--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Morris, L. S. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 32 number: 6 published: 1929-04 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "L. S. Morris, “Home Beautification,” *Improvement Era* 32, no. 6 (April 1929): 461–465." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3206unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera3206unse start_page: 461 end_page: 465 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1929-04) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3206unse publication_year: 1929 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1929, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Home Beautification Home Beautification By L. S. Morris, Assistant Professor of Horticulture, Brigham Young University THERE are many ways in which the home can be made more beautiful. One of the best ways to beautify home life is to plant flowers in the hearts of our children. Another good way is to cultivate blossoms in our own souls. We are told that when the one man loves the one woman and the one woman loves the one man, the very angels leave heaven and come and sit in that home and sing for joy. However, my subject is confined to landscaping or beautifying the home grounds. We should beautify our homes for two reasons: First, because the home is the most important institution in the world. It is the place where we are born, in which we spend our lives and in which we are likely to die. It is the institution where we learn to talk and walk. There we first come in contact with religion. If children are not taught religion in the home they will stand a poor chance of learning it in the church later. The home teaches children honesty or dishonesty as the case may be. We become ladies and gentlemen because the home taught us how to act; or we become tramps because the home failed to teach us properly. We are what we are largely because of our home training. School training, college training, church training are all important but rather negligible in comparison to home training. If the home is this important, then we should give thought to its improvement. One of the most effective ways is to create more beauty. And that leads to the second reason for beautification. Namely: That beautiful things fill the soul with harmony, and make for more abundant living. There is something about the beautiful that entrances man, that makes him unconsciously happier. A bouquet of flowers placed on the table at meal times adds tastiness to the food. A shrub growing by the side of the house breathes delight to all who look at it. A golden sunset is like mellow magic to the soul trained to appreciate beauty. The Creator was kind when he endowed us with emotions that we might enjoy beautiful things. The sense of the beautiful is some- thing possessed only by man. It does not seem to be essential in the lives of animals below man. I have tried in vain to find a dog that will pay any attention to flowers. I have never seen a horse miss a single mouthful of grass to gaze toward the flaming west 462 IMPROVEMENT ERA April, 1929 when the sun is going to bed. I have held brilliant sunflowers before a cow and she has disgustingly switched her tail. But to man, beauty is an essential. It is a spiritual necessity. If a man does not enjoy that which is beautiful, it means one corner of his soul is still sleeping; he is only partly living; he has undeveloped resources with- in. As Babson says, "The greatest undeveloped resource in America is the human soul." However, he was not referring specifically to the sense of the beautiful. We are realizing more every day that beauty plays a big part in our lives. Self-respect demands beauty and neatness. Psychology is beginning to teach us the importance of beautiful surroundings with respect to civic life. P. T. Farwell, Chairman of the Massa- chusetts Civic League, says, "Beautification is a direct agent for the prevention of ignorance, disease and crime, and for the promotion of health, usefulness, happiness, and good morals. It is now a well recognized principle in the business world that attractive surround- ings are a decided advantage for a business plant and that the in- fluence on employees of pleasant grounds, adorned with flowers and shrubs, tends to increase their pleasure in and loyalty to their work. We are beginning to realize that the ugliness of the conditions under which men live exerts no slight influence in fostering discontent and even crime." While traveling in the East last summer I was surprised to sec the large number of business houses and manufacturing establish- ments which had been beautified by shrubs, vines and trees. But why not, when beautiful surroundings make for more efficiency on the part of employees? Landscape gardening is really a young art here in the West. We are just beginning to catch the spirit. Let us look about for a moment and see art from another stand- point. We, too, often think of pictures as being paintings on canvas hanging on the walls. Those are the creation of man. God's great masterpieces are outdoors. They are the original. They are the landscapes of nature done in living colors — flowers, meadows, trees, mountains, streams. Their shades and tints change with the time of the day and the advance of the seasons. I do not wish to say anything disparaging about pictures that hang on the walls. They are essential. They lead to an apprecia- tion of other types of beauty. They assist one in appreciating nature. The West is a natural art museum; Valley flecked with jewels, lakes and streams decorated with flowers and trees! There is poetry in the atmosphere for anyone who enjoys it. Professor Lowry April. 