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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



December, 1908 



A Park Plot in the Centre of the Town of BrockTille 



of school grounds; 3, care and manage- 

 ment of streets and boulevards; 4, estab- 

 lishment of parks and playgrounds; 5, 

 abatement of public nuisances ; 6, 

 promoting rural improvement ; and 7, 

 the press. Many others might be added, 

 but this would make a good beginning. 

 If the right person were put at the head 

 of each committee and work was begun 

 at once, this association would make 

 itself a power for good in the country, 

 and we should have valuable reports 

 from each at our next meeting. 



As a matter of encouragement to those 

 who may be looking for more rapid 

 changes, it may be well to call attention 

 to the steady and even rapid progress 

 that is being made in many parts of the 

 province. There have been a number of 

 agencies contributing to this progress 



which may be used to still greater 

 purpose in the future : 



1. The more general use of cement 

 in the making of pavements and side- 

 walks has had a marked effect on most 

 every town and village in the country. 

 In many Ontario towns cement has 

 almost entirely replaced the old wooden 

 walks during the past ten years. 



2. Accompaning the laying of per- 

 manent walks has come the removal of 

 street fences. In many up-to-date 

 Ontario towns and cities we may now go 

 block after block on the residential 

 streets and see no fences, either in front 

 or between lots. 



3. Immediately following the removal 

 of fences has come the proper grading 

 of the lawns and boulevards to the line of 

 the pavement, and more attention to 



keeping the grass nicely cut. A prom- 

 inent citizen of Woodstock told me that 

 it was not many years ago that he owned 

 the only lawn mower in the town. Now 

 it would be hard to find the citizen who 

 did not own and use one regularly. 



4. In some places where systematic 

 tree planting has been done along the 

 boulevards, there are now fine avenues 

 of street trees. But just here is where 

 so many towns have been spoiled because 

 the street planting has been left to the 

 individual property owners, no two of 

 whom have the same idea of what kind 

 of trees should be planted, or where they 

 should be placed on the boulevard. This 

 has rendered it impossible to make a 

 uniform continuous row of trees, because 

 of the great variety selected and the 

 hap-hazard method of their arrangement. 

 The street planting and care of the trees 

 in every village, town and city, should be 

 under the management of a park board 

 or commission, which can adopt a 

 definite plan for the regular planting of 

 certain kinds of trees on certain streets 

 and see that they are properly cared for. 



5. In a number of our cities and 

 most progressive towns, park boards or 

 commissions have been appointed, as 

 provided for by the Ontario Parks Act. 

 This means that much greater progress 

 will be made in such places, and other 

 places will wake up to the necessity of 

 similar action. 



Within the last few years many of our 

 Ontario towns and villages, to say 

 nothing of the larger cities, have seen 

 the advisability of making park reserva- 

 tions, and have purchased lands for park 

 purposes. In some cases, the develop- 

 ment of these has been undertaken by 

 the town council, and in others by a 

 park board, but experience has proved 

 that greater continuity of action may be 

 expected from a board or commission 

 which is more or less permanent. 



Evidences of progress in the establish- 

 ment of parks may be seen in such places 

 as Ottawa, Brockville, Havelock, 

 Toronto, Brampton, Hamilton, Gait, 

 Guelph, Berlin, Waterloo, Woodstock, 

 vStratford, Barrie, Orillia, London, 

 [.eamington, and many other places. 



F'or a town of its size, I know of no 

 place making greater progress in the 

 establishment of beautiful parks than the 

 town of Gait. It has now three good 

 sized parks and seven or eight small 

 plots and squares about the town which 

 help to make Gait a town beautiful. 



( To be conchidcd in next issue) 



A Little Work and Expense Would Make this Scene Ten-fold More Beautiful 



Many towns in Ontario have near tliem beautiful river banks which should be purchased now while the land is 

 cheap and gradually Improved for park purposes. The scene illustrated is within the town limits of Smith's Fall 



If you have any photographs of your 

 garden, orchard or lawn in winter, kind- 

 ly send them to The Canadian Horti- 

 CULTIRIST for publication. An excellent 

 article entitled, "Planting for Winter Ef- 

 fect in the North," will appear in an 

 early issue. 



