PARK AND CEMETERY 
220 
Annual reports or extracts from them^ historical sketches^ 
descriptive circulars^ photos'raphs of improvements or dis- 
tinctive features are requested for use in this department* 
The City Improvement Society of Newburyport, Mass., is 
raising a fund by subscription which it is proposed to add to 
the sum which the city council appropriated for the protection 
of the shade trees of the city from the ravages of the hrown 
tail moth. A suh-committee of the society has the matter in 
charge, and it is expected that a considerable sum will be 
raised. It was decided that the work of cutting the nests from 
the trees should be pushed as rapidly and as energetically as 
possible, and that the advisability of spraying the trees should 
be considered later. 
* * * 
The Tower Hill Improvement Cluh, Tower Hill, Mass., has 
issued the following circular regarding methods of eradicating 
the hrown tail moth pest: Treatment: Take the nests of the 
brown tail moth from the trees and burn them at once. The 
caterpillars will begin to crawl soon, and it will then cost ten 
times as much to save your trees. Trees that lose their foliage 
three years in succession usually die. Property is depreciated 
by loss of trees. Disease is fostererd by neglect to remove 
nests. Thousands are made sick by the minute barbed hairs 
of the caterpillars, which fly in the air and penetrate the skin 
like fishhooks. The person who neglects to remove the nests 
of the brown tail moth from property which he owns, keeps 
what is a menace to the health of the neighborhood. Will you 
remove the nests from the trees at your home and burn them? 
Nests must he removed by April i. Burn all the leaves from 
under trees, as there will undoubtedly be some nests that have 
fallen off during the winter. The club has purchased a 20-foot 
extension ladder, and lo, 12, 14 and 16 foot tree pruners, 
which are kept for the purpose of loaning to its members and 
other responsible persons. 
•if. if. 
The Village Improvement Society of Andover, Mass., which 
has been conducting some very successful prize gardening 
contests, testifies as follows concerning the value of the work, 
in the report of Miss Emma J. Lincoln, secretary : “Each year 
confirms our faith in the advisability of continuing the work 
of flower seed distribution and awarding of prizes among the 
children. In the past year many more children bought seeds 
and a larger number competed for the prizes than in previous 
years. Added to this fact that the standard has been raised 
each year, a little more being expected of the prize winners 
than in the past, it will be seen that greater effort is being 
stimulated. The children are learning that a prize garden 
does not mean always the prettiest garden, and that a weedy 
one hardens the visitor’s heart. One of the most astonishing 
of the prize gardens last year was found in a small back yard, 
shaded on three sides by buildings, the ground so hardened 
by the trampling of children’s feet that not even the usual 
weeds grew in it, but the garden was a wonder, with zinnias 
growing nearly five feet in height as if the blossoms were try- 
ing to climb up where they could get a glimpse of the sun.’’ 
Although not quite a year old, the North Central Improve- 
ment Association of Chicago has accomplished so much that 
the “good work’’ is to be pushed with renewed energy this 
spring. The organization of this association was effected 
March 18, 1904, when a meeting of a number of residents of 
the Twenty-first ward was held at the residence of Mrs. Potter 
Palmer. The association rented space in a store at 71 Rush 
street, and has had an office there since last May. It also owns 
its own teams and all of its implements, and the workmen are 
provided with white uniforms and helmets. After the work 
of cleaning had been started the association undertook to flush 
the asphalt streets at night, twice a week. This was done the 
latter part of the summer, and proved a great success, making 
the streets look unusually attractive. Two men were also 
employed to cut the weeds and tall grass in the vacant lots 
within the district cared for by the association. Next summer 
more work will be done to beautify the vacant property in 
the district. Since winter began a number of men have been 
employed by the association, cleaning the crossings most used 
by pedestrians. The funds are secured by means of subscrip- 
tions from residents of the territory, according to the amount 
of frontage occupied. 
* * * 
The Civic Improvement Club of Waco, Tex., has started a 
civic improvement department in the Waco Herald, conducted 
by Mrs. T. Jeff Smith, which promises excellent results in 
keeping the work before the public. Among the measures 
taken up in the first installment are the promotion of an ordi- 
nance restricting saloons to certain sections of the city outside 
of the residence district, and to another creating and defining 
special taxing districts for local improvements. A discussion 
of nuisances and their abatement in other cities, and the point- 
ing out of specific local instances, furnishes material for the 
rest of the department. In another issue parks and school 
grounds. This is a most important branch of the work of 
improvement associations, and every such organization should 
take measures to keep the local press supplied with improve- 
ment news. In this connection a recent bulletin of the Press 
Department of the American Civic Association, entitled “Civic 
Associations and the Press,” will be found of much assistance. 
It is issued by Frank Chapin Bray, 5711 Kimbark avenue, Chi- 
cago. who is the vice-president in charge of this department of 
the association. 
* * * 
The Bar Harbor Village Improvement Association, Bar 
Harbor, Me., is trying to impress upon the land-owners of 
that vicinity the importance of preserving their trees. They 
have sent letters to the owners of forest lands in the town of 
Eden suggesting that it is to their interest as well as to the 
interest of the community upon whose prosperity the value 
of their land depends, to use care in cutting down their trees. 
Such care, the society says, can be best exercised : 
1. In the case of woodlands on which it is purposed to erect 
buildings near a road, .by leaving a fringe of trees along the 
road side. 
2. In the case of all other woodlands bordering on a road, 
by leaving on each side of the road a belt of trees not less 
than 20 feet wide. 
3. By refraining, except where really necessary, from clear- 
ing away all trees on areas that occupy a conspicuous position 
in the landscape, such as knolls, hilltops and mountain sides, 
easily seen from neighboring roads. 
4. In the case of woodlands from which firewood is ob- 
tained (wherever situated, substantially all such lands being 
near some forest or mountain path), by leaving at least a few 
scattered trees standing, to break the unsightliness of a bare 
tract in the midst of the forest. 
