197 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
next winter the Board of Trade offered prizes in each 
school for essays upon the subject: “What the Chil- 
dren of Kalamazoo Can Do to Make Our City Cleaner 
and More Beautiful.” In the summer of 1905 prizes 
were offered for both flowers and vegetables, and a 
little exhibit held in September at the Board of Trade. 
The mayor addressed the competitors and their 
parents and friends who crowded the hall. 
This year they thought it best to consider the 
schools themselves as the real junior civic improve- 
ment leagues, and not to continue separate league or- 
ganizations in the schools. Miss Louise Klein Miller, 
curator of school gardens and grounds at Cleveland, 
Ohio, gave an illustrated lecture on “Home and School 
Gardens.” A beginning in school gardens was made 
by the Board of Education in two of the schools last 
year, and this year the league purchased of the Cleve- 
land Home Gardening Association 2,000 penny pack- 
ages of flower and vegetable seeds to sell at cost to 
children of the public schools. 
In September a meeting was held in the rooms of 
the Commercial Club, when prizes were awarded for 
the best back yard gardening, window boxes and 
school gardening. Some of the prize-winning exhibits 
illustrated- herewith speak more forcibly than words of 
the results of the work. 
The prizes were donated by public-spirited citizens, 
local florists and nurserymen, and by the league: 
Ten cash prizes were offered for the best improved 
back yards, including one first prize of $5 and one 
second prize of $3 in each ward. Sanitation as well as 
decoration was taken into account, and awards made 
on the basis of difficulties successfuly dealt with. 
Ten cash prizes for window boxes, donated by flor- 
ists and nurserymen, were divided into one first prize 
of $3 and one second prize of $i in each ward. Ex- 
pensive planting was not especially counted. Awards 
were upon the basis of beautiful and tasteful effects. 
Boxes must have been kept up all summer, and at 
least five contestants were required in each ward. 
School children in the first, second and third grades 
were offered ten prizes for the best boxes of plants 
grown from seeds and slips, the box to be two feet 
long by one foot wide. The first prize in each ward 
was $1, and the second a set of gardening tools. 
I'or the best school exhibits at the flower show there 
were two prizes. For the school having the largest 
proportional number of contestants in the flower show : 
First prize, ten Japanese ivy plants for the building; 
second prize, 25 crocus and snowdrop bulbs. 
For the best public school flower and vegetable gar- 
den was offered a first prize of $10; second prize, $5; 
the money to be expended in improvement of the 
school grounds. 
Printed suggestions in the line of back yard im- 
provement, window boxes, vegetable gardens, were 
sent to all persons, including children, who desired to 
consider competing for the prizes. 
As many of the children neglected to bring their 
boxes the flower show was not held, but the work 
done was most inspiring, and is progressing with ever 
growing interest and enthusiasm. 
A SIMPLE AND ATTRACTIVE TYPE OF GARDEN SUMMER HOUSE 
We often see an ardent desire to have a resting 
place on the lawn or garden expressed by a structure 
so fearfully and wonderfully wrought as to immedi- 
RUSTIC GARDEN SUMMER HOUSE 
ately attract the attention of the onlooker and divert it 
from the garden proper. The aim too often seems to 
be to secure the unusual and striking rather than the 
artistic and aesthetically attractive. As a rule painted 
structures are much less pleasing than those of natural 
finish. On the other hand it takes something of an 
architect as well as an artist to construct a really satis- 
factory rustic summer house ; but if round wood with 
the bark on is used, and this is covered with thin slabs 
which rest upon boards covered with a tarred paper 
sheet to prevent decay, a simple and unpretentious, at 
the same time appropriate place suggesting its use, 
may be secured with little expenditure, and with gen- 
erally good results. The accompanying photograph 
shows the possibilities of such an effort. This little 
structure was erected in the spring, the vines were 
planted the same spring, and the photograph taken the 
following autumn. It was placed in the corner of the 
garden where it did not stand out too obtrusively, and 
where that which was desired, namely seclusion and 
quiet, could be secured without much effort. 
John Craig. 
