Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-01-31
p Z. -93sl sTIIN-r1
MANS LOVE OF NATURE.

TES4tTiNHfA .W-SSaS X4ret
MANS LOVE OF NATURE.
Most men have a latent love Tor ma
ture. the soil and Its products. mo- mats
ter where they live or what they dol
Thus the city man takes to parks,
shrubs and flowers, to lawn and trees
for his city home, and. limited as op-
portunities may be for nature study,
there is still nothing which insures 8
intense and lively interest among
city. children. This inherent love for
nature and natures works opens an al,
most unlimited field for exploitatio
and is never undertaken, no mat
how crudely, but 1t rewards every
fort a h~undredfold by promoting an il
terest In the common and practical
things of human living and its refining
and wholesome influence on humanity.
No better reform is now in progress,
viewed from an aesthetic, sanitary and
civilizing standpoint, than that Of
teaching city people how they may
clean up. beautlfy and %regenerate their
back yards. The utilization of vacant
city lots for gardens, worked by the
very poor Of the municipality. not only
converts unsightly patches Of weeds
into beauty. spots, but in a direct and
helpful manner ministers to the com
fort and happiness Of those so engaged.
1t is passing strange that just where
one would look for the evidence Of this
refining and cultured work, where ev-
cry natural facility was waiting to pro-
mote it, there Is where the least Of it
is to be found, and that is on the farm
homesteads Of the country. With am
pie room for grass, vine, fruit, flower
and tree, there may be found the most
dreary, forbidding and uninviting sur
roundings. Energy and business enough,
plenty Of work and push in the raising
Of hogs, corn and cattle, plenty Of mon
ey and opportunity, but with it all an
utter lack Of appreciation Of what
might be done at so small an expense
in the identifying Of the home, which
really, for a fact, represents to every
man about all there Is worth working
for, for no ownership of broad acres, no
generous bank account, no thrifty herds
Of cattle and swine, count for very
much if the home is only a place in
which to just eat and sleep-a human
cattle shed. The most delightful and
attractive homes Of America should be
found on the American farm and will
be some day when the renaissance Of
agriculture comes. Any farmer who
will study this problem of making his
farm home beautiful and express in the
new and better way with tree, shrub,
plant, flower, vine and lawn that refine
ment and culture Of taste which are so
easily possible will by his example do
far more for the community in which
he lives than he could as a member Of
the legislature or as the bishop of his
church. John Bunyan pictures a char
acter in his '.Pilgrim's Progress" bow
ed to the ground, eternally working
with an old muck rake in the pursuit
Of money, while an angel 1oated just
above, but unseen by him, with a gold
en- crown for him IL he would only look
up. You men who live day by day in
dreary and desolate farm homes, who
see at your 1reside a wife and children
with every refined taste and aspiration
crushed out Of them in your hog and
corn race for bank deposits, look up!