A CONGRESS OF HORTICULTURE AT JAMESTOWN 
An interesting and unique gather- 
ing was the Congress of Horticul- 
ture held at the Jamestown Exposi- 
tion, September 23-27, under the - di- 
rection of the National Council of Hor- 
ticulture. In addition to the regular 
meetings of the American Pomologi- 
cal Society, American Nut Growers’ 
Association, The Society for Horti- 
cultural Science, and the Federation 
of Horticultural Societies, the program 
included a wide range of topics of a 
general character covering the entire 
field of horticulture. 
Among the speakers whose names 
are familiar to our readers were 
Messrs. Warren H. Manning and 
John C. Olmsted, landscape archi- 
tects; Dr. B. T. Galloway of the De- 
partment of Agriculture at Washing- 
ton; J. C. Vaughan, of Chicago; and 
W. N. Rudd, Superintendent of Mt. 
Greenwood Cemetery, Chicago. 
The complete program was as fol- 
lows : 
First Session. 
Mr. J. H. Hale, South Glastonbury, 
Conn., chairman. 
Cultural Problems.— - Soils, Profes- , 
sor F. H. King, Madison, Wis.; 
Plant Diseases, Dr. A. F. Woods, 
Washington, D. C.; Insects Enemies, 
Mr. A. L. Quaintance, Washington, 
D. C. 
Breeding and Propagation. — Horti- 
cultural Variation, Dr. H; J. Webber, 
Ithaca, N. Y.; Principles of Seed 
Growing, Mr. J. Otto Thilow, Phila- 
delphia, Pa.; Vegetables, Dr. Walter 
Van Fleet, New York, N. Y.; Orna- 
mental Woody Plants, Hon. M. W. 
Hale, Knoxville, Tenn.; Florists’ 
Flowers, Mr. W. N. Rudd, Mt. Green- 
wood, 111. 
Second Session. 
Professor S. B. Green, St. Anthony 
Park, Minn., chairman. 
Commercial Growing. — Nuts, Pro- 
fessor W. A. Taylor, Washington, D. 
C. ; Garden Vegetables, Mr. W. W. 
Rawson, Boston, Mass.; Ornamental 
Plants, Mr. Wm. H. Taplin, Holmes- 
burg. Pa.-; Cut Flowers, Mr. F. A. 
Pierson, Tarrytown, N. Y; Forest 
Trees, Professor F W. Rane, Boston, 
Mass. 
Local Horticultural Conditions. — 
Canada, Professor W. T. Macoun, Ot- 
tawa, Canada; East, Mr. John K. M. 
L. Farquhar, Boston, Mass.; Central 
West, Mr. L. A. Goodman, Kansas 
City, Mo.; Pacific Coast, Professor 
E. J. Wickson, Berkeley, Cal.; South. 
Professor F. H. Burnette, Baton 
Rouge, La. 
Third Session. 
Professor S. A. Beach. Ames, la., 
chairman. 
Civic Horticulture, Mr. Warren H. 
Manning, Boston, Mass.; Our Nation- 
al Forests, Mr. W. L. Hall, Washing- 
ton, D. C.; Landscape Gardening, 
Mr. John C. Olmsted, Brookline, Mass. ; 
Schools and Experiment Stations, Dr. 
A. C. True, Washington, D. C.; Hor- 
cultural Press, Mr. Leonard Barron, 
New York, N. Y.; Government Aid, 
Dr. B. T. Galloway, Washington, D. 
C. ; Federation and Co-operation, Mr. 
J. C. Vaughan, Chicago, 111 
Mr. Manning’s paper follows here- 
with, and Mr. Olmsted’s will be found 
on another page: 
CIVIC HORTICULTURE AND CIVIC IMPROVEMENT 
Civic improvement is the work that! 
organizations and individuals plan 
and execute to improve their sur- 
roundings and civic horticulturists - 
are they who so cultivate ornamental 
plants in public or private grounds 
as to give pleasure and benefit to the 
public as well as themselves. Orna- 
mental plants become in the hands 
of the civic horticulturists the gar- 
ments of civic improvement, for they 
clothe parks, buildings, lawns, streets 
and landscapes. 
The broadest aspect of the civic 
improvement movement, however, lies 
in permanently preserving and im- 
proving the natural beauty of a 
region and securing convenient and 
attractive access thereto for all citi- 
zens. Toward this end vast numbers 
of powerful interests have been un- 
consciously working while they have 
at the same time been destroying 
nature. 
Railroads are now the national 
Read by W arren H. Manning before the Con gress 
of Horticulture at Jamestown Exposition. 
parkways to nearly all sections hav- 
ing special landscape interests and 
they recognize very clearly the value 
of such interests as an asset in the 
extension of their lines in the acquire- 
ment of the land ajoining their right 
of way to protect beautiful outlooks 
and in the almost universal improve- 
ment of right of way and station 
grounds; they often being the only at- 
tractive objects in unattractive out- 
looks. Their rails have now largely 
superseded the river and canal with all 
their charm for the traveller, but hav- 
ing a limited outlook, as compared 
with the rapidly shifting vistas and 
broad panoramas of the train. - 
Electric roads. State roads, merg- 
ing into National roads are opening 
up regions of even greater beauty 
and variety and electric cars and 
automobiles are making the range 
of pleasure driving so wide now that 
a fraction of a day’s ride only is re- 
quired to cover a City Park system, 
although some cities have included 
therein as much as one-sixth of their 
total area and the average park area 
of the fourteen cities above 300,000 
population is one in twentj'-eight 
acres. 
City systems have broadened to 
county systems as in Essex county. 
New Jersey, and the Boston IMetro- 
politan system extends into four 
counties. There are also many state 
parks, water supply, irrigation and for- 
estry reservations of a thousand acres 
more or less, national militar}- reser- 
vations of various kinds, some of six 
thousand acres or more, and the Na- 
tional forest reserves of over 140,000.- 
000 acres. 
The engineers, civil, railroad, hy- 
draulic, army and others, the forester, 
the landscape designer, industrial 
