember about Berlin was a way
they had of bordering their parks and the enclosures of public
buildings. They take tree-roses trimmed up to the height of a fence with
a hemispherical head. Then they plant them around the edge of their
grounds a rod or two apart, festoon chains from the top of one rose
stalk to the top of the next, and where the chain touches the ground
midway between them, they plant a little ivy which climbs up and
conceals the chain and gives the appearance of festoons of vines between
th