PARK AND CEMETERY 
408 
dent for a good effect, although the material was 
excellent. Among a number of the better-known ber- 
ried shrubs used there were noted several uncommon 
things, particularly some heavily fruited specimens of 
two roses, labeled R. villosa, having bright red hips, 
and R. multiflora with long racemes of peculiarly- 
colored and exceedingly pleasing hips of very small 
size. 
This space was flanked by the attractively designed 
exhibit of the Porter Nurseries through which a neces- 
sary pathway, leading to the lecture room beyond, 
branched into two, really to give the space better form 
and meaning, but which division was made reasonable 
by the happy placing of a handsome specimen Colorado 
Blue Spruce, just as the junction of walks are ap- 
propriately treated on real home grounds. This plan 
included enough space, and that balance of planting 
which secures restful harmony, and the board flooring 
was hidden throughout by earth and gravel walks, the 
effect being late fall in a piece of nicely planted ground. 
A corresponding space on the opposite side, occupied 
by the Glenview Nursery Co., was given over to a 
winter scene, and in cotton and diamond dust served as 
“snow” (which soon took on the typical Chicago tint, 
which a small friend describes as “dark white”), the 
scheme was artistically consistent even to the 
stripping away of leaves from shrubs which are leaf- 
less in winter. Here, red-barked cornuses, bright 
yellow Salix Britzensis, the bronzed foliage of Berberis 
aquifolium and B. ilicifolia, and the fruits of various 
shrubs were all beautifully displayed against the white 
back-ground calling attention to winter garden effects 
to be secured by carefully chosen shrubs, and fully 
justifying the before mentioned stripping of leaves for 
Art’s sake if such action needed justification in the 
minds of any. Fine use was made in this exhibit of 
the Sea Buckthorn (Hipophae rhamnoides), a shrub 
not frequently seen, but excellent at this season with its 
masses of close-clustering orange-yellow berries and 
slender withering leaves which cling in winter. An- 
other good thing was noted in the exhibit of the Klehm 
Nursery, viz., Baccharis Halimifolia, — the groundsel 
tree, which showed up as desirable for fall effects, its 
fleecy white pappus clinging to the seed pods making 
it showy and unusual at this season. Should be espe- 
cially good in masses for the lower margins of shrub- 
bery borders. 
The popular educational features of the Show in- 
cluded a series of five lectures (one each evening) 
illustrated by stereopticon views. One of these was by 
Prof. Blair, of the University of Illinois, one by J. C. 
Vaughan, who read the lecture prepared and to have 
been delivered by Mr. C. B. Whitnall of Milwaukee, 
who was unable to be present, and three by 
E. G. Routzahn, Sec. Bureau of Civic Co-opera- 
tion. The first two speakers treated the art side of 
garden making, while the last made the most of the 
opportunities for furthering the neighborhood im- 
provement propaganda. Much good seed was sown 
and it is confidently felt that some of it must have 
fallen on fertile ground. It is satisfactory to be able 
to record that the Show authorities are thoroughly 
awake to the advantages of this new line of effort in 
connection with the exhibition and are fully determined 
to continue it on a larger and better scale next year. 
This feature is of the utmost significance to im- 
provement workers everywhere and those in Chicago 
are alive to the fact, — being delighted with the outlook 
for good developments through this promising and 
unexpected opening. It marks a double advantage, 
since it not only supplies an endless series of annual 
opportunities for effective missionary work, but it has 
definitely converted commercial florists, seedsmen and 
plantsmen to their views and methods, which is a 
matter for rejoicing. 
So, the end found everybody happy. Improvement 
workers for the reasons named ; the public, because 
it had received full value for its money ; exhibitors, 
for they were amply repaid for their trouble ; and, 
above all, the backers of the Show, for financial suc- 
cess had at last crowned their efforts. 
Still better things are hoped, and promised, for next 
year. Frances Copley Seavey. 
MASSACHUSETTS IMPROVEMENT CONFERENCE. 
The regular fall meeting of the Massachusetts Conference 
for Town and Village Betterment, conducted by the Massa- 
chusetts Civic League, was held at the Greendale Village 
Improvement Society’s building, Greendale, Mass., Octo- 
ber 25. The assembly was called to order by Arthur P. Boy- 
den, with about fifty representatives present. 
The morning’s program included reports of the organiza- 
tion finances, etc., and an address by J. Horace McFarland, 
of Harrisburg, Pa., president of the American Civic Asso- 
ciation, on “First Steps in Improvement Work.’’ 
Edward T. Hartman, Boston, secretary and treasurer of 
the conference reported that there are in the state 877 organ- 
izations, all of which are doing work along similar lines, 
about thirty of which are affiliated with the Conference. 
A discussion of the aims and objects of the conference fol- 
lowed Mr. McFarland’s remarks. The afternoon session was 
presided over by the Rev. Parris T. Farwell, of Wellesley 
Hills, and consisted of a round-table conference, which was 
participated in by Frederick S. Clark, president of the Green- 
dale society; John Alden Lee, of the Central Avenue Im- 
provement Association, Milton ; Alfred W. Putnam, of the 
Civic League, Salem; Job C. Tripp, of the Fairhaven Im- 
provement Association, and Frank W. Patch, of the Framing- 
ham Improvement Association. 
At 4 o’clock William B. de las Casas, chairman of the 
Metropolitan Park Commission, delivered an address upon 
“Legal Aspects of the Billboard Nuisance.” 
Supper was served in the banquet hall. 
The final session, in the evening, was presided over by Ed- 
ward Cummings. The address of the evening was made by 
Henry Lewis Johnson, editor of The Printing Art, who spoke 
on “The Billboard Nuisance and the Methods of Fighting 
It.” 
