PARK AND CEMETERY. 
1 / 
thing unbeautiful, would seem equivalent to send- 
ing money to Borrioboola Gha when one’s children 
are starving. 
* * * 
I am in receipt of a letter from Mr. A. C. 
Long, Excelsior, Minn., asking advice regarding a 
constitution and form of government for their pro- 
posed Improvement Society, and can not do better 
than refer him, as well as others interested in such 
organizations, to this department of the March, 
1899, issue of Park and Cemetery. The simple 
form suggested there is admirably suited to the 
needs of all young Societies, and by the time that 
anything more elaborate is needed, any Club will 
be competent to broaden its scope to fit its own 
requirements. 
Mr. Long’s letter is most interesting in that it 
gives a vivid picture of the sudden awakening of 
an intelligent community to a necessity for better 
things in the way of environment for every day 
life. His words also suggest charming possi- 
bilities and unusual possessions in the direction of 
“winding streets leading out of the town” and 
“native growths of sumach, ampelopsis and wild 
roses.” True, he speaks of these rich treasures as 
being in danger of being “improved” out of ex- 
istence — but doubtless all that will be looked after 
by the vigorous young Improvement Club. We 
trust that its success will be prompt and complete. 
It is delightful to hear of the formation of new 
Societies, and to learn that one’s earnest attempts 
to be helpful are not wasted. F. C. S. 
THE MAN WITH THE SHEARS. 
Just now is the time when myriads of patient 
bushes in thousands of trim gardens take on the 
aspect of a gentleman whose hair has suffered a 
“pompadour” cut. The man with the shears goes 
his rounds, gains the ear of the unheeding and 
trustful householder, and, in the name of pruning, 
whittles his weigelias, mock oranges, snowballs 
and spiraeas into the shapes of pumpkins or fungi. 
This is done presumably because the shrub is sup- 
posed not to know its business of growing into a 
beautiful form, and must have its vagaries restrained 
by the cold steel of the “artist’’ who really does 
know it. So the unresisting thing has its shoots 
shorn flush, so that none shall project beyond 
another, and for a few weeks presents an appear- 
ance of unimpeachable smugness, but in the last 
degree forlorn. But presently, forgetting its 
lesson, it tries again to grow in its own way, and 
puts forth twigs as a brush puts forth bristles, until 
the shearer returns. Thus it grows yearly more 
discouraged, develops an unnatural amount of dead 
wood and dies prematurely, just about the time it 
ought to be coming to perfection. Has nobody 
told these men or their employers that this is the 
exact opposite of true pruning ? That it destrovs 
the character of the plant instead of helping its 
expression ? That it encourages dead wood instead 
of removing it; that it crowds the plant instead of 
ventilating it; that it cuts off the young growth 
instead of the old, and destroys the most and best 
of the season’s blossoms ? Surely no one ought to 
be allowed to tamper with the pruning knife who 
does not know that most of our common shrubs 
flower in the spring on the growth of the preceding 
year, and that only a few like hydrangeas, althmas 
and clethras can form their blossoms after a spring 
pruning. All the pruning most shrubs require is 
the excision of the growth that is dead or least 
likely to produce vigorous shoots, or that is crowd- 
ing better growth than itself, or that is weak or 
ungainly and straggling. This may be done either 
when the plant is leafless or as soon as its flowers 
have faded; if the latter, more care must be used 
to avoid cutting off too many leaves and thus 
weakening the plant. But all this requires some 
knowledge and judgment, while the ordinary style 
requires no knowledge and little judgment, and that 
of the wrong kind. And then, after a bush has 
been properly pruned, the effects are not imme- 
diately very obvious, while, after its customary 
shearing, anybody can see that something has really 
been done. So uncounted bushes are yearly 
mutilated to attain that bald and monotonous neat- 
ness, that planed-up primness of lawn and planting 
that ruins the home-like look of many an American 
house and lot. What is the use of all these differ- 
ent spirseas, deutzias, snowberries and golden bells, 
if they are all to be stripped of their blossoms and 
shorn into the same naive shapes of depressing 
ugliness ? x\way with them and put in California 
privet, which will grow into a nice regular shape 
without any cutting at all. When the intelligent 
householder begins to pay as much attention to his 
bushes as he pays to his wall paper or the pattern 
of his trousers, he will wonder how he could have 
been so illogical as to plant them for their beauty 
and then to deface it, to exchange for gross and 
ugly forms the peculiar grace and variety that each 
was created to express. H. A. Cap am. 
SOME ORNAMENTAL SHRUBS,— I. 
In planting shrubberies for parks or other or- 
namental grounds it is necessary to know the char- 
acter of all the plants that are employed. Their 
needs as to soil and climate must be carefully 
studied in order to get the best results and their 
habit of growth, time of flowering and size at 
maturity, must all be taken into consideration. It 
is also of great importance to know their relative 
