Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1875-07-02
Back Yards.

FRoNTyards are like company manners,
and are not very reliable index to the
character of the inmates of the house to
which they belong; but back door-yard
tells pretty plainly how much its keepers
think of their surroundings when re-
moved 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 accumulating
for years, old ash -hoppers, hoopless tubs,
legless chairs, old iron, tin cans, wornout
implements, rags and filth, one feels pretty
confident that the same plan is followed
indoors, and that the front room is about
the only decent apartment.
Most people see more of their back
yards than they do of the front; why
should they not present just as neat an ap-
pearance, and be made as pleasant and
attractive with shade and flowers and grass
and good walks? There is usually some
yards in the spring; but plenty of people
don't seem to know how to go about it,
nor how long TO keep on.
1t would be good deal easier to tell
how to make 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
plow up the prairie sod on your door
yard unless you are able to smooth it
nicely and seed il well with blue grass,
and make the blue grass grow, for nothing
will make pretty nor tidy yard if il has
not a good sod.
No amount of trees, shrubbery and
flowers will compensate for the lack of
green grass; no house can be kept clean
unless mat of green turf surrounds it,
and that, we insist, must be the first con-
sideration both for comfort and appear.
ance in any yard, but if the yard has once
been in grass and it is now half 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 to make the whole ward
unsightly removeit entirely to some more
suitable place; or if it has been for a mum.
Der of years in the same spot it will pav
to remove it for several reasons-the prox-
unity of such bed of decaying vegetable
matter is very unwholesome. If the
larger chips are raked out, several wagon
loads of excellent manure will 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 pile and use
them for kindling. Carry the old ashes,
bones and rags to the compost-heap, and
make it out of sight of the house if pos
sible. If you can have pit where there
is no danger of the babies falling into it,
have one if you can get it, and put there
all the old tinware, wOrn-out stovepipes,
broken crockery and glassware There is
no nicer way to get rid of such things than
| IN hr1tsV tln1. 1.N- Z
keep the swill-barrel where you can de.
posit things into it without stepping of
the piazza, or out of the kitchen door
You 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 potato parings: such
things should be thrown to the pigs i'm.
mediately. Because pigs will eatswill, il
does not follow that all their food should
be made as disgusting and unhealthy as
possible. Let us repeat, then, keep this
barrel at respectable distance; see that
it is emptied every day or two, and
occasionally scrub it out with an old
broom and the washing suds "a boy OF
man can do this as well as a woman
where mothers and sisters are scarce and
hired men and good boys plenty. With
this nuisance removed from under oul
nOstrils, and a swarm of flies with it, We
might get breath of pure air in the back
yard if we only had drain, and almost
any amount of hard work, persuasion Oh
strategy is allowable and advisable in or
der to secure one that will carry away from
the house and the well and the cellar and
out of the yard the hundreds of gallons ol
dirty water that are thrown out of every
house in the year, Take out the weeds
rake and sweep the whole yard, and give
the grass chance to grow, and you will
soon have, not only decent but a beauti
full yard. The more you can ornament il
with trees and shrubs, vines and flower.
the better, so that you don't kill the grass
nor enough of it to destroy the effect of
green plat about the house; but if YOU
cannot ornament it all, it will look clean
and inviting, while rubbish patch is al
ways slovenly and epulsive.-Kansas
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