344 ANNUAL KEPORT. 



reach the house, 3'ou have to drive through the barnyard and over a 

 manure pile. 



Mr. Fuller. I do not question or deny that there are not some in- 

 stances of the kind referred to, but is seems to me that the impression 

 given by the paper is a very general one; now is that true? 



Mr. Smith. Yes. 



Mr. Sias. Mr. President, I have been accustomed to travel over 

 various portions of the State for a number of years more or less, in 

 canvassing, and I can safely say that the picture is not overdrawn one 

 particle, and I will agree with my friend Underwood. No longer ago 

 than last fall I had occasion to call on an intelligent man and a good 

 farmer in our county, who resides not more than six miles from the 

 city of Rochester, and in going to his house I was obliged to drive not 

 only through his barnyard, but his hog-yard. And I have been to 

 many such places in this State. I will say that I once canvassed some 

 in the South, in Indiana and Kentucky, and there it was still worse. 

 I don't want to misrepresent our own State, or to make out that it is 

 any worse than others in this respect, but I think that this is not an 

 overdrawn picture. 



Mr. Gould. Mr. President, I think that people when they begin to 

 grow fruit are in some way influenced to fix up their homes, to put 

 their back yards where they properly belong. It is hardly right, per- 

 haps, to designate particular neighbors, but I may say here that if one 

 will visit Wayzata, Long Lake, Watertown, and other places I might 

 name, there are a large number of farmers who have taken no pains 

 to fix up their front yards. But it is not so out where I live. Where 

 people get to growing fruit they are apt to put flowers in their front 

 yards and put things to rights. I believe this Society is proving, per- 

 haps, the greatest bene^t by civilizing people, elevating their minds, 

 improving their habits and making them better citizens; it is doing 

 much in that way. 



The Secretary then read the following paper: 



THE SELECTION OF SITES FOR PARKS AND PARKWAYS. 



By H. W. S. Cleveland, Chicago, 111. 



Few people ever think of a park as anything but a luxury; an ornamental ap- 

 pendage to a city for the recreation and enjoyment of the inhabitants, to which they 

 may resort as a refreshing change from the toils and cares of daily life in the busy 

 streets. In selecting a site for a park, therefore, the first object, in the popular 

 mind, is to secure the most attractive and picturesque area that is available within 



