FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 53 



dwellers, uo large result can be expected and the well-kept home only 

 makes the poorly-kept one stand out in more glaring contrast. The 

 betterment of our village and town homes can only be brought about 

 by united effort. Money alone will not do it. It is a personal question 

 and a question which each one must ask himself. Unfortunately, we have 

 in the majority of our towns too many persons who are of the oyster type. 

 This oyster type of citizen takes no interest in life. The oyster leads a 

 blameless life. He is sober; he never fought, and he does not interfere 

 with his neighbors; he lives a peaceful life, has a good digestion and a 

 hard head. Unfortunately, this is typical, 'as I said a moment ago, of 

 many of the citizens of our towns. They live unto themselves; they 

 interfere with nothing, and they care for nothing beyond that which 

 disturbs their own personal welfare. But civic improvement can 

 only be furthered by making it a personal question with each one, by 

 asking ourselves what is the condition of our own backyard — is it a 

 mire-hole in autumn and winter, and a weedy lane in summer; or is it 

 a well-kept and well-graded passageway where our children can play 

 with safety and comfort? Many backyards are simply surface sewers 

 in that they catch the waste paper and are breeding places for germs of 

 disease. Very frequently we find beautiful, neat, front yards and the 

 exact opposite in the rear. Some one has suggested that places of this 

 ,type might be characterized as '4i.aving Queen Ann fronts and Mary 

 Ann backs." 



Village prohlems. — There are. so many questions coming up in the 

 town that should be considered by the residents that it is impossible 

 to even draw attention to all of them in the course of a single address. 

 Many of our western towns are bleak and unshaded, but I am delighted 

 to see that some of the towns, as in Owosso, for instance, there have 

 been people who were sufficiently far-sighted and large-hearted to recog- 

 nize the desirability of planting trees for posterity, and the maples and 

 elms which adorn your streets will stand as monuments of the philan- 

 thropy of these people. Often serious mistakes are made in planting 

 trees too closely on the streets. It is much better to have them forty 

 feet apart than twenty. Wlien set twenty or thirty feet apart, it is 

 only a few years before they begin to compete with each other both for 

 soil and air and the result is disastrous. I have often wondered why 

 we should not have fruit trees on the less prominent streets as well as 

 the ordinary^ shade trees. Cherries, plums and pears might all be used 

 on residential streets and would be things of beautv in spring and prob- 

 ably have some utility in the fall, certainly from the small boy's stand- 

 point. The milk supply, the water supply, baths and public library, all 

 come within the purview and scope of the village or town improvement 

 society. Questions which are exceedinglv pertinent and which always 

 ought to be considered are parks and school gardens because here are 

 agencies through which the rising generations may be touched and, 

 more than that, may be educated. The school garden is a means of 

 drawing out the sympathetic attention of the children and causing 

 them to grow and expand with the proper public spirit and with the 

 proper realization of their responsibilities toward public welfare. 



Worli for the children. — I might call attention to some of the work 

 which is being dojie by the Nature-Study Bureau of the College of Agri- 

 culture of Cornell University. For the past two years special efforts 

 have been made to interest the children of the public schools in garden- 



