The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1915-04-16
Friday, April 10. 1915
MAKE THE FARM BEAUTIFUL.

eStS, concluded That ne haQ as
much money as any man ought
to want, rented his farm
and moved into town. He found
life in town a mere matter OF
dry rot, and after three years of
dry rotting decided to go back on
the farm and develop a paradise
in the center of it. His idea of
making a paradise was to model
out of cement, with a trowel,
Adam, Ave, the Devil, the Ser
pent, Cain, Abel and over one
hundred other figures; some of
the figures we're painted white,
others in colors. The figures are
scattered through extensive
grounds and form settings to
grape arbors and clambering
wires vines which Chamber up
cement trees. In one of the
cement trees two concrete storks
are perched, each having a baby
under its wings.
Of course, this Kansas farmers
idea of making an earthly
paradise is an easy joke. 1t has
the Coney Island earmarks to it.
But there is this about it. he is
doidg what it pleases him to do,
doing what he has found a real
JOY in doing. He is now seventy
two years of age and says he has
barely started on the develop
ment of his farm-paradise idea.
No matter what the art critics
who have studied in Paris may
have to say about statuary made
by a farmer from cement, or, no
matter if they regard that Kan
saS Garden of Eden as too absurd
for comment, there is in this
fantastic attempt at beautifca-
ton the one idea and the only
idea that can stay the farm life
unrest; change the growing
dissatisfaction with farm condi-
tons and environments.
Farming is the most independ-
ent of all callings, and rightly
understood and rightly pursued
it is the most beautiful and joy
inspiriting of all pursuits. Is
there drudgery about it? There
is drudgery about all work if we
choose to make it drudgery. If
the farmer and his wife and
the boys and girls should be tax
en- into the ouncil-will only be-
gin to think out plans of beauti-
fication that will not stop with
the front yard but include the
whole farm, and set about realiz-
ing these plans, life on the farm
will at once become more in
teresting. Generally speaking,
farm life when it is ugly is so
because it is nothing but utili-
tartan. There should be some
thing more to farming than the
bare grind of producing things
to sell. 1t is not necessary to
initiate the Kansas farmer in
scattering cement figures all over
the farm. There are methods
of Identification that are easier
and better. But, always, origi-
nal ideas should be carried out.
Never mind what the critics say.
Critics very often are conceited
persons who do not know as
much as they think they know.
Any farm that has a little
streamlet running through it, or
that has a bit of marshy meadow
land with hidden springs in it,
can at little expense be provided
with a lake of an acre, or two
acres. This lakelet can be bank
ed up and damned in so as to be
OF a depth of three or four feet.
1t can be surrounded by weeping
willows; it can be made picture
squely beautiful. Fish can be
raised IN such a lake and a boat
can be kept on it for the boys
and girls. Such an innovation
Will contribute vastly to the Joy
OF farm life, especially if there
are boys and girls around. This
is but one suggestive idea.
There are scores of other good
schemes, such as the develop
ment of flower gardens, the
planting of fruit trees in odd
hooks and corners, the beautif-
cation of the farm front along
the county highway by the plant
ing of trees or shrubbery. No
matter if the trees or the orna-
mental shrubbery do monopolize
some ground that might other
wis grow wheat or corn. Those
things which make for beauty
make for the joy of living and
life is not worth the living unless
there is joy in it. Baltimore
American.