‘May, rgri 
TD 
wy yyy L)))) pannel ——— 
AMERICAN HOMES AND 
GARDENS ix 
CITY:,PLANNING 
HE National Conference on City Planning will be 
held this year in Philadelphia, Pa. The time se- 
lected for this conference is May 15, 16 and 17. 
The importance of such a meeting is now being recognized 
by architects, engineers, city officials and citizens who have 
a civic pride and a patriotic spirit. 
No art progress can be expected in the building of the 
future cities, or in the improvement of the present one’s, 
until the people stop to consider the vital importance of 
such a subject, and it is just such meetings as these that are 
proving so beneficial in stimulating the desire for the de- 
velopment of beauty in cities and in villages. 
A special committee has been appointed and the program 
has been particularly arranged so as to interest all who may 
have the privilege of attending. 
This will be the third conference held of the kind and 
the interest in them has been active without being spasmodic 
at any period. 
It is a forum where debates are given, and deliberations 
are held with the viewpoint of solving some of the great 
problems which confront us. 
The opinion of the best expert authority is expected to 
be expressed in the papers which will be read before the 
conference; papers that are likely to induce and develop 
extended discussion on the great subject of ‘“‘City Planning.” 
THE NATIONAL BUILDING MATERIAL EXHIBITION 
HE first building material exhibition ever held in this 
country will take place at Madison Square Gar- 
den, from the 13th to the 20th of May. The ob- 
ject of this exhibition will be to cover the entire field of 
public and private building construction in its minutest de- 
tail. The plans for the exhibition have been carefully laid, 
and the support and patronage of all of the most promi- 
nent architects, manufacturers of building materials and 
various mechanical and building trades associations have 
been enlisted, and it is the general opinion that this exhibi- 
tion will greatly stimulate the interest, not only of those 
directly associated with building construction, but also of 
the public at large. The coming exhibition, not only will 
be national in character, but will in reality be of interna- 
tional importance, for the reason that it is the direct out- 
growth of the building show which has been held annually 
in the Olympic Exhibition Building in London for the past 
ten years. As the London show has met with the greatest 
success, both from the standpoint of the producer and of 
the general public, the field in this country, being so much 
more extensive, owing to the rapid advancement which has 
been made in recent years in building construction, makes 
the prospects of the coming exhibition exceedingly bright. 
The wide scope of this exhibit of material will cover in- 
terests so large that the architect, the general public, the 
man who specializes interior and exterior appurtenances, 
and the home builder will find everything pertaining to the 
construction and fitting up of all kinds of buildings. One 
of the interesting features of the exhibition will be the 
daily building and completion of an entire house. This is 
something that has never been attempted before, and it is 
only made possible by the wonderful advancement in con- 
struction work within the past few years. One of the most 
important attractions of the exhibition will be the display 
of modern country and suburban houses, showing all of 
the best features of architecture, and the manifold conveni- 
ences by which recent inventions have placed the suburban 
and country dweller upon a par with the occupant of the 
town house. 
ARBOR DAY 
RBOR DAY, April 11th, has come and gone, but it is 
not too late to consider the importance of tree 
planting. 
Trees of all kinds may be set out with safety up to the 
15th of May, and if every householder would set out even 
one tree each year, ‘a wonderful work could be accomplished, 
and the most barren place would become a thing of beauty. 
Why not plant a tree about your home grounds and 
along the highway? What greater legacy could a man 
leave to his home town than some fine old trees, for which 
his posterity will thank him as long as their shades endure. 
THE HORTICULTURAL NUMBER 
T may not be out of place for the publishers to express 
their appreciation of the wide interest which was 
shown in the Horticultural Number for March, by the 
readers of AMERICAN HoMES AND GARDENS. So great 
was the demand for this number that it was completely ex- 
hausted a short time after publication. 
The result was very materially due to the presentation of 
an exceptionally valuable planting table, comprising ex- 
amples of garden planting that embraced everything per- 
taining to the garden from the planting of a rose garden 
to that of the more prosaic vegetable garden. 
These special numbers take up the treatment of one par- 
ticular subject, to which their pages are exclusively used, 
the March number being dedicated to.the garden. 
The policy of the publishers has been to devote the pages 
of AMERICAN HoMEs AND GARDENS entirely to the home, 
its decorations, its furnishings, and its gardens, and to pre- 
sent each of the subjects in the most timely and suggestive 
way. 
It seeks to present this information in a form so read- 
able and so readily understood as to become a fascination 
for the study by the home-builder of the improvement of 
the home and the beautifying of the home grounds. 
