Qivie Jmprovement C 



A DEPARTMENT DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF THE HORTICULTURAL 

 SOCIETIES OF ONTARIO, AND OF ALL OTHER BODIES INTERESTED 

 IN THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE SURROUNDINGS OF OUR 

 CANADIAN TOWN AND COUNTRY HOMES. 



CIVIC IMPROVEMENT NOTES. 



BY THE EDITOR, 



A CAiNADIAN FLAG AS A PfiIZE TO 

 SCHOOLS. 



^T"^ HE plan of enlisting the children in the 

 J. improvement of their grounds is tru- 

 ly a most worthy one. Mr. G. R. Patullo, 

 of Woodstock, our field secretary, origi- 

 nated a plan of giving a Canadian flag in 

 each district to the public school making the 

 greatest improvement in the grounds and 

 surroundings of the school buildings during 

 the summer of 1903. 



A VISTA WHICH IS VVOKTH MOKE THAN 

 FLOWERS AND CARPET BEDDING. 



THERE are few people who do not 

 appreciate a fine landscape, or a 

 pretty view half hidden by tasteful 

 plantings of shrubbery and trees, and yet not 

 one in twenty is able to analyse the picture 

 into its component parts, or, given the 

 ground work, to so dispose the plantings of 

 trees, shrubs and climbers as to create a pic- 

 ture. To do this one must not only be an 

 observant student of nature, but must also 

 have an artistic genius. 



About Hamilton, with the bay on the 

 north and the water inlets on the west and 

 the mountain on the south there is material 



that could be worked into most delightful 

 park scenery by a landscape gardener, with 

 comparatively little expenditure. 



There is a fad with some gardeners for 

 ribbon bedding, and there are places where 

 perhaps a ribbon bed may be the most ap- 

 propriate thing, as in a small city lot 

 which is too small to be treated for land- 

 scape effect ; but m large pleasure grounds, 

 or in a public park, such work is entirely out 

 of place. 



PARK MAKING IN CANADA. 



F;^REDERICK G. TODD, of Montreal, 

 Quebec, has been selected to pre- 

 pare plans and assist in drawing up re- 

 ports for the future improvement of Ot- 

 tawa as the Canadian capital. The com- 

 mission recently appointed by the Dominion 

 government to prepare a report on this work 

 intends to acquire large areas of land for 

 park purposes both inside and outside of the 

 present city limits, and to lay out a connect- 

 ing system of boulevards. The magnificent 

 situation of the Parliament buildings, nd 

 the fact that the government owns a large 

 part of the rugged and picturesque shores 

 of the Rideau river, which runs through the 



