THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
RURAL 
 IMPROVEMENT 
 
Other Books by the Same Author 
 
 Landscape Gardening 
 
 Plums and Plum Culture 
 
 Fruit Harvesting, Storing, Marketing 
 
 Systematic Pomology 
 
 Dwarf Fruit Trees 
 
 The American Apple Orchard 
 
 The Landscape Beautiful 
 
 Beginner's Guide to Fruit Growing 
 
 The American Peach Orchard 
 
RURAL 
 IMPROVEMENT 
 
 The Principles of Civic Art Applied to Rural 
 Conditions, including Village Improve- 
 ment and the Betterment of 
 the Open Country 
 
 By 
 FRANK A. WAUGH 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 NEW YORK 
 ORANGE JUDD COMPANY 
 
 LONDON 
 
 KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO.. Limited 
 1914 
 
Copyright, 1914, by 
 
 ORANGE JUDD COMPANY 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL 
 LONDON, ENGLAND 
 
 Printed in U. S. A. 
 
Inscribed to 
 
 J. Horace McFarland 
 
 President of the 
 American Civic Association 
 
 Ardent and Effective Advocate of a Country 
 Clean, Beautiful and Convenient 
 
PREFACE 
 
 BIG issues are stirring in the rural dis- 
 tricts of America. The farming com- 
 munities, and the small towns dependent on 
 them, have reached a stage of genuine and 
 confident prosperity. It is no longer a 
 question with them whether they can live 
 through the winter and pay the interest on 
 the mortgage. The main problem is not 
 now how to make more money, but how 
 to live more comfortably. The way the 
 farmers spend money for automobiles 
 proves this. 
 
 Better homes and better home surround- 
 ings are the matters of prime concern. 
 Better schools, better playgrounds, better 
 churches, better libraries, better roads, are 
 wanted better cemeteries, even. In the 
 main, these are community problems, to be 
 solved by the co-operative action of the 
 whole neighborhood. Co-operation has 
 been talked of as the coming remedy for all 
 the farmer's difficulties; but the word has 
 
 ix 
 
PREFACE 
 
 been given too narrow a meaning and ap- 
 plication. The neighborhood can accom- 
 plish more by co-operating to own a grange 
 hall, or the boys can do better co-operating 
 to maintain a baseball league, than the 
 farmers can co-operating to buy fertilizer 
 twenty-five cents under market price. And 
 the best place to learn how to co-operate is 
 in the care of public property, such as parks, 
 commons, playgrounds, schools and roads 
 which we own in common. 
 
 The country needs to be improved. Some 
 of us who live in the country and love it 
 hate to admit this. But the steady stream 
 of young folks and some older ones mov- 
 ing toward the city shows that most people 
 still find the city more attractive than the 
 country. Look what has been done for the 
 city! Fine schools, theaters, picture shows, 
 playgrounds, parks, music, boulevards- 
 play, beauty and entertainment. The sim- 
 ple fact is that the country must do some- 
 thing to offset these attractions or the exodus 
 of live young men and women will go on 
 forever. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Better farming bigger crops and better 
 prices will do something. Better houses 
 and household equipment will do more. 
 Better neighborhood equipment for recrea- 
 tion and wholesome social intercourse will 
 do still more. There must be improvement 
 all along the line. This is the Rural Im- 
 provement which I would preach. 
 
 At the same time I would point out that 
 any improvement of this sort can best begin 
 on its physical side. The concrete prob- 
 lems of physical property are easier to 
 grasp ; and if it is true, as it partly is, that a 
 man must have a sound body in order to 
 support a vigorous mind and a healthy con- 
 science, it is more truly true that a com- 
 munity must be clean and orderly physically 
 in order to be clean and orderly socially and 
 morally. One of the strongest elements in 
 general agricultural improvement is to be 
 found in the contribution offered by civic 
 art the art which builds a sound physical 
 frame for the support of a healthy com- 
 munity life. To this great cause I offer my 
 small contribution, 
 
 FRANK A. WAUGH. 
 
