PARK AND CEMETERY 
and Landscape Gardening. 
VI. XV. CHICAGO, APRIL, 1905 No. 2 
(Arbor 'Day, 
This month will record the annual Arbor Day ex- 
ercises of the public schools in many states, and it is 
to be hoped that the school authorities will continue 
to evidence their interest in the day and its object, 
and at the same time broaden out the idea. In the 
rural districts it might readily be made to extend to 
the neglected and treeless cemeteries, and under some 
plan of work designed by a competent man, the public 
schools could be made a force at least one day in the 
year to encourage the community in improving the 
country burial ground. It would mean not only the 
planting of trees, but also of shrubs and decorative 
plants, and would afford a fund of information on 
gardening and nature study. 
yf ^ ^ 
The Washington Improvement Scheme. 
It is sincerely to be hoped that the Burnham Com- 
mission’s plan for the progressive improvement of 
Washington, D. C., which has been illustrated and 
described in these columns in previous issues, will 
henceforth be consistently carried out, without the 
periodic attacks of the politicians and real estate 
schemers of our nation’s capital. On March 14 
President Roosevelt issued an order providing that 
the plans and location of all new public buildings shall 
be submitted for approval to an advisory board con- 
sisting of Messrs. Bernard R. Green, Daniel H. Burn- 
ham, Charles F. McKim, Augustus Saint Gaudens and 
Frederick Law Olmsted. This in effect estab- 
lishes the Commission’s plans for the symmetrical de- 
velopment of the city. This may not definitely solve 
the problem, but it will probably lead to its being se- 
riously taken up by the next Congress and finally set- 
tled, and is a most important step in the meantime to- 
wards preserving the integrity of a scheme which 
would make Washington, as a contemporary says : a 
university of municipal art for city builders. 
y? yf 
The Care of Trees. 
Active spring work always involves the tree ques- 
tion, and that reminds one of the tree-butcher, whose 
pernicious activity is still too often in ostentatious evi- 
dence. No public trees under any circumstances 
should be either trimmed or pruned by any but ex- 
perienced men. We note an excellent regulation 
drawn by the Tree Warden of Dedham, Mass., and 
made legal by higher authorities, by which no person, 
other than one appointed by the warden, shall be al- 
lowed to work in the trees for any purpose whatever. 
And all public service companies having necessity to 
interfere with the trees of the town, must, after ob- 
taining permission for the work from the Tree War- 
den, employ men usually employed by the town in 
such work. Violation of the rule incurs a fine not ex- 
ceeding twenty dollars for each offence. The rule 
is rigidly enforced. The regulations adopted by the 
Park Commissioners of Lowell, Mass., which are 
printed on another page, also embody some of the most 
advanced and intelligent legislation that has been 
taken for the protection of trees on the highway. 
^ ^ ^ 
Women's Clubs and Forestry. 
The recent work of the Federation of Women’s 
Clubs in behalf of forestry is a good sign. These 
clubs are excellently well organized and have demon- 
strated very successfully their ability to co-operate in 
the work of public improvement. Three bills have 
been introduced in the Illinois legislature, now in ses- 
sion, by the Forestry Committee of the Illinois Feder- 
ation : one for the establishment of a state forestry 
commission ; one for the creation of a chair of for- 
estry in the State University and the third for the 
purchase of a tract of pine in Ogle county. In the 
educational literature disseminated by the Federation 
the forestry question is stated as a paramount ques- 
tion of eonomics, which it truly is ; and the concise 
bill of particulars of the evils of forest destruction by 
which many parts of the world have been made deso- 
late, and the benefits that will accrue to us if im- 
mediate steps are taken to replant our devastated 
areas, is convincing proof of the need of immediate ac- 
tion, as well as that the matter is being intelligently 
handled. Many states have already commenced the 
work of scientific forestry as a state activity, and 
every state should carefully investigate its relation 
thereto. If it were possible for all the women’s clubs- 
of the country to enter into the work of civic beauty 
and outdoor improvement, in all their phases, what 
progress would soon manifest itself. 
>;c sK ^ 
Another important bill, framed by Mr. Jens Jen- 
sen, and which has been introduced into the Senate 
and House of the Illinois legislature, provides for an 
investigation as to the conditions of forests in Illinois.- 
It requests the Bureau of Forestry of the Department 
of Agriculture of the United States to make the in- 
vestigation, to recommend the necessary means to pre- 
serve the existing forests, to create new areas and to- 
encourage growth and protection of same. A report 
to be made to the Governor of the State with all con- 
venient dispatch. The bill provides an appropriation 
of $4,000, to be used in conjunction with a similar 
amount provided by the Department of Agriculture. 
