18S NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [7:7— Oct, 1911 



lives, of great trees that bless us in their growing and in their 

 sacrifice"; that "inspire communion with nature in all moods" : 

 that "encourage the owning of houses and land and foster lore 

 of home." 



''To teach good taste in architecture and to encourage the 

 building of better homes," one finds on the crescent-shaped piece 

 of ground, fully half a mile in length, a handsome bui'ding con- 

 taining on the third floor editorial departments for books and 

 magazines, all necessary minor offices, a large composing room, 

 type-setting machinery department, electrotype foundry, and 

 photo-engraving department. On a lower level, paper comes in 

 from freight cars at the north end of the building and goes out 

 a finished product at the south end, where auto-trucks and steam 

 cars bear it away at the rate of 15,000 magazines and 500 books 

 per day. (This output could be doubled by adding more ma- 

 chinery.) In this great building, there is no bit of machinery 

 over six years old. Better still, there is sufficient sunlight and 

 practically not a spot forty feet from a great window. These 

 windows in this building, which is 400 feet lon£ with win^s 200 

 feet deep, look down upon a great court 125x200 feet with two 

 large fountains and with greenery even in winter, while there is 

 a continuous bloom of hardv flowers that changes every three 

 weeks from earliest spring blossoms to those that stand a nip of 

 November's frost. On the gala day, poet's narcissus and pansies 

 fringed the basins of the fountains while in the border beds 

 columbine and other flowers were coming into bloom. 



"To help with all practical problems of country living" 

 reads the credo; — "to minister to all the needs and enthusiasms 

 of those who live in the country and love it." Large affairs 

 suggest possibilities on a smaller scale. The use of electricity 

 about the building ; the best plumbing ; an ample water supply 

 cooled for drinking and sufficient even for irrigation of the farm 

 tracts; an excellent system of ventilation; dustless e'eaning by 

 the vacuum process ; rest rooms and restaurant for several hun- 

 dred people,- — these within doors, and without, the use of con- 

 crete in sheds and buildings, a garage, tennis and ball grounds 

 enter into the illustrative material for these two texts. 



Of interest is the fact that work on the buildings began 

 June 1. 1910, that printing machines began to work just three 

 and a half months later. Sept. 26, 1910. and that the office force 

 moved in October first. Xot a single person holding a respon- 

 sive position objected to the change, and in the mechanical 

 department, alone, hundreds of applications were received from 



