PARK AND CEMETERY 
AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING 
Vol. XXII. Chicago, October, 1912 No. 8 
Protecting the Birds 
It is gratifying to note the splendid gift of Mrs. Russell 
Sage for the preservation of many species of our wild 
birds. She has spent approximately $150,000 in the pur- 
chase of Marsh Island, an island located at the mouth of 
Vermilion Bay, Gulf of Mexico, south of New Iberia, 
Louisiana. It comprises some 75,000 acres, and Mrs. 
Sage purchased it with the intention of dedicating it in 
perpetuity as a refuge for wild birds. To this end she 
will place it in whatever hands will best accomplish her 
object — the Federal government, State of Louisiana or 
some association organized for the purpose. The island 
has long been known as a famous winter feeding ground 
for ducks, geese and various migratory birds. As Mr. 
W. T. Hornaday, director of the New York Zoological 
'Gardens, said of the gift, it is: “The most delightfully 
startling coup that has been executed in behalf of the 
birds of North America since the will of David Wilcox 
financed the National Audubon Society.” Credit must also 
be given to Mr. Mcllhenny, the well known Louisianian. 
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The French Government and the Billboards 
By a majority of 530 votes to 3, the French Govern- 
ment has taken definite action in an attempt to lessen the 
number, at least, of billboards, and with it a possibility of 
abolishing them. The purpose of the decrees is to put an 
end to the abuse of the thoroughfares in the country dis- 
tricts, and the automobile routes and railroads, by the 
unsightly mammoth advertising boards which have be- 
come a public nuisance and abomination. This new law 
imposes a tax of approximately ten dollars per square 
yard per annum on new billboards under six square yards 
in area, which increases to some eighty dollars per square 
yard on boards of over twenty square yards. The tax is 
double on boards carrying two advertisements, trebled for 
three and so on. It can be readily calculated from this 
what a prohibitory taxation this becomes, and it would be 
well for our lawmakers to take stock and try their hands 
at creating billboard laws that cannot be so successfully 
attacked by every bill-posting company’s attorney. A re- 
port on billboard advertising in New York City has re- 
cently been submitted to Mayor Gaynor, and is printed 
in pamphlet form. It shows a general disregard by bill- 
board companies for the existing ordinance, and that the 
, various organizations which have waged a campaign 
against this method of advertising, have been hampered 
by decisions of the courts, which, in the great majority 
of cases, still refuse to take the ground that aesthetic 
considerations are sufficient warrant for the exercise of 
the police power. In discussing the taxing of billboards, 
and, that taxes should be levied on them as profit earners 
as well as on their materials, the Fall River (Mass.) Her- 
ald comments as follows: “Not only on the ground that 
to assess a tax only on the value of the materials that 
form the billboard violates the taxation principle, but also 
on the ground that it should pay for its presumption, the 
movement to tax the enterprise on a new basis has taken 
root in France. In that country, as in this, there is a sen- 
timent that is hostile to the billboard as a public nuisance 
on general principles, and it has been shown that one of 
the ways to regulate and partly overcome it is to make it 
pay a full tax for the privileges from which it profits.” 
Playing as a Lost Art 
This is a very sorry reflection on the spirit of the 
times, and it means much if we are to maintain a healthy 
growth in our national development. In a recent ad- 
dress by E. B. DeGroot, superintendent of the American 
Playgrounds Association, before a child’s welfare meet- 
ing, he deplored the fact that Americans are forgetting 
how to play, and our own experience and observaton 
lead us to endorse another statement that “most of the 
young who are budding into manhood and womanhood 
have little variety in their recreations.” It looks as 
though the much vaunted idea of specializing is gather- 
ing up a few games that afford a maximum of excitement, 
and so concentrating upon them that a host of others 
of, probably, far greater value to the growing and ex- 
panding youth of the country have fallen into disuse and 
are becoming forgotten. It is both hoped for and ex- 
pected that the establishment of small parks and play- 
grounds, with proper care takers and instructors, will 
quickly aid in solving the problem of restoring play to 
its proper place in the lives of the masses of our people. 
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Highway Improvement 
The increasing interest in the general proposition to 
improve our highways is worthy of note, as it points 
to an early practical solution of what must become a 
national problem, which taken hold of in the light brought 
to bear upon it by public discussion and expert sugges- 
tion assures beneficent results. A very interesting meet- 
ing of the American Road Congress was held early this 
month in Atlantic City, N. J., at which U. S. Treasurer 
Lee McClung advocated the raising of money for road 
building by means of bond issues, with a sinking fund in- 
corporated in the issue to provide for the maintenance 
of the roads after building. Many practical road build- 
ers of reputation read papers or discussed pertinent 
subjects. At the same time as the above convention, 
and in the same city, the Quebec-Miami International 
Highway Association, formed last year for the building 
of a modern highway from Quebec, Canada, to Miami, 
Fla., held its annual meeting. Reports from the various 
sections through which the road is to pass showed that 
extraordinary progress was being made. 
Governor Judson Harmon, of Ohio, recently issued an 
invitation to the governors of the various states to ap- 
point official delegates to the convention of the Ameri- 
can Road Builders’ Association, which will be held in 
Cincinnati, O., December 3 to 6. 
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Quarantine Against Destructive Insects 
Under the Plant Quarantine Act, approved August 20, 
1912, referred to in a previous issue, the Secretary of 
Agriculture will hold a public hearing at the Department 
of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., on October 30, to 
gather testimony “concerning the advisability of placing 
a quarantine on certain portions of New England to pre- 
vent the spread of the Gypsy Moth.” The states inter- 
ested are Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode 
Island and Connecticut, and action is now taken to pre- 
vent the spread of the insect by the transportation of its 
egg masses on Christmas trees and greens, living trees 
and shrubs, or on forest products. Immediately after 
the above hearing another hearing will be held with re- 
gard to placing a similar quarantine on certain portions 
of New England infested with the Brown Tail Moth. 
