177 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
most practical suggestions of the ses- 
sion. A summary of his remarks fol- 
lows : 
Improvement of the average small lot 
has nothing to do with trees; there is no 
room for them, and we should talk shrubs 
instead to the owner. Trees belong to the 
streets. Fine looking trees are bought at 
the nursery without thought of where they 
will be set or that they will grow so much 
larger, with the result that they are usu- 
ally set six or eight feet apart in squares. 
Fortunately the greater number of them 
die; if they should live the result w’ould 
be very sad. When he finally sees his yard 
full of these trees, the owner trims them 
up twenty feet high, till they look like the 
telephone poles in front of the house. We 
have got to teach people where trees be- 
long, and it is certainly not in a small door- 
yard. If they can’t have room to develop 
to full size and beauty, don’t plant them. 
The geranium bed in the middle of a 
small lawn is an atrocity, not that a 
geranium isn’t a fine thing, but that isn’t 
the place for it. 
We don’t need to lay any great plans 
for this work; it scares the average fel- 
low out. Just tell him to get a few hardy 
shrubs up against the foundation, and a 
few more over in the corner; to keep the 
centers free, and to put the flowers over 
against the shrubs. Just teach him a half 
dozen of these little things; you don’t have 
to make a landscape gardener of him. The 
average man doesn’t like to be taught too 
much ; to be preached to. 
Tell him to do something he likes to do, 
not to get the “finer varieties,’’ but the 
good old common things that grow lots 
of branches and green leaves. The beauti- 
ful wild things that grow in the corner 
are just as good. What could be finer in the 
world than the -wild dogwood or the sumac? 
Teach the people that beautifying the 
grounds is not an expensive proposition, but 
that it is only necessary to have a willing- 
ness to do a little work. One may go to 
a neighbor and get a slip and grow a beau- 
tiful bush of his own. The question is 
whether one has the willingness to do the 
work, study a little and take care of the 
things. 
Other speakers were E. D. Philbrick, 
Prof. J. W. Garner, who is an alderman 
of Urbana; IMrs. William Eaton Moore 
of Springfield; H. Augustine and 
George Foster of Normal, and S. H. 
West of Leroy. 
Hon. Francis G. Blair, state superin- 
tendent of schools, made the opening 
address at the evening session, upon the 
“Educational Value of Interesting 
School Grounds.” 
Mrs. Amalie Hofer Jerome, of the 
Chicago Playground Association, told 
an interesting story of the growth of 
the playground movement. This session 
was closed by a stereopticon lecture by 
J. H. Prost, city forester of Chicago, 
who exhibited some striking examples of 
the changes which may be made in home 
and school grounds by the proper plant- 
ing and cultivation of trees, shrubs and 
flowers. 
At the second day’s session the com- 
mittee upon organization reported the 
constitution, which was adopted. The 
life membership fee is $25 ; sustain- 
ing members pay $5 per year ; con- 
tributing members $2, and active mem- 
bers $1. Any club, society, municipal 
body or school, may become a mem- 
ber by paying $5 annually. 
The following officers were reported 
by the nominating committee and elected 
by the convention : 
President — Edward J. Parker, of the 
Park and Boulevard Association, 
Quincy. 
First vice president — Dean Eugene 
Davenport, Urbana. 
Second vice president — Charles L. 
Hutchinson, Chicago. 
Secretary: — A. P. Wyman, instructor 
in landscape gardening. University of 
Illinois, Urbana. 
Treasurer — Howard D. Humphreys, 
Bloomington. 
Directors — Mrs. J. C. Bly, Chicago; 
George E. Hooker, Chicago; A. B. Mac- 
pherson, Springfield ; F. i\I. Sapp, Ot- 
tawa; H. C. Schaub, Decatur; Mrs. F. 
M. Bedard, La Salle; J. C. Fisher, 
Cairo; Prof. J. W. Garner, Urbana; O. 
C. Simonds, Chicago ; Mrs. H. E. Chub- 
buck, Peoria. 