 AMHERST, MASS., July, 1914. 
 
 xi 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 1. DEFINITIONS AND PRINCIPLES 2 
 
 2. MEANS OF ACCESS 19 
 
 3. ROADS AND STREETS 32 
 
 4. ROADSIDE TREES 58 
 
 5. Civic CENTERS 83 
 
 6. PUBLIC GROUNDS 103 
 
 7. THE VILLAGE HOME GARDEN 120 
 
 8. FARM PLANNING 137 
 
 9. COMMUNITY PLANNING 160 
 
 10. RURAL ARCHITECTURE 181 
 
 n. INCIDENTAL PROBLEMS 205 
 
 12. IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMS 224 
 
 13. ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT 245 
 
Country and city are united in an indis- 
 soluble partnership, which is equitable and 
 for their mutual profit. 
 
 WILBERT L. ANDERSON, 
 "The Country Town." 
 
 The provision of this \_civic~\ ideal . . 
 will have other value than merely 
 that of popular education. It will offer 
 inspiration. Nor will this inspiration be 
 material only, but as clearly moral and 
 political and intellectual. The pride that 
 enables a man to proclaim himself "a citizen 
 of no mean city" awakens in his heart high 
 desires that had before been dormant. 
 
 CHARLES MULFORD ROBINSON, 
 
 "Modern Civic Art." 
 
 To the multitude are carried some of the 
 fruits of prosperity, leisure and culture; 
 from them are gained democracy, fraternity, 
 freedom of social expression; with them is 
 developed a new dynamic force capable of 
 remaking the American community by in- 
 spiring the American citizen with the new 
 civic spirit. 
 
 CHARLES ZUEBLIN, 
 "A Decade of Civic Development." 
 
ART in general has no very high repu- 
 tation in America. It is thought to 
 be not sufficiently "practical." Yet at pres- 
 ent this mistaken view is giving way to a 
 better understanding. In the first place 
 people are beginning to see that anvthing 
 is none the less useful for being beautiful. A 
 beautiful bridge will carry just as big a load 
 as an ugly one. A beautiful and dignified 
 house is just as comfortable as a wretched 
 plain one. A well-proportioned silo will 
 keep the silage just as sweet as an uglv un- 
 painted one with the top off. Beauty does 
 not interfere with utility, nor utility with 
 beauty. The two are sisters. They should 
 walk hand in hand. Nothing can be truly 
 beautiful unless it is perfectly suited to its 
 proper use; and, conversely, nothing can 
 perfectly serve its highest uses unless it is 
 beautiful. 
 
DEFINITIONS AND PRINCIPLES 
 
 Thus we are awakening in this country 
 (to put the whole meaning into one phrase) 
 to the necessity of having things done right. 
 A barn is not strictly right until it serves 
 its native purposes to the fullest possible 
 measure and when this full and high and 
 overflowing stage of utility is reached, the 
 barn must be also beautiful. 
 
 Now in public affairs (which we may call 
 also civic affairs or community affairs) we 
 reach this conclusion a trifle later. We 
 sooner see that our own houses and silos 
 must be right than we realize that the pub- 
 lic schoolhouses, roads and cemeteries come 
 under the same high necessity. But this 
 second stage has been fully reached in many 
 American communities, and the need is 
 keenly felt of realizing in all public works 
 the highest utility combined with the utmost 
 beauty. And this conclusion may almost be 
 adopted as the definition of art to realize 
 the maximum of utility combined with the 
 maximum of beauty. When thus rightly 
 understood, art becomes an indispensable 
 factor in daily life whether private or pub- 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 lie life and not a mere superfluity fit for 
 the attention only of dudes, decadents and 
 highbrows. 
 
 Civic art, therefore, may be defined as the 
 practice of doings things right with refer- 
 ence to all public works or to state it more 
 explicitly, it is the constant endeavor to 
 secure in all public works the maximum of 
 utility combined with the maximum of 
 beauty. 
 
