232 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
tiful forms and evergreen foliage in winter. It 
may easily be made a continuous delight to mind 
and eye, the summer and winter haunt of cheerful 
little feathered neighbors, and a perpetual shelter 
to the necessary, homely and homelike back 
door. 
NOTES. 
At the annual meeting of the Wenham, Mass., 
Village Improvement Society, held in October 
last, the secretary reported the exterr.dnation of 
caterpillars from the trees and shrubs on the road- 
sides of the town; the grounds around the town 
hall cared for; the planting and care of the various 
squares and of the school house grounds; and prizes 
given to school children for greatest improvement 
shown and best work done by them on school 
grounds. The society voted to have street trees 
examined and state tags placed on those deemed 
worthy of preservation. 
* 
The Beverly (Mass.) Improvement Society was 
organized twelve years ago to “improve and adorn 
the city of Beverly and to preserve its natural 
beauties,” and has during that time improved three 
out of its five railway station grounds with the re- 
sult of now seeing a strong possibility of securing 
two new stations. It has each year given $io to 
the School Art League and the same amount for 
the embellishment of the hospital grounds; has 
presented each of the city schools with ten trees; 
has planted some trees in the cemeteries and many 
along the adjacent streets; destroyed the nests of 
tent caterpillars each year; protected and re-pro- 
tected fine trees; placed rubbish barrels on the 
streets; done ornamental planting on the grounds 
of schoolhouses, factories and public buildings; 
placed lists of local places of interest in libraries, 
post office, railway stations and other public places 
for the benefit of tourists and summer visitors ( and 
who shall say with how much benefit to the town ) ; 
given illustrated lectures for the purpose of inter- 
esting the town people in its work; given prizes to 
children for the greatest improvement in back 
door yards from planting flower seeds, and has 
each year given a social reception in January to 
help along in the good work of keeping alive the 
active interests of the best residents in the local 
improvement society, — that modern development 
of civilization that has all the interest of a fad, } et 
is something more than a fad, for it has come to 
stay. “We could not get along without it.” That 
is the verdict wherever such an organization is 
established. Thanks are due to Miss Bessie A. 
Baker, secretary of the Beverly society, for the 
above information. F. C. S. 
JAPANESE PRIVET HEDGES. 
The demand for the Japanese (Californian) 
privet for hedges is continually on the increase, 
and well may this be for there has been no shrub 
before its time of such utility as this. Privet 
hedges are not new, remains of many a one being 
visible in the vicinity of our older cities, but these 
were formed of the common European species, 
Ligustrum vulgare, a kind not well suited to the 
purpose, as events proved, and certainly not nearly 
the equal of the Californian, as the Japanese is 
commonly called. It has no doubt received its 
name from the fact that it came to be well known 
in California before it was East and the Eastern 
folks called it Californian. Its proper name is Lig- 
ustrum ovalifolium. Attention was soon attracted 
to it because of its very large, almost evergreen 
leaves, which are of a shining green. Then, too, 
its ease of propagation, rooting readily from cut- 
tings, and its submittal to all kinds of pruning 
renders it an ideal hedge plant. 
The plant is without thorns rendering it quite 
within the list of ornamental hedge plants, but 
outside that of defensive ones. In the vicinity of 
Philadelphia it is almost evergreen and if in well 
sheltered places, quite so, unless the winters are 
severe. It will hold its leaves until the new ones 
are about to appear. 
I am writing this January 25th, and though the 
mercury has touched 6 degrees already, not a leaf 
has fallen from a small hedge of it here, in a partly 
sheltered place, though some have been pretty well 
browned. But let the weather be what it will 
there will be foliage enough on this hedge that its 
object, that of a screen, will be effected. 
The propagation of this plant can be accom- 
plished either by hard wood in spring or by soft, 
young wood in summer. Hard wood cuttings are 
made in winter, the shoots of the previous season 
being cut into 9 inch lengths, kept buried in earth 
in a cool place till spring and then set out in 
rows in the open ground. Every one usually 
roots. Summer propagation consists of using soft, 
half ripened wood and placing them in sand in a 
close frame or greenhouse. 
A good size to use for hedging is that of two- 
year plants, as they possess vigor enough to make 
a good growth the first year. These should be set 
a foot apart in well cleaned, prepared ground. 
Nine inches is thought far enough apart by some. 
As soon as planted cut them down to about four 
inches above ground. Clear away the tops and 
spread manure about the plants to a depth of two 
or three inches. This cutting down will cause sev- 
eral shoots to take the place of one, and in the fall 
quite bushy plants, perhaps two feet high, will 
