SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 245 



and one was provided at vast expense. But it would have been useless to most 

 of the people were it not for the cheap railway fares. Boston was wiser and 

 reserved a park, far out at first, but now in the center of the city. Chicago, 

 built later, has spent millions for boulevard and park operations, and despite 

 some bad conditions is one of the healthiest places in the country because it is 

 so open to every wind that blows. Yet its parks are too far out and have been 

 made more for ornament and esthetic gratification than for purposes of sanita- 

 tion. Smaller places cannot well afford great expense for parks because there 

 are so many absolute necessities to be provided. If in Grand Kapids some early 

 proprietor had set apart land for a park it had been well, but now it is impossi- 

 ble to provide one at convenient distance without greater expense than can be 

 afforded, since there are other needs, as sewers and water supply, that unless 

 carefully watched make taxation soon amount in some cases to confiscation. 

 Under these circumstances a town is not justified in doing more toward parks 

 than is demanded by considerations of public health. Esthetic cultivation by 

 means of taxation should not be thought of. 



E. H. Scott disagreed. Cities should be taxed to maintain parks because of 

 their good educational and moral influences. They afford recreation for the 

 poor people and the solace they get from brief times in the parks is worth 

 much more than the work of many institutions founded for charitable pur- 

 poses. 



Prof. "W. J. Beal said Lansing had reserved several blocks for places of pub- 

 lic recreation and will soon have a considerable park. A great difficulty in 

 caring for parks is the frequent changes of those in charge because of political 

 preferences. Hence the parks are likely to become neglected, unsightly, and 

 in every way useless so far as completeness and beauty are concerned. A good 

 plan should be first adopted and then faithfully followed out. Parks should 

 be of much more use to poor people than to the rich. They do have a good 

 moral influence, for if made and kept beautiful they will keep men, often from 

 gilded halls of sin and wastefulness. For benefit of the public the trees and plants 

 should be plainly labeled with both the scientific and common name. By this 

 means more interest is awakened to study and investigate nature. 



George Taylor of Kalamazoo, in good, broad Gaelic accents, described the 

 Crystal Palace park and gardens in London. 



Secretary Garfield said we cannot help poor people more than to make them 

 happy, and this is the use of parks. Cities and villages can furnish small 

 parks without great expense. One trouble is that little places must ape large 

 cities. A delightful exception to this is Kalamazoo, where a pretty little park 

 is simply trees, grass and water, but it is a place where the poor man can go- 

 and feel that it is his very own and enjoy every inch of it as if it was his own 

 door-yard. 



The following note was read from the society's former stenographer, Mr. A, 

 A. Crozier, who now is Assistant Botanist in the Department of Agriculture 

 at Washington: 



One way to make a park educational is to label the trees and shrubs in it. 

 This is seldom done. The cost would not usually exceed that of setting one 

 large tree, and while greatly increasing the educational value of the park the 

 neat labels need be no more unsightly than the conspicuous signboards, " Keep 

 off the grass." 



If all the trees and shrubs cannot be labeled, the more common ones at 



