PARK AND ce;me:tery 
105 
TOMATOES ON FENCES. 
Every British gardener knows how tomatoes are 
grown on walls in his tight little Island, not to save 
room (although it does so), but for the sake of the 
seven or eight degrees of extra heat the wall affords 
to the fruit. 
Now in American brick walls are not so com- 
mon, but tight board fences and house walls are 
everywhere, for the most part, unutilized and often 
enough repulsive in appearance. 
It is hard to get people to clothe them with orna- 
mental growth in any general way, so three or four 
3"ears ago I planted tomatoes along a back fence, and 
fastened them with fence staples ^ inches wide, wide 
enough to clasp the stems which are thus fastened 
with a single tap of the hammer. 
Let me commend this method of “nailing” to the 
benighted gardeners of the old world who with be- 
numbed fingers stifl potter along with cast nails and 
“shreds” of cloth, and I ask their “Chroniclers” to 
place it before them. 
Of course roses or other climbers, or peach and 
apricot trees may be fastened in this way easily, but 
the staples must not be driven home, as they are in 
wire fences. They should be easily removable with 
the fingers. A little practice will make it easy to fasten 
them with a single tap. 
No doubt this method has been thought of some- 
where, but I have not met with it. On the other hand, 
I find hundreds still using the well worn old way. 
Of my neighbors, two are British, one is German, 
and the rest American. 
One Britisher, one American and the German have 
adopted the plan of growing tomatoes on their back 
fences. The\^ will save room, hide their ugly fences, 
and have plenty of fruit. James MacPherson. 
FLOWERING BUSHES FOR SIDEWALKS, 
We have become so accustomed to planting trees 
in front of our doors that it does not enter our minds 
how much more appropriate a flowering shrub would 
be at times. =!<*=!= Shrubs neither rob the street 
of light nor the walk of dryness. They admit sun- 
shine to the lot owner’s garden and do not interfere 
with the street lamps. Furthermore, they require no 
more care than a tree calls for, and the purpose of 
ornamentation is served far better on account of the 
brightness of the shrub at time of flowering. Trees 
look more dignified in a thoroughfare used by the 
entire town, shrubs preserve the private appearance 
of a street used for local purposes only. It is a wrong 
supposition to take it for granted that the careless 
boy will feel tempted to inflict injury when such im- 
provements are undertaken. The more general such 
ornamentation becomes, the more they will be re- 
spected. — George Hansen in California Munici- 
palities. 
THE ENGLISH SPARROW, 
Much has been said against the English sparrow, 
but among his numerous sins, the worst one of all 
has hardly been mentioned. We all see him when, 
with bluster and outcry, he attacks our native birds, 
and appropriates to himself their nesting places, but 
we do not often see him when he finds and slyly ap- 
proaches their nests and either kicks the eggs out or 
pecks holes in them. 
I have made this part of his character a special 
study for two years, and can say from personal obser- 
vation that the English sparrow breaks up, by destroy- 
ing the eggs, more than half of the nests of native 
birds that are made in Floral Park. This is true also 
in other places where the pest has become numerous. 
To what extent he carries his depredation to fields and 
forests I cannot say, but among the birds that breed 
near the habitations of man, the English sparrow is 
doing far more to exterminate them than all other 
forces combined. Our only hope for saving our beau- 
tiful, cherished and familiar songsters is by killing 
these sparrows. — John Lewis Childs in The May- 
flower. 
Since the passage by the Pennsylvania legislature of an 
act giving cities the power to sell coal under public com- 
mons for the purpose of improving parks, Wilkesbarre, 
Pa., is preparing to improve River common under which 
lies coal worth $100,000. Wilkesbarre also contemplates the 
erection of a sea wall to cost $500,000. 
* * * 
The last link in the ocean boulevard and parkway, which 
the Metropolitan Park Commission of Boston is building 
from Middlesex Falls to the sea has been laid out, and is 
now in course of construction. The boulevard is too feet 
wide, and runs from hliddlesex Falls through IMalden, Wy- 
oming, Melrose, Everett, Chelsea, and Revere, reaching the 
sea at Eliot Circle, on the southern end of Crescent Beach. 
* * * 
Mr. John Reeves, of Beaver Falls, Pa., has offered to pre- 
sent to the boroughs of Beaver Falls and College Hill 12 
acres of land for a public park on condition that the two 
towns consolidate. The committees of the two town coun- 
cils are conferring on the proposition, which will be voted 
upon at the coming general election. 
* * * 
An ordinance has been passed by the city council at Ra- 
cine, Wis., providing that the funds of Mound Cemetery 
shall be held by the city treasurer instead of by the super- 
intendent, as has been the custom. A recent scandal in- 
volving a deficit of $1,500 was the cause of the change. 
* * * 
The cemetery association at Bloomfield, N. J., which ap- 
pealed to the State Board of Health for permission to estab- 
lish a cemetery after being refused by the local health au- 
thorities, has been granted permission by the state board. 
There is still some opposition to the cemetery at Bloom- 
field, and there is talk of carrying the matter to the Su- 
preme Court. 