 Civic art thus becomes a branch of land- 
 scape architecture, which endeavors to 
 secure for all the outdoor needs of humanity 
 the greatest convenience plus the utmost 
 order and beauty. The principles of civic 
 art, then, are the same as those of landscape 
 architecture, and this great art must be 
 chiefly appealed to to supply both the prin- 
 ciples and the detailed practices for appli- 
 cation in the newer branch of civic art. 
 
 It would lead us too far afield from our 
 present studies should we attempt here to 
 elucidate all the basic principles of land- 
 scape architecture and to apply them to the 
 subject in hand. We may only say that here 
 
A COLORADO MINING VILLAGE SURROUNDED BY BEAUTIFUL 
 NATURAL SCENERY 
 
DEFINITIONS AND PRINCIPLES 
 
 the great principles of order, which are the 
 principles of design, rule supreme. To have 
 everything done in perfect order to have 
 everything kept in perfect order this is the 
 keynote of civic art. 
 
 Civic art strives to secure this perfect 
 good order this maximum of utility plus a 
 maximum of beauty in the things which 
 belong to the community. These public 
 possessions are streets, commons, parks, 
 playgrounds, school buildings, churches, 
 libraries, town halls, court houses, and scen- 
 ery, with various other important items. 
 Unfortunately the sense, and even the 
 knowledge, of common public ownership in 
 such things is still very weak in America. 
 For too many years we have laid every 
 stress on the private ownership of our own 
 individual property. All laws have been 
 made to protect individuals in this personal 
 right. All preaching has aimed to quicken 
 conscience with reference to the rights of 
 others. And so we have almost forgotten 
 that most of the greatest gifts in the world 
 belong to nobody that is, to everybody 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 that is, to us all. The air and the blue sky 
 still belong to us anyway. The sweet water 
 that falls from heaven belongs to us, too, ex- 
 cept that many of us have chosen to live in 
 cities and to pay someone to bring us our 
 
 A RURAL VILLAGE IN GERMANY 
 
 share of it. Then the schools are not mine 
 nor yours, but ours; and the roads belong to 
 no man, though the automobile hog may act 
 as though they did; and the churches are 
 the property of all, though Protestant secta- 
 
 6 
 
DEFINITIONS AND PRINCIPLES 
 
 rianism has indirectly inculcated the belief 
 that one or two men own each church; and 
 the cemeteries are public property where 
 we are all at last "free and equal" in spite 
 of the Declaration of Independence. 
 
 And so all of us, acting together, strive to 
 secure the best results attainable in the de- 
 velopment of our common property, to 
 secure the very highest utility, to enjoy the 
 greatest possible beauty, and to maintain 
 everything in the best possible order. This 
 is civic art. 
 
 Tn the cities, civic art has been developed 
 first. There are sufficient reasons for that 
 fact. But the country, equally with the city, 
 has public property, and should have more, 
 and this property needs to be developed to 
 its highest utility and to be equipped with 
 every available beauty. Unfortunately 
 again the sense of common ownership is 
 weaker in the country than in the city, and 
 harder to arouse. Practical co-operation is 
 harder to secure. Greater efforts are neces- 
 sary, therefore, to get community improve- 
 ments und-er way in the country. 
 
 7 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 Another difficulty lies in the fact that 
 communities have not such definite geo- 
 graphic limits in the rural districts as in the 
 cities. An incorporated city has very pre- 
 cise boundaries. Any individual family 
 resides in one city and not in two. (Fam- 
 ilies with residences in New York, New- 
 port, Palm Beach and Reno do not count 
 for anything in any connection.) In the 
 country, however, every farm is the center 
 of a neighborhood. These neighborhoods 
 overlap and overlap again, never coming to 
 an end except at the ocean or the impassable 
 mountain. Practically this is the very diffi- 
 cult situation throughout the Central and 
 Western states. In the New England states 
 the town unit is so well developed politi- 
 cally that it makes a very convenient basis 
 for all kinds of community action. A 
 political club, a farmers' club, or a civic im- 
 provement society may easily be organized 
 for any given town. Everyone in the town 
 will accept his natural allegiance with such 
 a society and work with it to the best of his 
 ability. 
 
