240 PUBLIC PARKS OF IOWA 



Are there not resources in every county that could be developed in 

 order to preserve our native flora? Cannot a conserted effort be pro- 

 moted to make each county school yard a flower preserve? The writer- 

 is aware that many times the pupils of the rural schools who with much 

 enthusiasm has set out their wild flower beds in the spring, return in 

 the fall to find that the grounds have been used as a neighborhood pas- 

 ture, or that the director in preparing for the fall opening has ruthlessly 

 mowed everything in sight. Can we blame the children, if they lose 

 interest in this work? Oftentimes, too, the school grounds are unfenced. 

 However, these conditions may be changed if the interest of the patrons 

 is once aroused. To encourage establishing native trees, shrubs and 

 herbs on country school grounds very 'definite suggestions should be 

 made to teachers and pupils. 



It is not enough to appoint an arbor day and hope that in every dis- 

 trict such planting will be done. Few teachers have had practical 

 experience in transplanting trees and shrubs, but the great majority 

 will endeavor to do this if definite suggestions of what to do are made. 

 It is not enough to make resolutions at such a meeting as this. Neither 

 county superintendent nor rural teacher is likely to see the report 

 Could not circulars be prepared and sent to the county superintendent 

 for distribution among his teachers, in which working lists of plants to 

 be set out and methods of doing this are clearly noted? Let me suggest 

 that these lists be short and include only such plants as are easily 

 accessible. It might be well, also, to caution against such plants as ane- 

 mone, Pennsylvania, Desmidium and Hydrophyllum, which soon become 

 weeds. 



It is not enough to say "Set out some shrubs and other plants/' but 

 if we say "Set out wahoo and wild honeysuckle in the yard, plant moon 

 seed and woodbine by the porch, set out bitterwort by the fence, place a 

 clump of hawthorne and wild crabapple on a slope, set out hepaticas, blue 

 bells, columbine and bloodroot on the south, anemones on the east and 

 ferns on the north side of the house and ask your director to see that 

 the fence is good, moreover, save religiously every flowering plant and 

 shrub already native to the school ground; if it is not advisable to retain 

 them there, transplant them carefully to some more suitable part of the 

 ground," if we speak thus definitely, teachers, school children and 

 neighborhood will vie with each other in carrying out directions. The plants 

 named have been selected advisedly because they blossom while the 

 spring term of school is in session. The bitter sweet, haw and wau-hoo 

 are attractive because of their fruit when school opens in the fall; more- 

 over, they all may be obtained easily from the nearest grove. 



The organization of consolidated schools offers a like opportunity, 

 since an essential condition of such consolidation is that the grounds be 

 ample and in each school there is a teacher of agriculture. 



Every county, we might say every town, should have its picnic 

 grounds and these should be left as far as possible in a state of nature, 

 where both fauna and flora might be preserved. Cannot any game pre- 

 serves, of which there are many in the state, be made preserves of native 

 flora also? Mormon Ridge in Marshall county has a very extensive flora. 

 The owners of the timber land are foresting it carefully. It has been a 



