30 
HOUSE &■ GARDEN 
had their effect in keeping in 
line those over-eager persons 
who early in the contest dis¬ 
played a disposition to ease up 
or retire from the game. For 
two days every grocer in the 
city sent out with every order 
of goods blank entry cards for 
the big contest. This publicity 
campaign laid the foundations 
for the trebling of the number 
of contestants a year later. 
The Prize List 
But a most important factor 
in keeping the many con¬ 
testants at work was the prize 
list, ranging from $25 to $2.50. 
There were fifty-eight of these 
prizes, totaling about $500. As 
members of the Rotary Club 
were not permitted to enter 
the contest for the cash prizes 
they found time between 
booster activities to compete 
with the millionaries for hon¬ 
orable mentions in the various 
classes. 
A foresighted provision in 
the rules ordered that no prize 
be awarded to a person whose 
alleys were not kept in clean 
condition. Mayor Mueller 
was responsible for this provi¬ 
sion, and he thought so much 
of it he offered a special prize 
of $50 for the best kept back 
yard and alley. This offer 
brought on a contest which 
threatened to overshadow the 
yard and garden contests, and 
when the summer was over 
Davenport could have made 
claim to the title of having the 
cleanest and best kept alleys 
and back yards of any city in 
the country without much op¬ 
position. 
If there were any who 
could not afford the seeds or 
shrubbery plants needed to 
convert their homes into 
garden spots, the money was 
promptly forthcoming from 
the pockets of the club mem¬ 
bers. The newspapers caught 
the spirit and throughout the 
entire season ran weekly 
articles of value on the various 
phases of landscape garden¬ 
ing. Gardening and landscap¬ 
ing became the two most 
popular pastimes in more than 
1,200 homes. Particular stress 
was laid on the four funda¬ 
mental principles of natural 
landscape beauty—the avoid¬ 
ing of straight lines, the plant¬ 
ing of shrubs in masses, the 
keeping of an open front, and 
the softening of the line be¬ 
tween the foundations and the 
lawn. The result was that the 
work of beautifying the lawns 
was carried on in a manner 
more or less scientific, a fact 
which can be attested to by 
the book dealers of the town 
who reported unprecedented 
demand for text books on 
gardening and landscaping. 