 8 
 
DEFINITIONS AND PRINCIPLES 
 
 In the Central and Western states the 
 county is the political unit. But the county 
 is too big for the most effective work in 
 civic betterment. Certain enterprises, to be 
 sure, can be undertaken on a county-wide 
 scale, and should then be under the direc- 
 tion of county societies. In those states 
 where county patriotism has substantial 
 growth every effort should be made to put 
 it to good use. County improvement socie- 
 ties may be formed, on whose programs 
 would appear such projects as (a) better 
 county roads, (b) better county buildings, 
 (c) county high schools and agricultural 
 schools, (d) scenic and historic reservations. 
 
 But smaller units of organization must be 
 found, even in most enterprising counties. 
 Village improvement societies can take care 
 of the small towns, and civic clubs or boards 
 of trade or women's clubs of the larger ones. 
 The country districts must not be forgotten, 
 but should be divided up amongst the 
 granges and amongst the local farmers' 
 clubs (most of which are still to be organ- 
 ized). 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 We have spoken of the county unit, the 
 town unit, the village unit, and the very in- 
 definite country-neighborhood unit. Before 
 dropping this subject we must have a look 
 at the state unit. As a matter of fact there 
 are many civic enterprises of state-wide 
 scope, such as state roads, state parks, etc. 
 Let it be distinctly understood that some of 
 the finest civic accomplishments of the last 
 decade have been in this field, and we may 
 reasonably hope for more in the next de- 
 cade. We have a sort of reason for this in 
 the significant fact that the civic feeling is 
 stronger within state boundaries than any- 
 where else in America. A Kansan is more 
 proud of Kansas than of all the other stars 
 on the flag; and a Mississippian will do 
 more for his state than for any other geo- 
 graphical unit, big or little, in the universe; 
 and a New Yorker always thinks that North 
 America revolves round the Empire State. 
 Inasmuch as patriotism and civic pride are 
 pretty much one and the same thing, and as 
 this civic pride is the ultimate foundation 
 of all civic improvement, we may properly 
 
 10 
 
DEFINITIONS AND PRINCIPLES 
 
 expect best results where local patriotism is 
 strongest, and may thus hope to accomplish 
 some of the biggest and best things through 
 state-wide movements. 
 
 The time is now fully ripe for the organ- 
 ization of state campaigns in all states where 
 a fair stage of social and economic develop- 
 ment (/. e. f a reasonably well organized civ- 
 ilization) has been attained. Such enter- 
 prises promise to be most effective if initi- 
 ated and directed by the state agricultural 
 colleges. A strong, aggressive, modern agri- 
 cultural college can easily put into the field 
 a small corps of experts who will assist the 
 local communities in all the undertakings of 
 civic betterment. These various undertak- 
 ings are enumerated in the chapter on im- 
 provement programs, but may be recapitu- 
 lated here for convenience. These experts, 
 carrying this civic betterment propaganda 
 throughout the state, would deal directly 
 with such problems as these: (a) Good 
 roads, location, construction and main- 
 tenance, (b) roadside and street planting, 
 and care of roadside trees, (c) acquisition, 
 
 ii 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 planning and management of public reser- 
 vations, parks, picnic grounds, commons, 
 and playgrounds, (d) location and design of 
 school grounds, especially country schools 
 and those providing school gardens, experi- 
 mental grounds, etc., (e) location and 
 design and care of public cemeteries, (f) 
 care of country churches and church 
 grounds, (g) location and design of all 
 public buildings, more especially those out- 
 side of cities, (h) design and care of farm 
 yards and village yards; (i) design, service 
 and sanitation of farm buildings. In every 
 one of these lines improvement is possible 
 and desirable. Improvement in greater or 
 less degree can be secured by putting before 
 the people, systematically and urgently, the 
 best modern ideas on these several subjects. 
 No better line of work for rural betterment 
 can possibly be undertaken by the extension 
 services now organized in many agricul- 
 tural colleges, or by any other organizations 
 having in view the improvement of country 
 life conditions. 
 
