The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1875-07-17

Front yards are like company manners,
and are not very reliable index to the char
acter of the house to which they belong; but
back door.yard tells pretty plainly how
much its keepers think of their surroundings
when removed from the view of others. If
it is overgrown with weeds and Uttered with
old boards, promiscuous wOOd.piles, beds of
chips which have been accommodating tor
years old ash.hoppers, hoopless tubs, legless
chars, old iron, tin cans, WORKOUT nipple
ments, Tags and filth, one feels pretty conf
dent that the same plan is followed indoors,
and that the front room is about the only de-
cent apartment.
Most people see more Of their back yards
than they do of the front; why should they
not present just as neat an appearance and
be made as pleasant and attractive with shade
and flowers and grass anL good walks ?
There are usually some attempts made at
cleaning up back yards in the spring; but
plenty Of people don't seem to know how to
go about it, nor how long to keep on.
Itwould be good deal easier to tell how
to make a new yard, but, as that is not what
we set out to do, we will only say to the lord
of the manor, please don't pillow up the
prairie sod IN your door yard unless you are
able to smooth 1t nicely and seed it we'll with
blue grass, and make the blue grass grow, for
nothing will make pretty or tidy yard if it
has not good sod.
No amount OF trees, shrubbery and flow
ers will compensate for the lack of green
grass; no house can be kept clean unless a
mat of green turf surrounds it, and that, we
insist, must be the first consideration both
for comfort and appearance in any yard, but
if the yard has once been in grass aud it is
now MALT covered with trash and rubbish do
give it good cleaning up and the grass will
very soon spread and grow again.
Begin at the wOOd-pile and if it is SO near
the house as 70 make the whole yard insight
ly, remove it entirely to some more suitable
place. or if il has been for number of years
in the same spot, it will pay to remove it for
several reasons-fhe proximity OF such bed
of decaying vegetable matter Is very uuwhOle-
some. If the larger chips are raked out, sew
crai wagon loads of excellent manure VIII be
found beneath them.
If old boards, tumble.down sheds and pens
useless fences, shingles, barrels and such
COmbustible matter cucumber your premises,
collect them in a pile and use them for kin.
ding. Carry the old ashes, bones and rags
to the compOst.heap, and make it out OF sight
of the house If possible If you can have a
pit where there il no danger o. the babies
falling into it, have one ii you can get II, and
put there all the old tinware, WORKOUT stove
pipes, broken crockery and glassware.
There IS no nicer way to get rid OF such
things than to bury them. Don't, let me beg
of you, keep the swill barrel where you can
deposit things into it without stepping Oft the
piazza, or out of the kitchen door. on had
much better have the pigs there and let them
eat up scraps as fast as they are carried out |
and don't put everything into that barrel |
for instance, vegetable tops and apple and
4, ina should lao
To pigs immediately. Because pigs will eat I,
swill. !: does not follow that all their food
should be made as disgusting and unhealthy |
rs possible. Let us repeat, tacn, keep TINS
barrel az respectable distance; see that 1t Is .
empticu every day or two, and occasionally /
scrub il out with an old broom and washing
suds,-a boy or man can 10 this a well as
a woman, where mothers and sisters are
scarce and hired men and boys plenty. With .
this nuisance removed from under our nos
tri,s, and swarm OF flies with it. we might
get a breath OF pure air in the back yard II
we only had drain, and almost any amount
Of hard work, persuasion or strategy Is al
lOwable and advisable in order 20 secure one
that will carry away from the house and the
well and the cellar and out of the yard the |
hundreds of gallons Of dirty water tina, are
thrown out OF every house IN the year Take
out The weeds, rake and sweep the whole /
yard, and give the grass a chance 20 grow.
and you will soon have not only a dcCcn,
but a beautiful yard. The more you can or
nament II with trees and shrubs, vines and
flowers the better, 80 that you DO not kill the /
grass, nor enough Of Il 10 destroy the effect .
Of a green plat about the house; but il YOU
caanot ornament it al. il Will look clean and .
inviting. while 4 rubbish patch i always slov- 4
e1iy anu repulsiye. FIrnsr.