110 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



was voted to postpone the consideration of the ' ' Improvement and 

 Ornamentation of Suburban and Country Roads," for another 

 week. 



MEETING FOR DISCUSSION. 



Saturday, Maych 31, 1877. 



W. C. Strong, Chairman of the Committee on Discussion, pre- 

 siding. The Chairman remarked on the fine displaj'^ of plants and 

 flowers in the room, and called for an}^ information that the mem- 

 bers might have concerning them. As none was offered, the spec- 

 ial assignment, the " Improvement and Ornamentation of Suburban 

 and Country Roads," was taken up. This, the Chairman said, had 

 been postponed, not because of its lack of interest, but because the 

 objects exhibited on previous Saturdays could best be discussed 

 while present before us. Travellers are struck with the excellence 

 of the roads in England, and the park-like character of the scenery — 

 not merely of the places set apart as public parks, but of the country 

 generally. This arises in a great measure from the excellence of the 

 roads, and the hedges by which they are bounded. We think there 

 is no country like our own, but in many respects it is crude and 

 unfinished, and this is especiall}^ true of our roads, the margins of 

 which are often in a most untidy condition, even when the carriage 

 wa}' is well kept. The best means of ornamenting roads are not so 

 well defined as the method of forming a good road-bed. In the 

 city of Newton, where the speaker resides, there was talk of estab- 

 lishing a public park, but he thought there was a great work to be 

 done first in the streets, which are now in a scandalous condition as 

 regaMs neatness. Private wajs in such a condition would be a 

 disgrace to the owner, and care and attention should be given to 

 this point before establishing a public park. 



Aaron Davis Capen said that a fatal mistake in the ornamenta- 

 tion of streets, was in planting too many trees. As an example of 

 too close planting he pointed to the trees in the cemetery opposite, 

 standing so close as to be drawn up as in a forest. That is the 

 way to plant if a forest is wanted, but not for ornament. He liad 

 noticed the planting of trees on the Common, wiien there were 



