OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS 



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a service of inspection, furnishes superintend- 

 ents of work and helps in the preparation of 

 plans and estimates, as well as supervises the 

 management of the various local societies. 

 The work of the officers of the "Federation" 

 is gratuitous and extremely meritorious and 

 the results obtained are important. 



As to soil restoration this was proceeding 

 under direction of experts from the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture in part directly at 

 the expense of this Department, but in part 

 also, and with good results, by contracts with 

 the owners or tenants, care being taken in the 

 form of contract that dishonest schemers 

 should not enrich themselves at the expense 

 of the public treasury. 



A very effective instrument in all this great 

 problem of reconstruction has been the "Local 

 Consultation Committee" which has been 

 formed in each community. The Department 

 of the Interior worked out a very interesting 

 form of procedure for such Committees, how 

 they are to be constituted, where and when 

 they should meet, what subjects they should 

 consider and the form of report they should 

 make and with whom they should file these in 

 in order to get best results. One notes, for 

 example, the following interesting regulation. 

 "The Committee may divide itself also into 

 three sections, the members and their colla- 

 borators to be designated by the main Com- 

 mittee at a preliminary meeting. The first 

 section" (and this is worthy of comment) "to 

 have as its particular duty the examination of 

 all propositions of an aesthetic order, the 

 second, those of an economic order and the 

 third, those that concern the health of the 

 town." When the cities of San Francisco, 

 Chicago, or Boston, were devastated by fire, 

 did any one of their general consulting com- 

 mittees divide along any such lines, putting 

 aesthetics first? It is to be doubted. 



Agricultural conditions in the devastated 

 regions seemed at this time to be almost hope- 

 less, but these have been described by the 

 writer at some length in an article in Land- 

 scape Architecture Quarterly for January 1921. 

 entitled "Some Impressions of a Two Months' 

 Visit in Belgium," and no further reference 

 need be made to them here. 



Town Planning in any comprehensive sense 

 of the term was at a very low ebb in 1920 — in 

 fact the writer was assured by one of their 

 most brilliant but bitterly disappointed prac- 

 titioners of this fundamentally important art, 

 that it was dead. It was certainly dormant and 

 in the meantime golden opportunities for civic 



betterment are being apparently irreparably 

 lost. The story of London and San Francisco 

 after their devastating fires is repeating itself 

 in many a Belgian town and it is a great pity. 



Returning to Belgium in 1921, it was found 

 that rapid and most encouraging progress had 

 been made during the year. This has been 

 most noticeable in connection with the re- 

 habilitation of the farms and general agricul- 

 tural conditions and next in the rebuilding of 

 factories and shops. The actual reconstruc- 

 tion of new houses and homes, however, has 

 proceeded more slowly, but this work is now 

 getting into a more rapid swing. There has 

 also been a very marked activity in the re- 

 construction of destroyed churches. 



Farms and agricultural conditions in this 

 regard, as mentioned above, seemed particular- 

 ly hopeless and discouraging in 1920. It is 

 therefore a great pleasure to be able to report 

 the most remarkable progress in this direction. 

 First, of course, large gangs were put to work 

 clearing and repairing roads. Miles and miles 

 of the barbed wire of the entanglement were 

 rolled up; a difficult job, and these great rolls 

 six or eight feet in diameter now decorate the 

 roadside. While a small amount of this wire 

 has been used for fencing, most of it is so 

 twisted and tangled that it can be put to no 

 use, and must be permitted to rust away into 

 the soil. 



Another work requiring much time and 

 patient care, was the excavation and removal 

 of shells and other munitions. As many as 

 three or four shells to the square meter were 

 found in some of the more fiercely contested 

 areas, in the vicinity of Dixmude and Ypres, 

 for example. Here, too, were many concrete 

 emplacements of the big guns, both German 

 and Allied, and while effort to dynamite and 

 remove these was at first made, the cost was 

 so great that this has been given up, and they 

 stand today scattered about, — a grim monu- 

 ment to the efficiency of war construction. 

 Water supply for these returned rural dwellers 

 was a distinct problem and most of the old 

 wells having been filled or contaminated, a 

 special service of well drivers was inaugurated 

 and each household provided with a driven 

 well; these were put down as rapidly as ten 

 a week. 



This and other like work took up most of 

 1919. But in the meantime nature was not 

 idle, for weeds did not stop growing, and dur- 

 ing my visit in 1920 these seemed to be the 

 only crop. Such a problem did their removal 

 become that herds of goats were set to work 



