The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-08-31

tract from it. The barns inside and
out may be beautiful and attractive to
visitors, because Of their neatness and
the outlook from them. They should
command good water, clean yards and
windows looking over the property. 1t
is impossible to create a charming coun-
try home where the builder conceives
it to be his chief duty to erect mod
ern house, with modern conveniences
and nothing more. As much money
should be expended on the surround
ings as on the house itself. Handsome
lawns, beautiful trees, choice shrub
berry may as readily be had as pleasant
rooms with balconies aud books. So
far as the house itself is concerned it
should have as much of an outlook as
an inlook. 1t should be built to COM
mand all beautiful scenery and pleasant
hooks and groves that are near the
house. To this end country house
is never reasonable unless it combines
large number of verandas, balconies
and bayed windows. AS a rule, We
randas should run nearly around the
house. In summer the family may
thus live out of doors as much as in
doors. In the planting of trees one
must consider those that are what we
may call home trees. These are such
as grow with large outspread, big
arms, and rapidity. l should select for
such trees butternuts, apple trees, Eng
lish elm and English oak, the beech,
and, above all, the linden. L would
not build house without planting adj
iacent to it good linden grove. And
in that grove | would have colony of
bees. These will not only contribute
to the interest of the house but to its
profit.
1t is impossible to call that place a
home which cares only for the breed
ing of cattle, and where the only music
is the granting of innumerable hogs
and the believing of cattle. Nor is
that true home where there is semi
citi6ed house, with its gaudy paint and
no shade. Rich furniture cannot COM
pensate for common sense in such
case. 1t is necessary that we shall first
of all get true conception OF what
country life is and ought to be. While
not uncouth, it should be simple; while
inexpensive, it should be not too eco
nomical. 1t is above all other lives
capable of that adjustment between out.
ROtS anu luCOlnCo WnlCh llNlbS
pleasant. | do not believe that farm
life need be life of drudgery. 1t need
not be if the arrangement of crops is
made for the purpose of feeding well a
family, and selling the surplus, rather
than arranging the crops for market
and living on the waste. Every coun-
try home should raise not only its own
cereals, and vegetables, and meat, and
eggs, and milk, but its own fruit of all
sorts. Arrange for a broader variety
of crops, and make sure first of all that
the household is well fed. When the
surplus begins to add more coin to a
mans income he may indulge in in
creased luXuries. But let him see to it
that his luxuries are real sustenance of
mind and body and not items of dead
waste. A farmer who knows no more
than 10 throw away his profits on tC-
bacco and intoxicants has no claim
upon the sympathy Of the community
if he fails of pleasant home and what
is called success in life.
The rural home gives woman very
different and larger sphere than the
city home. In the country no woman
needs woman's club to bring out and
give expression to her individuality
If she has any original force she can
express it in her family. Our Ameri.
can country homes have gone too far
in this respect. They have divided the
home in two parts. Woman rules ex.
clusively in doors and man exclusively
out of doors. This dema1cation of du.
ties has led to lack of sympathy be.
tween the two departments. Before
the growth of factories that took away
farm industries there was much more
cooperation between the farmer anC
his wife. They made soap together
and dipped candles together, and made
sausages together; and together were
able to construct nearly all the furni
ture and carpets of the house. Or
rainy days men expected to work If
doors. l think we must react some
what to the old-fashioned times, or the
Germans will run US out with theil
better system of cooperating.
A marked failure of American rura
life has been its loss of the young pee
pie, who have preferred to go into towr
life. There is good reason for this
or it never would have occurred. We
must lay a part of the fault to oul
schools, which have educated the young
folk to town enterprises, and giver
them no taste for or knowledge of PLAN
and animal life. But beyond this there
has been difficulty in the fact thai
farm life tends to require of all oul
boys about the same routine of duties
The fact is that not more than one oul
of three has a taste for what we gener
ally call straight farming. Yet the
other two of the three probably have
traits of character and tastes that adapt
them to cooperate on the farm in &
happy and intelligent way. One Of
them, perhaps, is mechanic. The
other scientist. Both of these can be
set at work for the general good of the
family. Let your mechanic have hi;
shop, where he can make and repair
and invent to his hearts content. AL
this is profitable to the common stock
Let the other chap apply himself to
botany and entomology and geology
and then apply his studies to the needs
of the orchard and the land. He can
do intelligently just what the Others
cannot do. In fact, l think it is this
very dissimilarity of tastes and minds
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