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PARK AND CEMETERY. 
S IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATIONS. 
Conducted by 
Frances Copley Seavey. pji* 
Leave the World a pleasanter place than yon fou7id it. 
A HINT. 
Nearly every town and village and some 
country communities in the United States has some 
sort of a manufactory, if it is only a cannery, 
creamery or flour mill, the grounds and vicinity 
of which are usually far from attractive in appear- 
ance and oftentimes are in a condition that poisons 
the atmosphere of the entire neighborhood. 
Public spirited owners of such places have ex- 
ceptionally good opportunities for making their 
grounds agreeable to themselves and their em- 
ployees, as well as for creating object lessons of 
wide-spreading influence towards pleasant and 
wholesome living. Such property holders should 
be active members of the local Improvement Club 
and if they are not, the present leaders should en- 
courage them to get the right point of view of their 
position and into line in the good work. It has 
already been demonstrated that the condition of 
such employees has a direct bearing on their 
efficiency, and that it pays to help them by furnish- 
ing agreeable and sanitary surroundings while at 
their work, as well as to encourage them in making 
their homes attractive. The pioneer work in this 
direction done by the National Cash Register Com- 
pany, Dayton, Ohio, is now so well known all 
over the country as to need no comment. While it 
will not always be possible to induce proprietors to 
do such wholesale work as they have done, it will 
frequently be found perfectly easy to suggest to 
local mill and factory owners that they do some- 
thing towards the same end. It can hardly be ques- 
tioned that such work may be classed as part of the 
legitimate labors of an Improvement Club, nor that 
they should use their influence, either as a club or 
through certain individual members — those blessed 
with the desirable qualities of tact, taste, discretion 
and an agreeable manner, in short those men and 
women who know how to “get along” with other 
men and women — to the end of the inducing the 
owners of such premises not only to keep them 
clean, sweet and neat, but to develop their latent 
beauties or, at least, to veil their unsightliness, by 
such simple tasteful planting as the conditions war- 
rant, and these are often more promising than at 
first appears. 
Trees for shade, vine draperies and screens ( it 
being remembered that vines on a trellis make a 
shelter in the shortest possible time and may serve 
a temporary purpose while shrubs are growing), 
shrubs for beauty and to shield unavoidable un- 
sightly features, grass as a carpet and as an agree- 
able as well as a necessary foreground and basis 
for more pictorial planting, and hardy bulbs and 
perennials to give color when shrubs are out of 
flower, may all be easily and cheaply started and 
are inexpensive to maintain. This kind of planting 
will occur to everyone, but there is a class of de- 
corative planting, not always possible to individuals 
which is in many cases especially adapted to the 
conditions supplied by mills and factories where an 
ample water supply is a necessity. It is water 
gardening. 
Shallow pools or ponds arranged with supply 
and overflow pipes, and suitable in every way for 
growing hardy water plants can in some instances 
be made with but slight expense, in others the ex- 
pense will be greater, according to the character of 
the soil, natural contour of the ground and other 
conditions. Conditions that demand an unreasonable 
outlay will however, seldom be met, especially 
when the generous returns in beauty, interest, 
variety and novelty are considered. Such a feature 
would have especial value in places where there are 
no near water views, neither lake nor river to add 
diversity to landscape. Probably in such localities 
no feature of planting would arouse so great an in- 
terest or give a greater impetus to the decorative 
work that improvement clubs are anxious to have 
taken up by the mass of the people. Full directions 
for making and stocking Lily ponds will no doubt 
be gladly supplied by any of the dealers in aqua- 
tics who advertise in PARK and CEMETERY. 
The greatest advantage that mills and factories 
offer, however, are in the direction of growing 
tender water lilies, making even the curiously 
beautiful Victoria regia a delightful possibility for 
the residents of small places. It is pleasant to be 
able to say that I have before me a letter from Mr. 
Wm. Falconer, Superintendent of Schenley Park, 
Pittsburg, Pa., in which he says that the best way 
to heat ponds for tender aquatics is by allowing a 
“ little streamlet ” of hot water to flow into the 
ponds, and not by coils of steam or hot water pipes. 
This “ streamlet ’’ may stand for the waste from 
any establishment using steam, for by introducing 
that waste into a shallow pool or pond suitable for 
hardy water plants, the temperature is raised enough 
to make the conditions right for all tender aqua- 
tics. The amount of pleased interest this feature 
would produce in one season in a town where the 
great Victoria is a stranger, should compensate any 
mill owner who has had the public spirit and the 
kindliness to go to the trouble and the expense to 
introduce it. 