 12 
 
DEFINITIONS AND PRINCIPLES 
 
 All these civic improvement enterprises 
 always look very formidable to the inex- 
 perienced person. Talk about town plan- 
 ning, country planning or a general state 
 plan sounds altogether futile in such ears. 
 What can be done after all to change the 
 plan of a town already in existence? How- 
 ever, the works of civic improvement are, 
 in fact, much easier to accomplish than the 
 public ever believes. For the greatest part 
 civic art undertakes only to do in the right 
 <way Instead of in the wrong <way things 
 'which have to be done one 'way or the other. 
 Now, most people, even town and county 
 officials, would rather do things right than 
 to do them wrong. As the right way is usu- 
 ally the cheapest way, especially in the long 
 run, there is in this fact another strong pref- 
 erence for the best things, whenever the 
 public can be helped to see what plans are 
 actually cheapest and best The important 
 point is to see that the public has a fair 
 chance to know what is best. In an enor- 
 mous number of cases public questions are 
 decided without this knowledge. 
 
 13 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 In an experience in civic work covering 
 several years I have often been surprised at 
 the readiness, even avidity, with which 
 apparently radical suggestions are some- 
 times accepted. I once asked an audience 
 in a country town if they owned any public 
 picnic ground. No, they said. Had they 
 any places in town attractive enough for 
 such uses? Oh yes, plenty of them! And 
 then, after the lecture, and before we left 
 the room, three men said they would per- 
 sonally give the land to the town. Dozens 
 of similar instances could be related illus- 
 trating the ease with which the most sub- 
 stantial improvements are speedily and 
 easily realized when the right idea is favor- 
 ably presented. 
 
 In other cases more time is needed. In- 
 deed the time element is of supreme impor- 
 tance in most piojects for public works. It 
 requires time for any new idea to "soak 
 in." When a new improvement is proposed 
 it should be put fairly, fully and clearly 
 before the public, and kept there. Let it be 
 a plan for a new road or a public ball field, 
 
 T 4 
 
DEFINITIONS AND PRINCIPLES 
 
 if a well-studied plan can be widely cir- 
 culated and properly explained, and then 
 if the drawings and data can be put up in 
 plain view in the post office or other public 
 place, and kept there, perhaps for several 
 years, the work will be eventually carried 
 out. It will almost do itself. The people 
 become accustomed to the idea, they accept 
 it as a probable result, and when the proper 
 moment arrives they will assist in its final 
 realization. Patience, prudence and prep- 
 aration are the watchwords of civic im- 
 provement. 
 
 One more point of fundamental impor- 
 tance must be borne in mind. Although 
 civic art deals only with the physical fea- 
 tures of the community equipment (that is, 
 with public property of one sort or another) , 
 these physical elements do not exist by them- 
 selves and certainly not for themselves. In- 
 dustrial, social, educational, religious and 
 other factors are present and powerful in 
 the community life, and it is, indeed, for 
 these things that the physical equipment is 
 used. Now civic art in any form village 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 improvement, rural improvement, or state 
 improvement campaign cannot go very 
 far by itself. Improvement of the streets 
 depends partly on improvement of local 
 politics, and this in turn on better schools, 
 and all together on better churches and a 
 growing spirit of honesty and public serv- 
 ice. Furthermore agricultural and indus- 
 trial conditions must be improved in order 
 that farms and factories may yield larger 
 returns for the support of churches, schools, 
 playgrounds, roads and even cemeteries. 
 All community advancement must be 
 gained by co-ordinated advance all along 
 the line. Improvement of roads and pub- 
 lic grounds must be accompanied by im- 
 provement in schools, by reform in politics 
 and by genuine religious revivals. In like 
 manner a wild religious upheaval without 
 better streets is a waste of breath, or political 
 reform without better schools is a delusion, 
 or more scientific agriculture without more 
 picnics and better churches and happier 
 households is only vanity and vexation of 
 spirit. 
 
