File:American homes and gardens (1909) (17967404098).jpg

Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar61909newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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196 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS May, 1909 as well as give heavy profits. The horse cultivator runs not only through the berry garden and the vegetable garden, but through a small plot of flowers, especially roses. The owner gets his home supply from these gardens, and sells as follows—that is, this is his record for 1908: Cur- rants, 1,000 quarts, $100; cherries brought $50; plums, $50; raspberries, $150; other berries, $50; honey, $75; pears, $75 ; and apples, including cider and vinegar, $300 more. These are all rather moderate items; but if you summed them up they come to a tidy sum, not far from $1,000. His horse and cow are mainly fed by alfalfa cut from his orchard and lawns, while a small field of corn fod- der adds largely to the milk product. He has, however, to pay one hundred dollars per year for additional hay and mill feed. His meat bill, beyond eggs and chickens, does not exceed fifty dollars per year; his hired help, besides his own boys and girls, is less than one hundred dollars; his coal bill is greatly reduced by tree trimmings, which furnish wood for five summer months. His house is supplied with electric lights, and he tells me that it will not be long before the same power will furnish him heat, beside doing most of his house and barn work. I believe he is right in this anticipa- tion, and that we are not far from the day when our houses will be without chimneys, furnaces and ashes. There is no stint in this man's family, of fruits of all sorts and their free use; while honey is a staple article of daily food. The cow furnishes not only enough for the family, of milk and butter and cream, but adds her quota to the surplus of sales arti- cles. If the family needs an outing, the quiet horse affords them an opportunity, through the lanes and by-ways, with- out cost or fare. I ought to add a sketch for a suburban or village home- stead, of a single acre or half an acre. Let the drive follow an easy curve around the flower beds or among the trees, and, if there be a depression, follow that; or a knob or rock, drive around. In other words, try here as elsewhere to find out what simple directions Nature has to offer you. In these smaller homesteads do not make the buildings conspicuous with gaudy paint, and especially do not place them any nearer the street than is necessary. The first law of country life is a chance for retreat and re- tirement, and quite as important is it not to have the dust blowing over your trees and flowers and into the house. It is impossible to have comfort or beauty under such condi- tions. In the little sketch which I have offered I provide for the practical as well as the ornamental, and always have it in mind that a country place ought to pay its own way—at least after the few formative years. I have marked for bees and for a small conservatory, on the supposition that flowers may be raised for sale. Where this is not a paying business, it may be very well to have a surplus of roses, lilies and carnations to supply an extra demand upon the florists. When I began this series on Making a Country Home I promised but three or four articles, but the evident need was for the five which I have given you. You are now well settled in a country home, surrounded by your gardens of all sorts and your orchard. You had time to secure pet animals, and to provide for their feed. If you think, how- ever, that you have nothing to do but enjoy yourselves you will find out. By all means drop your city habits and adjust yourselves at once to those demands which Nature will surely make. My advice is that you get out of bed at daylight, and go to bed with the birds. City work is best done In the mid- dle of the day; but country work can be best accomplished at the ends of the day, especially in the morning. Do not crowd your work, but take an adequate nooning. For this I shall expect to see about your place hammocks under the trees, and on the broad veranda. I advise you further to keep a memorandum of the things that are to be done, for if you do not you will never get what a Yankee calls "ahead." You will work off the ends of the memorandum, but that list of items will never grow shorter. It is the memory in your pocket; and its purpose is to save taxing the memory in your head. And now if you can never learn to find your joy in achievement, so as to make labor beautiful and attractive, you had better go back to the city, and content yourself with selling what other people have the wit and the grit to grow. But be assured the country life offers the most.
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