I04 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



Fig 2553. An Attractive Park. 



evidences of refinement and of culture that 

 were in proportion to her advancement in 

 education. He would like to see the farms 

 and the farm yards made more attractive, 

 the school houses and their surroundings 

 transformed from being the bleakest and 

 most forbidding places to the most inviting 

 and attractive. The park systems should be 

 extended, and in every town and village no 

 time should be lost in securing a site for a 

 beautiful park. 



His Worship, Mayor Urquhart, of To- 

 ronto, emphasized the great importance of 

 a park system to every town or city, and was 

 pleased to give the hearty welcome of the 

 city of Toronto to this meeting. He wished 

 the project every success, and only hoped 

 that some scheme might be forthcoming by 

 which plans adopted by a municipality for 

 civic improvement might not be neglected 

 by a succeeding body of municipal officers, 

 but might be carried on with some continu- 

 ity to their completion. 



Major Snelgrove said in the first instance 

 his attention had been called to the impor- 

 tance of this civic reformation in an address 

 delivered by Mr. C. C. James, the able 

 Deputy Minister of Agriculture for Ontario, 

 before the Fruit Growers' Association at the 

 Cobourg Convention, where he had sug- 

 gested that our horticultural societies should 

 become local improvement societies. The 

 speaker said the objects which the promoters 

 of the League had in view were to unite the 

 efforts of all citizens in the systematic de- 

 velopment of handsome and wholesome sur- 

 roundings ; to raise the standard of muni- 

 cipal taste and tidiness ; to make the Cana- 

 dian life brighter, healthier and happier. In 

 order to accomplish these aims, they would 

 require organization, perseverance and com- 

 mon sense. Radical reforms along the same 

 lines ,;were taking place in England, whose 

 historic gardens were models of loveliness ; 

 and yet it was an appalling fact, which 

 ought to serve as a salutary warning to the, 



