FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
205 
. landscape gardening, and our chief dis¬ 
advantage lies in the smallness of our city 
lots, with their houses pushed as close to 
the street as can be. These are our 
troubles, but as the old lady said when 
everything else was gone, we have some¬ 
thing to be thankful for. This old lady 
was asked what her particular blessing 
was, and she replied that she was so glad 
that since she had only two teeth left, 
those two hit! We are in some better 
plight, for we have splendidly paved 
streets, most excellent sidewalks with 
broad parkways, and in addition we have 
five beautifully located squares set aside 
for public parks. With all of this sub¬ 
stantial foundation, we feel sure that the 
esthetic side will manifest itself eventual¬ 
ly, and it is in just this faith that we have 
begun our work. Our first effort was to 
get the grounds about our really hand¬ 
some building at the depot, put in some 
sort of shape, and to have an avenue of 
palms set along the street leading back 
from the railroad to the center of town. 
We formed a very clear idea of what we 
wanted and asked for it. Our ideas were 
accepted pleasantly, but the railroad au¬ 
thorities and the city council told us 
times were too hard last fall for them to 
take action at once. All of us had become 
inured to this sad story from our own 
men-folks—hard times, and harder com¬ 
ing—but still we lived and had things 
pretty comfortable about us, so we are 
keeping hopeful, and not too insistent, 
for it is our policy not to be fussy nor of¬ 
ficious. A few days ago two members 
of our city council assured us that we 
should have our avenue this fall, and the 
depot improvement#' will surely follow 
that. If we couldn’t get our big ambition, 
however, we knew there were always 
smaller things to 1 accomplish, so instead of 
nagging at those in authority, we turned 
our attention to the individual work which 
must always underlie any civic effort. 
The ball was set to rolling by the bright 
youngsters of the Junior Civic League. 
When it came time to planCnasturtiums 
and sweet peas, we bought seeds in quan¬ 
tity, weighed them up into ten-cent pack¬ 
ages, and sent the children out peddling. 
A plant prize was given those who made 
sales to the most houses. We worded it 
this way, as our object was to get as 
many gardens planted as we could. It 
was not a nuisance to people to have the 
children come to them—many wanted the 
seed anyway, and others were glad to 
know just when it was time to plant. In 
addition to 1 the seed, some of the girls 
took with them marked catalogues from 
one of our Florida florists, and received 
orders for roses and shrubbery. 
As a result of this plan, our town is 
now farly ablaze with nasturtiums and 
there is a stronger if invisible effect in 
that we have planted the garden spirit in 
the thought of our little girls who are 
proud to feel they had a part in the work. 
Along in the winter, after a great deal of 
thought and discussion on the part of 
the committee we worked out more defi¬ 
nite plans suited to our own especial 
needs. Briefly, these include semi-annual 
garden and lawn contests and flower 
shows with good prizes. We first set 
about getting our cash for prizes. Never 
insistent, the committee presented their 
ambition for the town’s great attractive¬ 
ness to men of known public spirit. The 