1929 HOME BEAUTIFICATION 463 Nelson took this bouquet of words from the ripples of Bear Lake, while camped with a group of Boy Scouts: Wind and sun-kist, Bright-lipped thing, Veiled in moon mist, Wavering; Child of Cloudlet, In the sky, Sire of Cloudlet, Passing by; Liquid music, Wafting free, Charged with lyric Mystery; Draped in wavelet, Ripple trimmed; Moon and star set, Pebble rimmed; Myriad bird wings; Weaving hands, Fleck your shim'ring; Spin your sands. Can you not hear music of the lake coming from those lines? And the mountains, every one of them is a monument of trans- cendent grandeur. The best way to appreciate mountains is to move where you cannot see them — then you want to get back again. But that is only human nature; a child born and reared in an art museum will not appreciate the paintings. He will think them common- place. He will think that ordinary things of other places are marvels — because they are out of his reach. That is the reason we associate distant lands with magic and beauty and charm. Not long ago an artist, from the East, stood on the shore of Utah Lake just at sunset. The valley was shaded by the western mountains. Mount Timpanogos, on the east, was a reddish-pink in the lingering sunbeams. It was a masterpiece. Alice's Wonder- land was insipid in comparison to the mountain at that particular moment. The mist and the sunbeams were just right to turn the setting into magic. After breathing deeply for a short time, he re- marked that it was one of the most wonderful pictures he had ever seen. But what has this to do with home beautification? It is the setting for beautiful homes. The setting is the first verse in the poem of beautification. With a beautiful setting furnished by nature it would be discord not to have beautiful homes. If every home 464 IMPROVEMENT ERA April. 1929 in a city is enhanced with grass, flowers, shrubs, and trees, that city becomes a garden city. A few unsightly homes spoil the effect of the whole thing. The following are a few brief suggestions that might help in the landscaping of the average home: Remember that landscape architecture is a fine art. It is like painting a picture on a large canvas; the paints are the colors in flowers and shrubs. A landscape artist must understand composition, color blending, texture of plant materials and numerous other things, so a person should not rush into a piece of landscaping without knowing what he is doing. For an extensive piece of work a land- scape architect should be consulted. For the establishing of a small lawn and the placing of a few shrubs, careful observation of well designed places will help the layman. My first suggestion is concerned with lawns. Most homes are well equipped with lawns in the front yard, but they are not sufficient in most cases. Our children need some place to amuse themselves besides in the road. I picked up a formula the other day on how to preserve children: "Take one large, grassy field, one-half dozen children, two or three small dogs, a pinch of brook and some pebbles. Mix the children and dogs well together and put them in the field, stirring constantly. Pour the brook over the pebbles. Sprinkle the field with flowers. Spread over all a deep, blue sky. and bake in the hot sun. When brown, remove and set away to cool in a bath- tub." A lawn in the rear or at the side of the house screened in with groups of shrubs and medium-sized trees is not only a good place in which to preserve children, but an excellent place for seclusion when one wishes to read or relax in the shade. It is better to retire to the service lawn rather than sit on the front porch. The service lawn, if well designed, is also a splendid setting for an outdoor dinner or lawn party. The next point I wish to mention is trees: Do you remember Joyce Kilmer's words? "Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree." Every leaf is a letter that helps to spell beauty. Every branch is a sentence that helps to describe a beautiful landscape. Trees should not be mutilated by unwise pruning. A tree is beautiful only when natural. One sees occasionally trees with the branches cut off close to the trunk. They remind me of a person who has lost his arms. Ornamental trees require very little or no pruning. Let them grow and be natural. Large trees can be used to good April. 1929 HOME BEAUTIFICATION 465 advantage by placing them at the rear of the house for a background. They should be placed beyond the service lawn. If the home lot is very small, large trees should not be used. Medium-sized trees can be used to good advantage at one side of the house. Never plant a tree directly in front of the house, unless it is a street tree. Another important consideration in beautifying the home is the use of shrubs. We need shrubs more than anything else. They are permanent; you need not replace them every year. They are beauti- ful as well. The proper places to plant shrubs are around the service lawn, next to the foundations of the houses and in the corners of large lots. Notice a house with shrubs planted about the foundation and another house barren of shrubs. The contrast tells the story. Of course flowers are important. A few moments spent in the garden during the day often divests us of unpleasant thoughts and gives us more happiness. Flowers may be used in connection with the shrubs or placed separately in a specialized plot. In conclusion, I wish to quote from ex-presisdent Calvin Cool- idge: "National Garden week seems now to be well on the way to establishment as a fixed national affair and I hope this year's ob- servance of it will strengthen its position in the public interest and activities." Garden week merely suggests that the garden should be kept beautiful during all the growing season, for sweetness and inspiration are always given forth from well kept plants. Forbearance I'll not reproach the erring one With unkind act or word, For his misconduct known to me, Nor gossip I have heard. I will not cast the cruel shaft, Nor fling the fiery dart Into his troubled, saddened soul, Into his bleeding heart. I know not of the pangs he feels, Of how his soul relents, Of how he strives to overcome, How truly he repents. But this I know 'tis not for me To wield the chastening rod; The purifying of his soul I'll leave to him and God. Logan. Utah SAMUEL B. MlTTON.