Editorial J^ote and Comment. 
Municipal Improvement. 
The campaign for municipal improvement is being 
waged with considerable vigor in many sections of the 
country. Recent legislation in Illinois promises to af- 
ford opportunity in Chicago to greatly increase its 
park systems, which, when all that is expected is carried 
out, will add immensely to the interest of the city. 
The prospect of the ten-million-dollar museum, the pro- 
posed gift of Marshall Field, when completed will offer 
a practical suggestion for similar large beneficence else- 
where. In many other states legislation has been en- 
acted in several lines of improvement, and it is very 
much to be desired that the way should be cleared at 
the earliest possible time so that the experiences and 
examples now rapidly maturing may be as rapidly 
taken advantage of. It may be anticipated with assur- 
ance that the municipal improvement exhibited at St. 
Louis next year will be an incentive to prompt meas- 
ures toward the beautifying of our cities. Under the 
efficient control in which it has been placed, and with 
the cultivated experience of its directors, what a modern 
city should be like and what it should represent, will 
be forcibly and artistically demonstrated. With public 
interest so widely apparent, we may confidently expect 
an era of municipal and outdoor improvement as char- 
acteristic of our moral force and energy as our commer- 
cial prosperity has exemplified our material progress. 
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Prizes for Planting Trees and Shrubs. 
Undoubtedly the offering of money prizes to school 
children for the planting of trees and shrubs is a pow- 
erful incentive to the production of quantity, and 
the young will be particularly emulative to secure the 
coveted cash through the natural energy of youth. This 
suggested criticism of a promising method is prompted 
by reading some public offers of this kind instituted 
by officials desirous of encouraging forest extension, in 
which we find no restrictions as to quality of material 
or culture in the press notices. Of course it is certain 
that the prospectus of rules and regulations will pre- 
scribe proper and necessary conditions, but as it is very 
desirable that a proper public understanding of such 
matters should be encouraged. It is not only the money 
consideration that should be given all possible publicity, 
but the ruling conditions of this contest also, especially 
as they relate to the kinds of trees and shrubs recom- 
mended and their culture, and the reasons if possible 
for such selections. Searchers for light on these mat- 
ters are becoming so numerous and persistent that the 
press at large should exercise its greatest intelligence 
towards supplying all the information possible of an 
educational trend. 
Prof. L. H. Bailey. 
It is almost with regret that we congratulate Prof. 
Bailey on his appointment to< the office of Dean of the 
College of Agriculture, Cornell University, because we 
have so thoroughly appreciated his labors in general 
and experimental horticulture. In this particular field 
his name has become a household word, and his conclu- 
sions and suggestions have been accepted as from one 
of paramount authority, and we fear that the new office 
will compel him to take up other lines of work. But 
to have been called upon to succeed Prof. Roberts is in 
itself an acknowledgment of his remarkable ability, 
and of that still more remarkable quality — power of 
work. His zeal and energy will find ample opportuni- 
ties for exercise, and there is no shadow of doubt, so 
far as human foresight can declare, but that he will be 
able to meet all the responsibilities of the situation as 
well as stimulate progress in the broader field he has 
been called upon to take up. No man in the horticul- 
tural world has ever been held in higher esteem than 
Prof. Bailey, and the good wishes of all who know him, 
either personally or by his works, will attend him in his 
new sphere of usefulness. 
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cArbor Day. 
We are again in the midst of Arbor Day celebrations, 
and it is very gratifying to note the improvement in the 
exercises, and more than that, the more enlightened un- 
derstanding of its import and possibilities as evidenced 
in the messages of the several governors which have 
come to our notice. In some of the states, for instance, 
New York, Wisconsin, Illinois, Delaware and Michi- 
gan, the §tate officials of education have issued instruc- 
tive pamphlets and suggestive programs, produced in 
the best form as to illustration and typography. This 
not only impresses the children of the public schools 
with the importance of the occasion, but adds a value 
to the productions as souvenirs, and induces more per- 
manent appreciation and understanding of the day it- 
self. The indiscriminate and haphazard planting of 
trees is now a thing of the past, and attention is often 
directed to the rural school grounds, and to spots of 
barrenness and unsightliness, which a little Arbor Day 
effort would greatly improve. As the years roll on 
the institution of Arbor Day will add more and more 
to the renown of its author, J. Sterling Morton, whose 
wisdom and foresight secured such a boon to the coun- 
try, the benefits and educational influences of which 
are only just beginning to' be understood. It is almost 
beyond comprehension to what limits the suggestions 
involved in Arbor Day exercises and practice may not 
be extended; in some districts it is practically reforest- 
ing denuded areas ; and it is certain that its influence 