 16 
 
DEFINITIONS AND PRINCIPLES 
 
 The great advantages of civic art are two : 
 First, it deals with concrete problems and 
 materials; that is, with property; and 
 humanity, especially American humanity, 
 has a most ineradicable belief in property. 
 Civic art, therefore, supplies the basis on 
 which communities most quickly rally, and 
 on which a genuine co-operation can be 
 most easily and effectively established. 
 Secondly, civic improvement thereby be- 
 comes the indispensable training school for 
 all higher forms of neighborly co-operation, 
 such as deal with political, educational and 
 religious reforms. In a double sense civic 
 art is the unique foundation on which to 
 build every kind of civic improvement. 
 
Das regelmasziac Parzellieren vom rein 
 okonomischen Standpunkte aus ist bei 
 Neuanlagen ein Faktor geivorden, dessen 
 Wirkungen man sich kaum entziehen kann. 
 Trotzdem sollte man sich dleser landlaufi- 
 gen Method e nicht gar so blindlinys auf 
 Gnade und Ungnade ubergeben, denn eben 
 hiedurch werden Schonheiten des Stadt- 
 baues geradezu hekatombenweise abqesch- 
 lachtet. Es slnd dies alle jene Schonheiten, 
 welche man mit dem Worte "malerisch" 
 bezeichnet. Wo bleiben bei einer regelrech- 
 ten Parzellierung alle die malenschen Stras- 
 zenwinkel, wie sie uns im alien Nurnberg 
 und ivo sie sonst noch erhalten blieben, ent- 
 zucken, hauptsachlich durch ihre Original- 
 it'dt, ivie die Straszenbilder beim Fembohaus 
 zu Nurnberg oder beim Rathaus zu Heil- 
 bronn oder der Brauerei zu Gorlitz, dem 
 Petersenhaus zu Nurnberg und anderen, 
 welche aber leider durch fortivdhrende 
 Demolierungen von Jahr zu Jahr weniger 
 iverden. 
 
 CAMILLO SITTE, 
 "Der Staedtebau." 
 
 18 
 
A PLEASANT COUNTRY ROAD IN SLEIGHING TIME. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 MEANS OF ACCESS 
 
 IF we regard the village as a unit, thinking 
 of it as the home of a living community, 
 we will see at once that it demands suitable 
 openings for entrance and exit. There must 
 be doors ; there must be some way to get into 
 the town. I know a number of excellent 
 towns which are highly inaccessible; it is 
 so hard to get into them that people seldom 
 go there. There are no railroads, there are 
 no trolleys, there are no good wagon roads, 
 so the town is isolated. It is put aside from 
 the currents of commercial and social life. 
 Business and society become stagnant and 
 the town suffers throughout its whole organ- 
 ization. 
 
 Many feel keenly the disadvantage of 
 being cut off from railroad communication. 
 Many a town has voted itself heavily into 
 debt issuing bonds to secure the entry of a 
 
 19 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 railroad. In former years such strenuous 
 exertions for railway connections were very 
 common in the prairie states and have not 
 been unknown to the most slow-going towns 
 in New England. In many cases the rail- 
 road has proved the commercial and social 
 salvation of a town. Almost every town 
 which has a railroad feels the importance 
 of this service, and would not for the world 
 think of dispensing with it. What would a 
 trwn do if the railroad were taken away? 
 The result is too serious to contemplate. 
 
 In many parts of the country the old his- 
 tory of the railroad is being repeated in the 
 extension of the trolley systems. Good 
 trolley connections are now as important as 
 railway connections. In many towns they 
 are even more important. The trolley has 
 come to be, in a large number of cases, the 
 main entrance and exit. 
 
