128 
PARK AND CC/nCTCRY 
trade and profession successfully, and to the ad- 
vantage of man of to-day, special courses of in- 
struction have been instituted at many of our promi- 
nent colleges, and facilities provided for practical 
work as part of the courses. Then the general gov- 
ernment at many points of the country has estab- 
lished agricultural experiment stations, and very 
many of the states make appropriations for the sup- 
port of State Agricultural Colleges. But it is be- 
coming apparent that this is not enough to meet the 
growing demands of the situation, and a National 
Horticultural School has been suggested in proxi- 
mity or in connection with, as complete as possible, 
botanical park. When thinking over such a mat- 
ter one invariably turns to the Royal Gardens of 
Kew, England, which have been the means of dis- 
seminating so much knowledge and doing so much 
good to all the world. Its system of dispensing 
knowledge affords opportunities to so many, and 
being always free to the public and a favorite resort, 
it is in its way a public benefaction, and the men 
it has given to the world have added to its renown. 
The nearest approach to anything of the kind in 
this country is the Missouri Botanical Garden, at 
St. Louis, Mo., which was practically bequeathed 
to the public, with wise regulations as to its con- 
duct and ample means for its support. In educa- 
tional work it is proving a .splendid success, and Mr. 
Shaw, born in England, undoubtedly was impressed 
with Kew and its usefulness. 
County Parks. 
Professor Thomas H. Macbride of the State 
University of Iowa, is an advocate of County Parks 
for rural communities, and makes some timely 
comments in a communication to the Iowa City 
Republican, from which the following is taken: 
But is there any reason why city people only 
shall have parks? Would not something like a park 
be equally useful in the rural communities of Illin- 
ois and Iowa? I refer now not to the communities 
gathered in our towns and villages, but to the 
people in the country; why should the country peo- 
ple not have parks? 
They love recreation; at this time of the year, 
harvest ended, they specially seek it; why shall 
they not have places to which to go? It has often 
occurred to me that our supervisors should be em- 
powered, by special legislative action if need be, to 
purchase, care for and devote to public use, in 
every county in Iowa, certain areas large enough 
for popular enjoyment. These areas we may term 
county parks. There may be in each county 
one or several as circumstances may suggest. De- 
tails as to control, management, etc., may be sub- 
ject of later discussion, but just now the absolute- 
ly crying need of some such provision for public 
outing and amusement is everywhere patent. The 
public health demands it; the people ought to have 
it; the only question is how shall the demand be 
met? 
Fortunately in many regions Nature comes to 
our assistance. Throughout the eastern tier of 
counties there is hardly one in which may not be 
found one or more wooded, often rocky, romantic 
places exactly suited to the purpose I suggest. 
I fancy that in fully one-half of the counties in 
Iowa there are localities, where for a comparatively 
small sum, four or five hundred acres of land could 
be purchased, suitable to our purpose; and really 
of little value for anything else, land covered with 
timber or brush, probably with rocky ravines, a 
stream of water, possibly springs. Let the county 
own one or more such parks, care for them, pre- 
serve their wildness, their freshness and under suit- 
able restrictions, open to the people these groves 
and rocks, and all the future will bless the generous 
wisdom of the men who planned for public happi- 
ness and health! The country people need the park 
just as much as the towns folk and if they ask for 
it they will get it. Some of the localities to which 
I have referred and these are types of hundreds of 
others, are almost parks already. All they need 
is intelligence, care and devotion to public use. 
Take for instance the “Backbone” in Delaware 
county, a long narrow ridge of limestone rock, 
ninety feet in height washed on three sides by the 
clear waters of the beautiful Maquoketa, surround- 
ed by a wide forest of native oaks and elms and 
walnuts, crowned with a grove of native pines, be- 
neath whose shadows rise perennial springs — what 
more can you wish? Chicago covets her bit of 
lake sand yonder; for the “Backbone” Chicago 
would pay a million dollars and would make it 
cost two million more, all for the pleasure of her 
people; and yet the good people of Delaware and 
Buchanan counties have not yet found a way 
to preserve for themselves and their children this 
lovely natural park. A large land-owner in Dela- 
ware county has stretched barbed wire around 
twelve hundred acres of fairest natural scenery and 
uses it — as a cow pasture! And yet every year by 
hundreds the people show their needs, their want, 
by visiting the “Backbone,” camping at its base 
willing to enter a cow pasture if only they can get 
a taste of spring water and for a few days rest 
under the elms and breathe the balmy odor of the 
pines! If the county cannot act, is there no 
philanthropist who will, whose means enable him 
to say — I can. 
I believe in the people and their cause, I plead, 
not for the present only but for all time to come. 
