PARK AND CEMETERY 
and Landscape Gardening. 
Vol. XVI. Chicago, September, 1906. No. 7 
Metropolitan Park Assessment in Boston. 
Under the new apportionment most of the cities 
and towns of the Metropolitan park district, Boston, 
will pay smaller assessments this year than in the 
past. Out of a total of 39 towns and cities, 28 will 
be thus favored, many of them paying a' consider- 
able percentage less than in any year heretofore. 
The new basis of apportionment is partly upon val- 
uation and partly on betterments, and, it is stated, 
will stand for five years. It is also gratifying to 
those affected to know that the assessment this year 
corrects some irregularities which have not hitherto 
been adjusted. 
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Old Home Week and Civic Improvement. 
Old Home Week celebrations are becoming verv 
popular in the east and might well be carried west- 
ward. Rhode Island had quite a carnival the last 
week in August and the programs of entertainment 
were calculated to amuse and interest all classes 
and conditions of citizens from far and near taking 
part in the exercises. The institution of Old Home 
W eek is bound to become honored in increased de- 
gree as the years roll on. These events are a dis- 
tinctly valuable aid to civic improvement. They 
stimulate a periodic “cleaning up’’ for the reception 
of visitors, and a town once cleaned up is inclined 
to stay so. Such celebrations should be fostered and 
encouraged by improvement associations. 
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As Others See Us. 
There is a very natural objection in the great ma- 
jority of mankind, individually and collectively, to 
be shown up as others view them, and yet the cul- 
tured characters of the world invite criticism in order 
to continue improvement. And this suggests that 
provided the criticism be in good hands, one of the 
strongest incentives to improvement in any com- 
munity would be a vigorous denouncement of the 
things apparently needing such improvement. In 
the stereopticon lectures now quite frequently given 
as an aid and incentive, it appears as though a good 
sprinkling of local views of unsatisfactory features 
and things, combined with a well considered ar- 
raignment, would set the community to thinking, 
and out of the conflict of thought would come a de- 
termination to better matters and that more rapidly 
and effectually. The simple fact of presenting a 
series of beautiful views even with the addition of 
some of the “before’’ pictures, will not carry the 
subject to heart so much as a personal condemnation 
of local conditions, presented at the same time. 
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Making the Parks Popular. 
Pittsburg is agitating the question of how to make 
her large parks popular. It appears that while on 
Sundays both Schenley and Highland parks are fairly 
well patronized by the public, on week days the at- 
tendance is quite limited. Pittsburg papers claim 
that her' best parks are too remote from the people 
who most need their influences, because of the cost 
of reaching them by street cars, besides considerable 
walking having to be done also. While in most of 
our leading cities the street car corporations take 
special care to lay their tracks as closely as pos- 
sible to the parks, and in many instances offer in- 
ducements to popularize travel thereto, Pittsburg 
is not so fortunate. Nor does it appear that the 
city fathers have given much attention to the neces- 
sity of making her parks popular. Music is a great 
attraction and combines most appropriately with 
natural beauty in affording that restful pleasure 
which should be the object of all park efforts. The 
Rochester, N. Y., papers, which take great pride in 
that city’s parks, have been discussing the Pitts- 
burg trouble and warmly advocate liberal concert 
programs and ready access, and point to the success 
which has attended such like attentions to the use- 
fulness of the parks in Rochester. 
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Study the Trees and Shrubs. 
It is not too late yet to take note of the trees and 
shrubs in one’s immediate vicinity to help to a de- 
cision of what to plant in the near future.. In fact 
the faculty of careful observation should be encour- 
aged and given practical exercise every day in the 
year. Nature is so varied in form and expression 
and, withal, so satisfactory to study, that observa- 
tion becomes a pastime as well as a duty, and the 
results can be brought into actual use whenever the 
call comes. It is time to begin serious thought as 
to what efforts shall be made to continue the work 
of out-of-doors improvement for the next season, 
and past study of the local plant life will greatly help 
towards final decisions. Besides careful observation, 
the practice of note-making should be strenuously 
pursued ; a few words in the note book as to form, 
habit, color, etc., of trees, shrubs or plants that strike 
the eye, soon make an encyclopedia of useful infor- 
mation, personally gathered, that will help in the 
creation of original effects, an end to be earnestly 
sought by all home and neighborhood improvers. 
