PARK AND CEMETERY 
47 
Montague, The New Clairvaux, Mrs. George W. 
Solley ; Billerica, A Society with a Wide Outlook, 
Frederick S. Clark; Brimfield, A Village Library, M. 
Anna Tarbell ; Fitchburg, A Local Federation, E. A. 
Kirkpatrick ; Dudley, The Summer Resident and Vil- 
lage Improvement, Mrs. Samuel Morris Conant ; Win- 
throp, A New Society, Channing Howard ; Greenfield, 
The Girls’ Club, Mary Davenport; Nantucket, A Local 
Civic League, William M. F. Round; Wellesley, the 
Wellesley Club, Clarence Alfred. Bunker, and the 
Friendly Aid Society, Mrs. W. O. Robson ; Bolton, 
What the Country Town Wants, Rev. Joseph N. Par- 
dee ; Deerfield, the Blue and White Society, Annie C. 
Putnam ; Cohasset, An Experiment with Signs, Dr. 
Oliver H. Howe ; Hingham, Society of Arts and 
Crafts, Clarence P. Hoyt ; The Society for the Protec- 
tion of Native Plants, Robert T. Jackson. 
The conference adopted a constitution and elected 
the following officers : 
President, Arthur C. Boyden of Bridgewater ; vice- 
president, Henry T. Bailey ; secretary-treasurer, Ed- 
ward T. Hartman ; executive committee, William A. 
Baldwin, Alfred C. Bunker, Edward H. Chandler, 
Charlotte H. Conant, J. Randolph Coolidge Jr., Parris 
T. Farwell, Oliver PL Howe, Mary Morton Kehew, 
E. A. Kirkpatrick, Warren H. Manning, Annette P. 
Rogers, May Alden Ward, T. Frank Waters and F. 
Allen Whiting. 
NOTES OF THE ASSOCIATIONS, 
Amherst, Massachusetts, supports four Village Improve- 
ment Associations, which have been in existence for many 
years. The central association was established in 1856 and 
has been in a flourishing condition throughout its exist- 
ence. During this period it has accomplished a great deal 
towards the improvement of the town. It raises by public 
subscription about $200 per year for the care of its mag- 
nificent green and for keeping rubbish off the streets and 
sidewalks. 
Amherst College, which is located in the center of the 
town, has recently raised, through its loyal alumni, $5,000 
towards making plans for the betterment of its grounds. 
The committee which has been secured for this purpose con- 
sists of William R. Mead and Charles F. McKim, of the 
firm of McKim, Mead & White; Daniel H. Burnham, head 
architect of the Chicago fair ; Augustus St. Gaudens, and 
Frederick Law Olmsted. 
The Agricultural College, located one mile from the center 
of the town on a beautiful site, has been embellishing its 
grounds for over thirty years. The Agricultural College 
grounds possess an exceedingly large number of native and 
exotic specimens, many of which were planted on the College 
grounds for the first time in America. Especially interest- 
ing are the large number of rare Japanese species introduced 
many years ago by Col. W. S. Clark, an enthusiastic planter 
and traveler. The College has always maintained a nursery 
which has been the means of stimulating the adoption of 
many rare plants on private grounds. There are few towns 
where a larger variety of native and exotic plants can be 
seen growing than in Amherst. 
The annual report of President John B. Smith, of the 
Village Improvement Society of Berlin, Conn., tells of some 
active and useful work in building new walks for the village 
streets with the assistance of the property owners. Besides 
this, it has been instrumental in the erection of several new 
electric lights, and the construction of a new bridge, and ex- 
pects to close the season with all expenses paid and $60 in 
the treasury. The President recommends that a committee 
of five be appointed to consider methods for the care and 
improvement of the trees of the village, and also a commit- 
tee “to prevent the permanent disfigurement and damage of 
the town by its claypits, and whether it is oossible to make 
any arrangement by which those claypits when abandoned 
shall become part of a beautiful park system.” These clay- 
pits are on the only direct road connecting Berlin with the 
nearest city, and President Smith writes that they are a 
menace to the beauty of the central residential portion of 
the town. He thinks that such unsightly spots as clay- 
pits and sand-pits should be subject to legislative control, 
and would like to hear from improvement workers who have 
had experience in combating similar nuisances or who have 
ideas for the improvement of these obstructions to village 
beauty. 
* * * 
The Belfast Improvement Society, Belfast, Me., was or- 
ganized in 1900 for “the improvement and the ornamenting 
of the streets and public squares of the city by planting and 
cultivating ornamental trees and generally to promote the 
beauty and welfare of the city.” The society has been in- 
corporated and has been uniformly successful in its work. 
A neat six-page folder recently issued gives a brief his- 
torical sketch, constitution and by-laws and illustrates the 
pavilion erected on the shore by the society. Its first work 
was the erection of a band stand on the Common. Un- 
sightly underbrush was removed from one of the streets 
and a gravel foot-path laid out. Grass plots at junctions of 
streets and the school grounds have been carefully kept 
and ornamented and receptacles for waste paper placed at 
convenient intervals throughout the city. What the society 
considers its most important work was the placing of a large 
number of fine pictures, reproductions of famous originals, 
in the schools. Prizes have been awarded to members of 
the High School for best essays on Civic Improvement, and 
other means employed to cultivate a love for the beautiful 
in the children. A work just finished and which has already 
proven its value is the large picnic grounds at the foot of 
Condon St., in the southern part of the city, one of the 
most delightful spots on the shore of the bay. A pavilion of 
good size has been constructed, furnished with seats and 
tables. In addition to this, the society has held many public 
entertainments and social functions and accomplished other 
improvements. 
* * * 
The Winthrop Improvement Association, Winthrop, Mass., 
were the leaders in the observance of Arbor Day in that 
town. A tree to be known as the Thoreau Oak was planted 
on the grounds of the Pauline St. school by the Woman’s 
Club, and other trees were set out by the Improvement As- 
sociation and the high school graduating class, with appro- 
priate dedicatory exercises. The Junior auxiliary of the 
Association also assisted in the planting of a tree by the 
popular Author’s Club, and enrolled 75 new members. The 
Association is in a very flourishing condition and as a re- 
sult of its labors more than 400 trees will have been planted 
in the town this year. Officials of the town and Boston, 
Revere Beach & Lynn railroad are joining heartily in the 
work. 
