Wichita eagle., 1888-05-03
THE AMERICAN FARMER.
a LACK OF WELL KEPT LAWNS
AND FLOWER GARDENS.

Want of Interest in the Production of
Fine Vegetables and Small Fruits in
the west-"Hired 9Ien"-EmpIoyment
Of Machinery.
Farmers are often blamed because they
do not have well kept lawns and flower
gardens in front of their houses, orna-
mented walks about the premises, arbors
and shaded seats. Many state that lack
of taste accounts for the absence Of all
these things. They are common in vii
lagos, and they declare they would be
common on farms if their owners had any
appreciation of them. Farmers are also
criticised because they do not raise great
variety of choice vegetables and small
fruit for home consumption. They are
often reminded that they could live much
better than they do, and be at no greater
expense for food, if they would only set
out and cultivate fruit bearing vines and
bushes, have a hot bed and raise fine
vegetables, such as celery, asparagus and
egg plant. They are reminded that city
people have fine vegetables and small
fruits on their tables almost continually,
while farmers rarely ever have them.
They are also informed that all these
things ''cost money in town, while they
can be had IN the country for the trouble
of raising them.
LUCK IN LITTLE THINGS.
American farmers, especially those liv-
ing in the west, are informed that farmers
in France, Belgium and Holland obtain
the food for their families almost entirely
from their gardens and poultry yards, and
are thereby able TO convert nearly all the
product of their fields and pastures into
money. 1t has even been shown that
French farmers receive several million
dollars per year for the eggs they send TO
England. Farmers in the prairie region
are often informed of the important part
the garden plays in furnishing food for the
farmers in the eastern states, and they are
told that the rich soil in the west is much
better for producing vegetables than the
hard and stony soil of New England and
the central states. Still it must be
acknowledged that not much progress is
made in increasing the production Of fine
vegetables and small fruits On western
farms. The men who follow farming as
business in the west and endeavor to make
money by it have few lawns, but little
smaller flower gardens, and only apologies
for vegetable gardens.
But for all this, and for all that, they
are not deficient in good taste, and not
unappreciative of the charms of beauty,
and not insensible of the ''joys of the ia
ble." They like beautiful surroundings
and are fond of good living. A combina-
ton of unfavorable circumstances gen
ORC llH-
their farms, from fixing up things''
about the house, from raising small fruits,
and from supplying their tables with
choice home grown vegetables. Western
farms are generally large, and the produce
ton Of field crops is conducted on an eX-
tensive scale. Labor is scarcer and dearer
than in most of the eastern states, and
very much scarcer and dearer than in
those foreign countries where so much at
tention is given to the productiveness Of
small fruits, choice vegetables and fancy
poultry Most of our 'shired men, are
new coTers-''g reenhorns"-who are in
to do anything but the coarse
and rough work on the place. They re-
quire a large amount of directing to en-
able them to do this properly. The farmer
has too many things to look after to en-
raising and gardening.
OFF TO THE TOWN.
Hands available for farm work appear
TO become scarcer every season. Ambi- |
tious young men who are acquainted with |
field and garden work are anxious to OBJ |
tain farms for themselves while land is |
cheap. Almost ell who work for wages |
go to the large towns to seek employment. |
The consequences are q scarcity of |
farm laborers, poor service and high |
wages In many places men competent |
to raise fruit, to lay out and plant grounds, |
md to do work in a flower and vegetable |
garden cannot be obtained for the money |
that farmers can raise from the sale Of |
,rops, wool and meat at the prices they |
must now be sold for.
The general employment of machinery |
IN farms has also exerted an unfavorable |
influence on small fruit culture, land
cape, vegetable and flower gardening. |
Persons who have become accustomed to
he use of machines in the field do not |
ike to engage in doing work involving
he use of hand tools. 1t may be very
light work like preparing beds in a garden,
etting out strawberry plants and prun-
ng bushes that produce flowers and fruit
lit may be change from ordinary field
abor-but they nevertheless dislike it.
The substitution OF machines drawn by
lorses or operated by steam power for
ools that must be used by the exercise of
human strength has had tendency to
finnish skill in most sorts of manual
abor. The man who has used a gang
blow, riding cultivator, a mower, hay
axe and self binding harvester for several
easons has lost the skill he once pos
essed in the use of the spade, the garden
AXE. the hand hoe and the pruning
1nife. He is no longer handy at any
lind of garden work, and as a conse-
iuence he neglects it.-Chicago Times.
How the Turks Make Golfer.