CIVIC IMPROVEMENT. 



425 



of a flag pole or flag, which every school 

 section should have, and such flag should 

 fly on all appropriate occasions, familiariz- 

 ing the children with our national emblem 

 and to teach them to love and honor )t 

 though it be '* Only a bit o' bunting !" 



the; churches also neglected. 



Then our rural church buildings are little 

 less unattractive than are the school houses. 

 They appear to be neglected and uncared 

 for. One might easily imagine that they 

 were seldom, if ever visited, so cold, bare 

 and uninviting do they appear. If sur- 

 rounded by a cemetery, as they usually are, 

 it too looks uncared for and ragged in the 

 extreme. Respect for the dead, if not for 

 the living, should suggest an improvement 

 in this respect, and surely our places of wor- 

 ship should be made as attractive in their 

 exteriors as our own homes. The spirit of 

 true worship is sacrifice, and professing 

 Christians should show, not only by the 

 substantial character of their churches and 

 attractive interior, but also by pleasant and 

 picturesque surroundings, that they are will- 

 ing to sacrifice of both time and means -to 

 beautify the temples which they have erect- 

 ed for the worship of Almighty God. 



RAILVV^AY STATIONS AND GROUNDS. 



Another direction in w^hich improvement 

 may be made by vines, shrubs, flowers nd 

 well kept lawns, is our railway station 

 houses and station grounds. This is becom- 

 ing more important because of the building 

 of electric lines of railway, and the same 

 improvements should be made, and indeed 

 insisted upon, by the public, upon the sta- 

 tion houses and grounds of electric railways 

 as are necessary on steam railway proper- 

 ties. These improvements should be made 

 a condition of granting franchises to com- 

 panies when applying to municipalities for 

 them. Another condition that should be 

 insisted upon is that all the land lying 



alongside the electric railway tracks and be- 

 longing to the companies should be kept 

 clear of all noxious weeds, and in general 

 be well cared for. Otherwise these pro- 

 perties may become e>"esores to the travel- 

 ling public and a menace to the crops of ad- 

 jacent farmers. 



SHADE TREES ALONG HIGHWAYS. 



Tree planting along the roadways would 

 add greatly to their beauty, and if done ju- 

 diciously and the trees not planted too close- 

 ly, while affording a pleasant shade, would 

 not necessarily injure the roadways by hold- 

 ing the water and thereby making them 

 damp or wet. 



BEAUTIFYING RURAL HOMES. 



A Strong eflfort should be made to induce 

 our friends, the farmers, to pay more atten- 

 tion to beautifying the exterior of their 

 homes and surrounding grounds. Farm 

 houses are usually located advantageously 

 for improvements such as are suggested. 

 An ivy, climbing rose, or any creeping vine 

 would relieve their bare appearance, while 

 some pretty flowering shrubs, a few ever- 

 greens, and some flower beds would add 

 greatly to the beauty of the surroundings. 

 But what is still more important, they would 

 probably interest some members of the 

 household and make all more contented with 

 the home and its environment. 



COPSES OP SHADE TREES. 



Then in the older parts of Ontario and 

 the other eastern provinces, where the larger 

 part of the farms have been entirely de- 

 nuded of trees when the trees of the forest 

 were felled, some attempt should be made 

 to partially replace them by planting, in ap- 

 propriate places, copses of evergreens or 

 shade trees. These are not only valuable 

 as shade for the farm stock, but would 

 greatly add to the beauty of the landscape. 

 In the absence of hedges, such as are in le 



