424 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



chitecture, including all public buildings 

 and bridges, competitions and awarding of 

 prizes to stimulate home-planting among 

 the school children and citizens generally. 



IN RURAL districts'. 



Civic improvement in rural districts may 

 also cover nearly as large a field. It in- 

 cludes better roads, more drainage, better 

 fences, more general tree planting, a general 

 improvement of home surroundings, includ- 

 ing orchards better cared for, evergreens, 

 shrubs, more generally planted and better 

 taken care of, some flower beds about every 

 homestead, well kept kitchen gardens, the 

 shielding or covering of all unsightly build- 

 ings by trees or vines, better sanitation 

 within the homes, universal bath rooms, 

 lavatories and closets, the improvement of 

 public buildings, school houses, school 

 grounds, churches, manses and glebes, by 

 laying out artistically, planting of trees, 

 shrubs, flowers and vines and providing well 

 kept lawns for each, also the establishment 

 and care of parks in every municipality c- 

 cording to size, population and convenience, 

 improving the architecture, approaches and 

 general appearance of bridges, the encour- 

 agement of forestry, more particularly in 

 the direction of planting copses of trees as 

 a shade for farm stock, or to replace native 

 trees that should not have been removed. 

 This may be more easily carried on on he 

 banks of creeks, streams, lakes and rivers, 

 whose surroundings lend themselves easily 

 to beautifying. Groves and all woods that 

 could be easily utilized for park purposes 

 and all evergreens that lend beauty to the 

 landscape and other natural features, should 

 be as far as possible preserved. Wayside 

 springs should be preserved and made con- 

 venient for public use. Guide boards 

 should also be provided. 



AN INVITING FIELD. 



The above are some, though not all of the 



subjects included in the task of civic im- 

 provement . It is not possible, within the 

 limits of a paper or address to discuss them 

 at length. They are sufficiently numerous 

 to invite the effort of all our citizens, young 

 and old, rich and poor. To the latter they 

 offer a specially inviting field of profit and 

 pleasure. The poorer sections of several 

 European and American cities have been 

 literally transformed from apparent squalor 

 and wretchedness to beauty and comfort by 

 the efforts of civic improvement reformers. 

 Productive vegetable gardens have replaced 

 ash heaps and back-door debris, while well- 

 ,kept boulevards and lawns, flowering 

 shrubs, vines and flowers have taken the 

 place of bare yards and general tumble- 

 down surroundings. 



SPRING THE SEASON TO BEGIN. 



The season of spring is most suitable for 

 beginning the work of out-door improve- 

 ment, and it is only to out-door improve- 

 ment that I shall further refer in this paper. 

 Nor can I discuss more than two or three 

 features of this branch of civic reform. 



THOSE UNATTRACTIVE SCHOOL HOUSES. 



All who have travelled through our coun- 

 try districts must have noticed how unat- 

 tractive are the rural school houses and their 

 surroundings. The walls of the buildings 

 are bare and unrelieved by a touch of green 

 in the form of ivy, climbing roses or other 

 vines. There are no trees or shrubs about 

 the ground, nor are there flower beds. The 

 grass, if grass there be, is uncut, the fences 

 are not always in good repair, and the out- 

 buildings, forbidding and offensive, are vul- 

 garly exposed to the public gaze. And 

 yet, these are seats of learning! Here is 

 where our children receive their first i- 

 pressions of education. " Like produces 

 like," it is said, and if so, what must be the 

 impression made by surroundings so rude 

 and repellant? There is also an absence 



