PARK AND CEMETERY 
AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING 
Vol. XX Chicago, July, 1910 No. 5 
Social Centers 
The movement to extend the social features of a neigh- 
borhood by means of the small park buildings and the 
schoolhouses, is gaining another impetus, and the more it 
is considered the more it promises; and as the practical 
details are worked out the problems are not so involved 
as would at first appear. Given an enlightened school 
board, with some show of up-to-date ideas in unanimous 
co-operation, and the good that can be accomplished in a 
neighborhood can scarcely be over-estimated. The very 
combination of recreative exercise for both mind and bod}', 
and the uplifting pleasure of social intercourse wisel}' 
controlled and regulated, offers possibilities that educa- 
tors should be eager to grasp. The social tone of a neigh- 
borhood rapidly changes for the better, and no stronger 
evidence is needed to attest this statement than the great 
reduction in juvenile misdemeanors that the small parks 
and playgrounds have accomplished already. 
The Birds 
In the course of his lectures on the ‘'Salvation of Our 
Trees,” Mr. John Davey, of the Davey Tree Expert Co., is 
taking up the subject of the relation of birds to our trees, 
and the necessity of checking the depredations of the Eng- 
lish sparrow upon our native songsters and other insectiv- 
orous members of the feathered tribe. With his natural 
enthusiasm Mr. Davey has entered into this crusade upon 
the sparro%v at his own e.xpense, with a view to getting 
concerted action throughout the country, his own idea be- 
ing that, unless such action be soon taken, many of our 
birds will become extinct. But, looking at the question 
still deeper, we must do more than work to exterminate 
the sparrows. We must stop the gun-practice of the 
small boy, his father, and numerous other relatives, who 
never give a feathered creature much of a chance that 
comes within range. And we must also educate the people 
to respect the laws and the officers of the law to enforce 
them. The legitimate war against the sparrow has re- 
sulted in considerable illegitimate war on the other birds. 
Such facts must be borne in mind, and there is no doubt 
that l\Ir. Davey appreciates these conditions. It is quite 
a certain fact that the usefulness of the great majority of 
our birds in this age of our civilization demands not only 
persistent and well considered methods to destroy their 
enemies, but also equally efficient means to preserve them 
during the campaign. Then we must exercise more care 
in our public and private grounds to encourage their pres- 
ence, and provide for their needs in time of stress. The 
interest and delight attached to the observation and study 
of birds should and will make the little care required to 
provide somewhat for them a pleasurable duty. When 
it becomes an offense for a thoughtless neighbor to destroy 
what you are caring for, the duty will be still easier. 
Advertising Information on Trees 
The adaptation of business methods to educational work 
to promote outdoor improvement has, perhaps, never been 
better illustrated than by a feature adopted by the Shade 
Tree Commission of Newark, N. J., a city now well known 
throughout the country for its shade tree work. The fea- 
ture referred to is the distribution of blotters, the ordinary 
office size, on one side of which is printed in large type 
facts and instructions concerning shade trees, the other 
side being the blotter. The set to hand comprises six in 
number, and on them respectively will be found: “How 
to Plant Trees and What Trees to Plant”; “Do You 
Know,” giving facts concerning trees; “How to Plant a 
Tree,” with comprehensive instructions; “Why Plant 
Trees?" and “W'here to Plant Trees”; “Some of the Rea- 
sons Yffiy Trees Die after Transplanting”; and “Do You 
Know,” containing more facts about trees. This is really 
an instructive and ver}' useful series of blotters, as all 
must acknowledge, and from the character of the printed 
matter it must appeal to the user, and will in all prob- 
ability tend to fix the tree question on the mind not in 
abstract, but practically. This example of educational 
blotters may be advantageous!}' extended to other fea- 
tures of outdoor work. 
City Appropriations 
The system of annual appropriations for important 
public works has shown itself such a poor method of pro- 
viding the funds with which to carry them out, that the 
public mind is looking for samething better. However 
economical and fair the estimates for public works may 
be prepared, however reputable those preparing them may 
be, however important and insistent the demand for them 
is, the City Fathers generally vote to reduce them, and 
that without rime or reason. Simply cut them down for 
a show of economy and a bait for public acclaim of an 
honest and careful board! The system has been the cause 
of incalculable waste of resources, to say nothing of the 
political details inseparable from it; work has been left 
unfinished from year to year, not even carried usually to 
the point where it would be safe to leave it for a time; so 
that to begin again has meant large expenditures to make 
good and to connect the new with the old. Some system 
should be devised to cover the whole cost of an under- 
taking, or, at least, there should be elasticity enough in 
it to provide for emergencies. Not only in structural 
work proper, but even in the improvement of parks and 
public places, has the uncertainty of sufficient appropria- 
tions been the cause of tremendous wastes of money in 
the aggregate. 
Precept and Example 
Whatever may be the relative merits of precept and e.x- 
ample, over which many an aspirant to oratorical honors 
has struggled, in the matter of practical work, after the 
precept has been laid down effectively, practice does quite 
frequently follow. We are reminded of the effect of a 
lecture on civic duties and outdoor improvement in an 
eastern town, wherein the cemetery had been allowed to 
become a blot amid its surroundings, and upon the citi- 
zens, of rvhich the lecturer so impressed her views, for it 
was a woman who delivered the address, that an organiza- 
tion was immediately formed to clean up and improve the 
said cemetery and with the promise of lasting results. 
We have often advocated the illustrated lecture as a good 
means to an end in improvement work, but there is really 
need of something more than pictures and bald descrip- 
tions. The spoken matter should be, and ought to be, 
good stuff to listen to without the pictures, and instead of 
the speaker having nothing to do but simply to describe 
the views, he should be qualified to move the majority of 
his hearers to the necessary enthusiasm to resolve to 
follow the advice and turn the information to practical use. 
