Norwich bulletin., 1914-05-23

Cwritten Specially for The Bulletin.)
 E overheard a farmer, the other day, talking about his lawn.
 We'll you'll say, why notf Why shouldn't . farmer have q 1awn as much as his summer nefghpor rom the city who calls his place a farm and lives on it in the summer Just long enough to know nothing about itf
 Truly, under the constitution and laws and in accordance with the dlc- tionary, I don't know any reason why we hayseeds shouldn't have lawns in place of our former d0or-yards- Nor why we shouldn't have ''pergolas' between the kitchen-door and the pig pen: and 'portecochere" where the outside cellar door used to be-; and a .parian marble" fountain, made out of concrete and whitewash, to stand up in front of the house and spout water,-whenever the reservoir isn't dry and the pipes haven't burst.
 There's no law against such thines.
 Moreover, l frankly confess that there's something mighty soothing. even to my matter-of-fact eyes in the look of a broad expense of veivety, smooth-shayen sward, unduiating a little with the natural swellings of the surface. cut by graSeiIed dnves and beauty spotted. here and there, with little ciumps of showy exotic shrubs, etc, brought from Japan and Madagascar and other far-diStant corners of the earth
 I certainly do like to sec such things,-on soma other fellows place.
 But .uppose l had lem all on my plain old farm; what would I do with 'em?
 It would either take me all the while to care for them properly. in ffrr1a tfn make the farm earn me my living. or else I should have to hire man to care for them. in which case his wages would surely eat up all the rest Of the farm could bring in-
 Furthermore. such frflls are inap- propriate and out of place on a really truly farm, as much as lace ruf1es would be on the farmwife's sleeves when washing dishes, or as patent leather pumps and kid gloves on the farmer himself when getting out manure.
 Things that are beautiful in them- selves lose all their charm when they are fnappropriately placed.
 For instance, a piano in a parior is often an attractive piece of furniture But that same piano in tine hen-house wouldn't be a thing of beauty:-cer- tainly not after the chickens had roasted on it a few weeks.
 Somehow, to hear a farmer talk about his lawn" impresses me very much the same way as it would to hear him tell about using a piano for a hen-roost. The things don't go to- gether and they make an inharmony which has about the same effect as a discord in music.
 don't mean that the farmer should wholly neglect his front door-yard and let it grow up to burdoexs and Canada thistles-
 But I certainly do think that he would better spend his time in keep. ing the weeds out of his corn and potatoes than in trimming the edges of gFavelled drives. He would be better occupied in encouraging hia timothy and red-top to grow to four tons-to- the-acre size in the back meadow than in running lawn mow- CT to keep the grass of the lawn from getting over two inches high.
 it's too bad that even few farmers should get the idea that they can 'im- prove" their farms by inexpert, half way and ineffective limitations of the citified methods of summer immi- fc fnv .3