February 24, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



93 



let color. On plants that have made good growth the flowers 

 are produced with great freedom during the winter months, 

 and they are excellent for cutting at that season, and last well 

 in water. The Kaffir Lily may be grown in the open garden 

 during the summer in a somewhat moist situation and rich 

 soil and wintered in a sunny cold frame. But unless it is 

 grown'simply to supply cut flowers much of its usefulness as 

 a decorative plant is lost by confining it to a frame, and there- 

 fore it is better if potted when taken up in autumn and placed 

 in ,a cool greenhouse, where it should have plenty of moisture 

 and occasional applications of weak liquid manure to the roots. 

 Under such conditions it will help materially to brighten the 

 house through the greater part of the season, besides being 

 handy for cutting if necessary. It is easily propagated by di- 

 viding the roots late in spring. When cultivated in a green- 

 house, and the flowers allowed to fade upon the plant, the seeds 

 ripen freely in ovu- climate, and these, when obtainable, afford 

 the best means of increasing the stock. They should be sown 

 in slight heat under glass, and picked off and transplanted in 

 the open garden when about six inches high, taking care that 

 the change of temperature is not too abrupt. In this way nice 

 plants may be obtained in one year from the time the seeds are 



sown. iir T, 1. 



Cambridge, Mass. M. barker. 



Correspondence. 



In the Shore Towns of Massachusetts. — VII. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — While my principal errand in the shore towns was to 

 find out what open spaces for public resort have already been 

 provided, I also tried to learn as much as possible of the indus- 

 tries and resources of the people, of their thought and public 

 spirit, of the local history, and whatever might tend to pro- 

 mote the objects of the Trustees of Public Reservations. I 

 found everywhere recent changes in the ownership of land and 

 a movement of people of means from the cities and the inte- 

 rior of the country to the shore regions of the state. I found 

 leagues and leagues together of the shore-line all private hold- 

 ings, without a rood of space in these long reaches to which 

 the public has a right to go. I walked across the domain of 

 one man who owns about six miles of shore-line. I found a 

 great population inland hedged away from the beach, and all 

 conditions poinfing to a time, not remote, when nobody can 

 walk by the ocean in Massachusetts without payment of a fee, 

 as we formerly had to pay for a ghmpse of Niagara. I could 

 see that the movement for open spaces for public resort has 

 vital relations to civilization, and has been instituted in response 

 to a pressing need. I note some of the impressions which 

 were oftenest repeated and most distinct. 



1. Except in a few instances, the public holdings in these 

 towns have not been measured, and their area is unknown. It 

 would be well to have them accurately surveyed, the bounds 

 marked and their area made a matter of public and authorita- 

 tive record. 



2. In a large proportion of the shore towns the public hold- 

 ings have diminished in extent. Not only have all the old 

 common lands, town pastures, woodlands and extensive shore 

 holdings been parceled out to private possession, but the 

 towns have permitted serious encroachments upon the smaller 

 public holdings which, were intended by the founders to be 

 permanent. It is often evident that the first settlers had a 

 pretty clear idea of the value of open spaces for public use in 

 towns and viUages, and they showed much foresight and pub- 

 lic spirit in providing for them. But in later times these public 

 holdings became the object of perpetual assault and invasion, 

 and an astonishing amount of energy and ingenuity has been 

 employed in the effort to appropriate public property to pri- 

 vate use and possession. It often seems that the same labor 

 in any legitimate industry might have brought prosperity to 

 men who always remained poor, but they appear to have at- 

 tributed their poverty to the failure of their attempts to seize 

 the last small remnants of the public holdings of their towns. 

 Those who have wished to despoil and appropriate the prop- 

 erty of the town have, however, usually found their opportu- 

 nity and incentive in the indifference of the community regard- 

 ing public rights and duties, and invaders of the public hold- 

 ings have gained title by undistui'bed occupancy. The man 

 who has wrongfully seized and kept the largest portion of the 

 town lands is often regarded with admiration. " He was too 

 long-headed for the town ; he beat 'em at last." 



3. In a large proportion of the shore towns there are no open 

 spaces of any kind for public resort. Some inconvenience is 

 already felt on this account, especially in the matter of places 



for picnics and out-of-door assemblies of the country peo" 

 pic. 



