This does not mean that there is no good local labor.  It is just a matter of determining which man is actually “a good worker” and which would rather lean on a hoe and tell how the country ought to be run.  You can avoid much labor turnover and unsatisfactory work if you first ask a few questions of substantial members of the countryside who are in the habit of employing such men and therefore know their good and bad points.  One man may be strong and willing but so stupid and clumsy that he destroys more than he earns; another may be deft, ingenious, have an uncanny way with flowers and vegetables, but yet have such an utter lack of responsibility that one cannot depend on him for any length of time.

Assuming then that a good, dependable man has been found who understands and has a liking for the soil, the task of helping nature to bring out the best in your grounds progresses to those parts afflicted by such rank weeds as burdocks, thistles, milkweed, poison ivy and the like.  Weeds with the long tap root like burdock and yellow dock can be eliminated best with a mattock.  With one sharp blow, cut the root two or three inches below the surface.  Then pull up the top and toss it aside where it will wither in the sun.  What is left in the ground also dies and will not sprout.  A Canadian thistle is really a handsome sight especially in full bloom but it is a thoroughly unpleasant weed and must be eradicated.  Dig up each plant with a spading fork or sharp shovel and leave it to wither in the July sun, its roots shaken free of earth.  Milkweed is persistent but will finally yield if the stalks are consistently pulled up as soon as they are three or four inches tall.

For poison ivy there is one preliminary.  Be sure you are not one of the people readily susceptible to its poison.  If you are, leave this luxuriant parasite alone and let some one else struggle with it.  Its poison is most virulent in the spring when the leaves are just unfolding.  Later in the summer it is not so treacherous.  Tearing it up by the roots, burning over old stone fences infected with it, keep it from overrunning a place; but the most satisfactory method of eradicating is to sprinkle the vines with sodium arsenite.  This, by tests at various agricultural stations, has lately been found a sure means of killing this most unpleasant of all vegetable pests that infect the countryside.

Along with getting a reasonable expanse of green grass, the simple landscaping plan already referred to should be kept in mind.  If you have but a vague idea concerning this and, as time goes on, tend to become more confused and undecided as to what kind of flowers, shrubs, and vines would be most suitable or how they should be arranged, consult the best nurseryman in your vicinity, if he has not already visited you.  All of the larger nurseries now have on their staffs experienced landscape architects.  Many of them are recent graduates of the recognized schools in this field and, for the asking, you can have a simple landscape plan for your grounds.  Such nurseries do this, of course, in expectation that if the plan is accepted the needed small trees, shrubs, and hardy perennials will be bought of them.