O. C. Simonds, landscape gardener of 
Chicago, made a short talk and pre- 
sented the following resohitions which 
were adopted : 
1 — “That the children be given more in- 
struction in outdoor art and taught to 
appreciate natural beauty. 
2 — “That this instruction should be given 
in an incidental way and not as an ad- 
ditional course which would add to the 
burdens of the pupil. 
3 — “That as a preparation for giving such 
instruction, special courses should be given 
in our normal schools and higher institutions 
of learning.” 
W'. N. Rudd spoke at some length of 
the special need of instructing school 
teachers so they could instruct the chil- 
dren in this w'ork of outdoor improve- 
ment. He said that the campus of the 
University of Illinois might be made a 
hundred times better than it is, and he 
■dwelt upon the power of that institu- 
tion for good outdoor improvement if 
its students w^ere all sent out with the 
right examples and teaching of it. It 
should have .a beautifully planned and 
beautifully planted campus. The stud- 
ent's should be told it is beautiful and 
why it is beautiful. Mr. Rudd passe.d a 
strong criticism upon the trustees of the 
University of Illinois for having a cam- 
pus that was not well laid out for its 
ornamental planting, and in particular 
that the trustees had appointed a com- 
mittee of three architects, and no land- 
scape gardener, to make plans for this 
campus and the location of its future 
buildings. He understood that when 
their attention was called to the make-up 
of this board they had signified that 
after the buildings were located the 
landscape planting could be done in any 
way to accommodate itself to the build- 
ing plan. This Mr. Rudd condemned 
severely, maintaining that this great in- 
stitution was making a serious mistake 
in not giving them an example on the 
university campus of what proper land- 
scape gardening means. 
C. A. Ewing, of Decatur, reported 
for the committee on street tree planting 
in part as follows : 
“Among the park commissioners or in their 
employ should be a man who understands 
forestry. All the streets should be in care 
of the park commissioners in order that 
anything like a homogeneous plan of plant- 
ing and protection may be carried out. 
Usually the owner of a lot without let or 
hindrance, gives reign to his fancy as to 
what should be done with the trees in front 
of his property; he removes them entirely 
or trims them without understanding their 
requirements, or allows them to be injured 
by the laying of sidewalks, the running of 
wires, the putting down of pipes or he will 
set out an unsuitable or Inharmonious 
variety. The commissioners can adopt a 
plan for getting the best varieties and 
protecting them from insects and other in- 
juries. 
“When an ordinance for , a walk is pre- 
sented, the trees, if any, along the pro- 
posed improvement should be considered. If 
it is necessary to cut their roots they should 
be at once protected by coal tar and per- 
haps trimmed back to balance the lessened 
supply of food and moisture afforded by 
their roots. The same is true as to an 
ordinance or permit for stringing wires or 
laying a drain. When a plat is presented 
for acceptance it should provide ample 
boulevard between the walk and the pave- 
ment line for planting trees. Private own- 
ers should be restrained from interfering 
with the trees on the streets, and these 
trees should receive intelligent care through- 
out the year. 
“The law provides for creating improve- 
ment districts, park systems, boulevards, 
pleasure driveways and even for a city art 
commission to provide and maintain public 
Parks and many other things.” 
S. A. Forbes, state entomologist, sent 
a letter telling of the work of insect 
extermination. He said that the San 
Jose scale would gradually spread over 
the entire state — a fact which 'makes it 
necessary to strike some favorites from 
the list of ornamentals as both short- 
lived and unusually dangerous. The 
flowering quince and the mountain ash 
are examples. The elm leaf beetle has 
now reached Ohio and southern Indiana, 
and its control will probably become a 
permanent problem in Illinois. 
Mrs. E. S. Walker, former president 
of the Springfield Woman’s Club, made 
a report of its work. This club has 
charge of a “city beautiful” department 
in one of the Springfield papers. Mrs. 
H. C. Shaub, of Decatur, told of some 
school improvement work in her locality. 
Charles N. Brown, secretary of the 
Park and Pleasure Drive Association of 
Madison, Wis., read a most interesting 
paper detailing the remarkable park 
work in that city of which the story has 
already been told in Park and Ceme- 
tery. 