4. Wherever the summer people have bought land on the 

 sea-shore they show a disposition to exercise the right of ex- 

 clusive domain, and to repel as trespassers all who wish to 

 enter upon their grounds, and the people of the region are thus 

 excluded from places where rights of public resort and passage 

 have been exercised for generations. Even where the ancient 

 public rights are clearly legal they are being generally relin- 

 quished. 



5. The most important feature in the present condition and 

 prospects of the shore towns is the change in the population 

 which is going on everywhere, and the resulting transfer of 

 the title to tlie land to new holders. There is a general move- 

 nient of moneyed people from the cities and towns of the 

 whole country east of the Mississippi River to the shore towns 

 of this state. Individuals, companies and associations are buy- 

 ing land everywhere along the shore. Besides what is done 

 openly, some citizen in each town acts as agent for principals 

 who prefer not to be known. Some of these say they are buy- 

 ing for New York men, but capitalists in various interior cities 

 are investing here. It is largely a movement of people able to 

 have fine places for either summer occupancy or permanent 

 residence by the sea. The extent of some of these new hold- 

 ings on the shore is remarkable and ominous. 



6. Except at Salisbury Beach, Plum Island and a few other 

 places there is not yet much foresight of the need of sites for 

 summer cottages to be leased to people of moderate means. 

 Most of the real-estate men prefer to sell their land outright. 

 They do not want the trouble of leasing it or of collecting rents. 

 The hope of a great advance in the price of their land is more 

 attractive to them than a permanent revenue from property 

 requiring supervision and management. Yet even money 

 needs care and oversight, unless it is handed over to the en- 

 dowment societies or invested in some of the insecurities with 

 which New England people have made acquaintance during 

 the last few years. At some points on the shore money in- 

 vested in cottages or sites rented to persons of small income 

 would probably yield a good return. 



7. Many farmers and residents in the shore towns have re- 

 cently sold their land at very low prices, being rather surprised 

 at any actual offer. When it sells at a great advance soon 

 afterward, they feel that "the times are out of joint." When 

 the native farmers sell their land, they ought to have fairly 

 good prices for it. It is not likely that many of them will ever 

 own land again. 



8. Many of these men will be obliged to find new occupa- 

 tions, in order to make a living. The industries of the shore 

 towns will be greatly changed by this movement into them of 

 so many people, who seek only residence and recreation. 

 Population of this character does not invite or support manu- 

 factures, but distinctly repels them. The old industries — fish- 

 ing, whaling and ship-building — are nearly extinct, and much 

 depression, anxiety and hardship result from the failure of the 

 accustomed means of obtaining a livelihood. Some young 

 men may find employment as coachmen, gardeners and com- 

 mon laborers for the summer residents, but foreigners from 

 the cities are more likely to fill these places, and such com- 

 munities do not offer employment to many laborers of any 

 class except cooks and house-servants. 



9. It is time to inquire what resources or opportunities will 

 remain for the native people of the shore towns. There is one 

 resource which has received comparatively little attention of 

 late — the soil. The soil of most of the shore towns of Massa- 

 chusetts appears to me much better than the popular estimate 

 of it. It has greater capabilities than are yet recognized. This 

 is especially true of the Cape Cod country. The soil there is 

 better than that of southern New Jersey, and I have seen many 

 Massachusetts men in Dakota, Montana and Idaho trying, in 

 great privation, to make a living in regions much more forlorn 

 and hopeless than any part of the shore country of the old 

 Bay State. The productive power of the soil should be tested 

 with crops for modern markets. It is not yet known what can 

 be most profitably grown. Asparagus has been tried in East- 

 ham and Orleans with encouraging results, and Turnips grown 

 in other towns are said to distance all competition. The Cran- 

 berry industry is still expanding, and fruit-growing and market- 

 gardening can probably be extended almost without limit and 

 yield a good profit on the labor of the owners of the land. I 

 think these towns might yet support a great population by a 

 highly developed agriculture and horticulture, and that the 

 owners of the land might wisely keep it and cultivate it. This 

 would tend to delay the complete absorption and appropria- 

 tion of the shore regions by summer residents from the cities, 

 and would render the transition to new conditions less sudden 



