National and Educational Interests. 131 



"9. The operation of these rules shall be prospective, not 

 retrospective. 



^'lo. The council wishes to impress upon orchid growers 

 the desirability of obtaining drawings or photographs of all 

 new and certified orchids, and of depositing such drawings in 

 the library of the society, for reference. 



"II. The council also desires to remind cultivators of the 

 great importance of preserving specimens for future reference 

 and comparison, and suggests that, wherever practicable, 

 specimens should be sent for this purpose to the Director of 

 the Ro3'al Gardens, Kew." 



Road agitation. For two or three years there has been great 

 activity in the discussion of means for improving country high- 

 ways. The necessit}^ of improved methods of making and 

 maintaining roads has been brought to the attention of several 

 legislatures, and new laws have been enacted. The general 

 agitation of the highway problem is a matter of contempor- 

 aneous history; it is only necessary here to call attention to a 

 system of numbering country residences and naming the roads, 

 which originated with A. L. Bancroft of San Francisco. The 

 general plan of the movement may be learned from the follow- 

 ing editorial comment in The American Garden for August ; 



''The latest proposition for the socialization of the country 

 comes from California, and it is known as the 'ten-block sys- 

 tem' of numbering land and houses. 'The system is to divide 

 each mile along the roads into ten equal parts, or imaginary 

 blocks, of 528 feet, 176 yards, or 8 chains each, and to assign 

 to each block two numbers, one on each side of the road. 

 Any or every house within a block is given the number of the 

 block. The first one — and in nearly every case it will be the 

 only one in the block — has simply the number ; the second 

 one has the number, followed by the letter A ; the third by the 

 letter B; the fourth by C, and so on — Nos. 196, 196A, 196B, 

 196C, etc. If there is no house in the block, the number is 

 assigned to it just the same, and it remains in readiness should 

 a house be built at a future time.' 



"The further details of the system are few, but we cannot 

 present them here. This is the first practicable attempt yet 

 made, so far as we are aware, to know and record the inhabit- 

 ants of the country. The movement is spreading in the 

 Golden State, and it ought to spread in every township in the 



