PARK AND CEMETERY 
181 
derfully advanced class of the same type of pupils. 
No apology and few explanations are needed in con- 
nection with the use of such terms as 1 protein, carbo- 
hydrates, nitrification, nutritive ratio, and the like. 
His audience knows that an insect unprovided with 
biting mouth parts is not to be killed with an arsenite, 
and that a fungus is not a microscopic animal but a 
parasitic vegetable. Of course, there are dullards 
and there are misfits in farm life who don’t learn and 
don’t care. But, happily, the process of natural selec- 
tion i9 weeding these out. 
The city man, too, is coming to the country with 
(possiblv) his money and certainly his business in- 
stincts, but, what is better, with a craving for the 
soil, the plant, and the animal. These men are often 
the leaven which lifts the country mass. The neatly 
planted and well-kept lawn is soon imitated. Im- 
provement of the lawn leads to cleaner, tidier farm- 
ing, and so the influence spreads. 
A good indication of the development of aesthetic 
tastes in rural communities is the number of lawn 
mowers in use today as compared with a period of 
five years ago. It is possible to drive along country- 
roads in all parts of New York state — perhaps more 
particularly the western section where fences and 
unkempt lawns 1 are the exception, where trees, shrubs, 
flowers and grass in health and order give the homes 
an appearance of comfort and beauty, while sug- 
gesting culture and refinement within. Progress is 
making, but much is needed. The constant influx of 
the more or less uneducated foreign element, and 
the gradual acquirement of this class of small holdings 
in the suburbs of cities give rise to serious and diffi- 
cult problems. We need rural improvement societies, 
as well as those of village and town. Better country 
roads and better country schools are two of the live 
rural problems of today. There is much to be done, 
but the outlook for rural improvement is promising. 
There is a growing ddmancl for suggestion and ad- 
vice at the present time. It should be fostered. Let 
us rejoice in the forward and upward movement in 
methods and ideals of countrv living 
Natural RocKs and Unnatural Plants 
By H. A. Caparn. 
The old-fashioned -style of rockery made of a sort 
of cairn of stones with such earth as could be packed 
into the chinks for the insufficient sustenance of a few 
uncomfortable plants seems to have well-nigh disap- 
peared. The average rockery nowadays appears to 
have been made with some idea of arranging the stones 
as if they might have been placed by the processes of 
nature ; they are apt to be imbed- 
ded in the earth instead of hav- 
ing the earth imbedded in them 
and the plants that are intended 
to drape and adorn and unite 
them have more than a chance of 
existence. 
Still there is usually much 
room for improvement. Take, 
for instance, the beautiful pile of 
rock in the picture, which was 
arranged ages ago by the forces 
of geology. The cedars that 
found a foothold in its crevices 
have been spared and encour- 
aged, and enough fertile soil has 
been put somewhere among the 
masses of stone to support in 
luxury the Himalayan pine and 
the rhododendrons. Even the ten- 
der hydrangea looks not incon- 
gruous with these vegetables of three or four conti- 
nents, and all produce admirable masses of foliage 
and contrast of greens and leafage ; and all form a har- 
monious dress for the manifold lichen tints of the 
rock. But how about the yellow and red colors in the 
foreground ? Even the camera appears to have rebelled 
against these gaudy plants in such a place, and though 
it could not record the yellowness of the yellow nor the 
redness of the Verschaffelti, it has made them stand 
out and spoil the harmony of the picture by methods 
of its own. 
NATURAL ROCKS AND UNNATURAL PLANTS. 
