286 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
‘‘Moorestown is justly famed for its beautiful shade 
trees, and our Association proposes to do all within its 
power to protect them. The Township Committee has 
been asked to pass an ordinance prohibiting the post- 
ing of any notices or advertising matter on the trees 
within the present fire limits. These notices not only 
detract from the beauty of our town, hut the nails 
with which they are fastened injure the trees. Pend- 
ing the passage of such an ordinance, our townspeople 
are urged to pull down any advertising matter illegally 
placed on the trees in front of their homes. Our 
'shade trees are one of our most valuable assets, and it 
is well worth our while to. protect them. Perhaps the 
greatest present need rs to prevent their further muti- 
lation by the public service corporations. During the 
past few years sonie pf the most beautiful trees have 
been ruined and cut back to make room for the tele- 
graph or telejrhone wires almost to the ]3oint of ruin- 
ation. At the corner of Central Avenue and Chestnut 
Street, a beautiful pine has been killed by the escaping 
gas from a leaky pipe. xAll of these things are in di- 
rect violation of the people’s rights. No telegraph or 
telephone company has the right to erect poles or 
string wires in front of your proper^JVor to trim or in 
any way mutilate your shade trees without the consent 
of the property owner. This has been established be- 
yond question in the higher courts. It is to be hoped 
that property owners will keep their frontage rights 
prominently before their minds, and not permit any in- 
dividual or company to damage their shade trees even 
to the slightest extent. Our trees should be protected 
the same as other private property.” 
Such subjects as pure water, sidewalks, school and 
street improvements, and care of trees are regularly 
discussed in a very helpful and suggestive manner. 
The paper is so good that we can offer only one sug- 
gestion for its improvement, namely, the use of pic- 
tures. Such a live organization must have numerous 
e.xamples of work done that could be photographed 
and illustrated to great advantage. P.\rk and Ceme- 
tery would be glad to receive photographs from this 
or other associations who have pictures illustrating 
village improvement. 
Last spring the Association sold over i,ooo packages 
of seeds to school children, and many successful gar- 
dens resulted. Prizes were offered for best kept 
lawns, and a flower show is to be held this month with 
prospects of another in the fall. 
PLANS FOR RAILWAY IMPROVEMENT. 
Mrs. A. E. McCrea, of Chicago, landscape architect 
and vice-president in charge of the department of Rail- 
road Improvement of the American Civic Association, 
has been appointed to take charge of the improvement, 
of station grounds for the Illinois Central Railroad. 
Mrs. McCrea will travel over all lines of the company 
between Chicago and St. Paul, Sioux City, Omaha, 
St. Louis and New Orleans to plan and execute effects 
in landscape gardening. Every station along the 7,000 
miles of road in the nine States traversed by the sys- 
tem will receive attention, blowers, trees and shrubs 
will be planted so as to get tbe best results. Aluch at- 
tention \v%l be given to lawns and necessarily unsight- 
ly buildings will be covered with vines. The idea is 
to make th« system pleasing to travelers and residents 
of the different towns and cities. Wherever possible, 
grounds surrounding depots will be converted into 
parks. 
The St. Louis Improvement League for the past two 
}ears has been' offering prizes amounting to $100 in 
cash for the back yards showing the greatest improve- 
ment along the right of way of the Suburban railway. 
In doing this, the league has had in mind the ultimate 
making of this right of way one of the picturesque 
park places in the city. Carrying out this idea, the 
committee has prepared suggestive plants as to how this 
scheme might be carried out. One of the greatest 
strides toward securing this parkway will be for the 
alleys to be made and the fences and sheds supplanted 
by hedges or trailing vines. In awarding the prizes the 
view of the contestant’s yard from the right of way 
would determine whether he were entitled to receive 
a prize. ^ 
THE IMPROVEMENT IDEA IN NEW YORK CITY. 
The annual exhibition of the Architectural League 
of New York, and in connection therewith its twentieth 
annual banquet, in which the leading architects and 
artists participated, shows a decided advance in the de- 
termination to create of New York a “city beautiful.” 
The Art Commission, composed of eminent men, have 
been very active in guarding the city’s interests in this 
direction. The speeches at the League dinner had a 
jubilant tone over the prospects for the future, and 
considerable discussion was indulged in over the im- 
provement plans suggested by the Commission, which 
form the leading feature of the E.xhibition. Lhe 
leaders in art of New York are evidently wide awake 
to the necessity for city improvement, and it is unques- 
tionably a good sign when the foremost city in the 
country is found to be giving so much attention to 
a subject which is of vital interest to every other city,' 
and whose influence and example will be sure to move 
kindred spirits in other centres. It will be a glorious 
day for the United States when either of its larger 
cities comes to be recognized as -a beautiful city and 
attracts visitors for that reasDn alone. Public senti- 
ment may be depended upon to back up so promising 
a movement, but it must be afforded every possible 
opportunity for education on a subject which involves 
more technical art than our present very limited 
national art sense qan appreciate. 
