■ PARK AND CEMETERY 
and Landscape Gardening. 
.. 5 -. 
^ — ~ ' in sympathy with the above is the reported words of 
VOL. XVI. CHICAGO, MARCH, 1906 No. 1 
Wanted — An Inspiration, 
A great deal of improvement work lags for the want 
of an inspiration on the part of some willing worker 
And a large amount of effort is being expended from 
sheer force of will. Were it possible to combine in- 
spiration and will and supply the combination on de- 
mand to every organization now struggling to improve 
its environment, what an impetus would be given to the 
movement in general. We know of no more forceful 
■source of such necessary inspiration as is required for 
the ordinary work of outdoor improvement than the 
successful career of the Home Gardening Association, 
of Cleveland, O., an account of which is given in an- 
other column. In the course of some seven years it 
has succeeded in creating a decided desire for home 
gardening among a goodly proportion of the working 
population of Cleveland ; carrying the idea into the 
public schools, so that the Board of Education has 
taken up school gardens in earnest ; the improvement 
of the vacant lots ; care of the block ; neighborhood and 
ward gardens and the exchange garden. Cleveland 
undoubtedly now leads in the diversity of its improve- 
ment efforts. The details and history of the work of 
this association warrant the belief that similar effort 
will produce like results in any town, small or great, 
but it also shows that intelligence, wisdom and enthusi- 
asm are necessary factors ; yet the methods and results 
are surely an inspiration. 
^ ^ ^ 
Arbor Day. 
We are approaching the Arbor Day season in the 
majority of states, and no effort should be spared on 
the part of the school authorities of the country, to 
inspire the pupils with permanent respect for the day, 
and an earnest desire to practically demonstrate that 
respect. In some of the southern states it has already 
been observed. This recognition of Arbor Day is of 
increasing importance. The value of trees in relation 
to property, their health-giving attributes, beauty, com- 
fort and general usefulness, are now recognized facts, 
but facts that must be impressed upon the people to 
secure prompt attention, and derive all the benefits. 
The local press throughout the country should be in- 
duced to give particular attention to the Arbor Day 
programs and the duties incident to it ; and its prac- 
tical observance both by the citizen and his children 
can be consummated in so many useful ways that 
■naught but good can possibly come of the planting of 
a tree or a number of them every successive Arbor 
Hay, and in any desirable situation. A pathetic note 
ex-Governor Hogg, of Texas, when on his death bed 
recently. He requested that a pecan and a walnut 
tree should be planted at his grave, as he wished no 
stone monument, and that when the trees bore fruit 
the nuts should be distributed to the citizens of the 
state for seed, in order to help make Texas a land of 
trees. 
^ ^ ^ 
The Tree Butcher. 
It is generally appropriate on the approach of spring 
to annually utter a note of warning concerning the 
trimming of trees. More or less pruning or other care 
is necessarv every year, either to promote health and 
vigor, remove dead wood, or to induce desirable 
changes in form or growth ; but such work should 
never be done except by expert tree men. As has 
been often said in these columns, every kind of tree 
must be treated in accordance with the needs of the 
particular kind ; the elms have their peculiarities, the 
oaks theirs, and so on ; and only men with a thorough 
knowledge of these conditions should ever be permit- 
ted to prune a tree. In all communities, where it is 
possible, such work should be done under the direc- 
tions of a city forester, or a competent nurseryman. 
The latter might be employed by the local city im- 
provement association, and it will pay. 
^ ^ ^ 
The Rural Cemetery. 
Spring once more suggests the renewal of the cam- 
paign to limit the amount of the poorer monument 
work in our cemeteries. How to do this the most sat- 
isfactorily and appropriately for all interests concerned, 
ought to be the constant study of the superintendent 
in sympathy with. modern ideas. No cemetery organi- 
zation should tolerate a constant repetition of a poor 
design on its grounds, and every superintendent should 
strive so to control the lot-owner’s tastes as to secure 
memorial work that wrll not, at least, be a detriment 
to the plot under his care. It is the incongruous col- 
lection of comparatively cheap and generally poor mon- 
uments that bring discredit upon the vast majority of 
our small cemeteries, and checks the respect, latent 
in every human being, for the home of the dead. Al- 
though much attention is being given to the cemetery 
by local improvement associations, there is so much to 
be done, that constant urging must be credited to zeal 
in a good cause. An instant’s thought would give force 
to the idea that burial in a garden is infinitely prefer- 
able to that in a stone yard, which is really what an av- 
erage rural burial ground suggests, with the addition 
of metal rabibts, lambs and other creatures of won- 
drous design. 