 All the while, the wagon roads have been 
 growing in importance instead of decreas- 
 ing in value. As travel by railroad and 
 trolley increases, travel by wagon and buggy 
 also increases. But the thing which has 
 
 20 
 
MEANS OF ACCESS 
 
 brought the highways into special promi- 
 nence, in the present decade, has been the 
 unexpected extension in the use of automo- 
 biles. The public roads have much more 
 use than they had 25 years ago, and much 
 harder use. Instead of decreasing, their 
 importance has increased. 
 
 All such roads leading into town, whether 
 railroads, trolleys or wagon roads, are to be 
 considered as "village portals." They are 
 the approaches to the town. By them 
 strangers come to get their first welcome, 
 and old residents return with buoyant hearts 
 to their homes. They are to be considered, 
 therefore, and treated in their proper rela- 
 tion to the community life. 
 
 Considered as a welcoming portal to the 
 village, the common railroad depot is often 
 a sad disappointment. It is usually dirty 
 and the grounds both inadequate and dis- 
 orderly. The place is surrounded by the 
 most unattractive business and the most dis- 
 heartening architecture in the town. If 
 there are any unsightly coal sheds, any evil- 
 smelling stockyards, any noisome gas plant, 
 
 21 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 these things are certain to welcome the trav- 
 eler at the railway station. It is just as 
 though a private family should receive all 
 its visitors, friends or strangers, at the back 
 door, and should meet them there with a 
 
 GOOD ROAD LOCATION, SHOWING BEAUTY OF GENTLE CURVE 
 
 fine collection of garbage cans and slop jars. 
 The situation, common as it is, is utterly 
 wrong, preposterous and humiliating. 
 
 It can be improved. In fact, it can be 
 radically changed. It is entirely possible 
 
 22 
 
MEANS OF ACCESS 
 
 for the railway station to be what it ought 
 to be, a pleasing and suitable introduction 
 to the town. Fortunately, we do not lack 
 for concrete examples. The famous railroad 
 stations of the Boston & Albany road in the 
 Newtons have been for many years a useful 
 example to the rest of America. The Bos- 
 ton & Maine road has developed a few 
 pleasant station grounds. The Chicago & 
 Northwestern railroad has a number of at- 
 tractive stations in the neighborhood of 
 Chicago; the Pennsylvania Railroad has 
 been able to secure a number of good ex- 
 amples along their line. Yet, for the pres- 
 ent, these good examples are in a very small 
 minority, taking it the country through. 
 
 Such improvements as have been secured 
 in station grounds have been sometimes on 
 the initiative of the railroads and sometimes 
 on the initiative of the townspeople. The 
 railroads themselves really ought to take 
 this matter up. Tt is their business and they 
 could well afford to do it. In cases where 
 they do not willingly undertake it, the com- 
 munity should bring to bear every pressure 
 
 23 
 
PLAN OF A GERMAN VILLAGE, SHOWING MAIN ENTRANCES 
 24 
 
MEANS OF ACCESS 
 
 which it has at command. Doubtless, the 
 most successful method will be that of co- 
 operation with the railroad. The people 
 of the town can do something and the rail- 
 road will usually be able to meet them half 
 way. 
 
 A serious defect in the railway service in 
 many cities and towns lies in the bad loca- 
 tion of the railroad station or stations. It 
 is by no means uncommon to find a country 
 town in which the railroad station is placed 
 a half mile, a mile or even more from the 
 center of the village. The locations in many 
 instances are nothing less than ridiculous. 
 Evidently, they were determined upon by 
 the railroad with very small consideration 
 of the convenience of the public. The day 
 has gone by, however, when the railroad can 
 afford to disregard the needs of its cus- 
 tomers. Indeed, very few railroad man- 
 agers nowadays wish to do it. It is much bet- 
 ter business to accommodate the public in 
 every reasonable way. On this account we 
 may expect substantial improvements to be 
 made, under pressure from the community; 
 
 25 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 stations will be removed to more central 
 locations and in other ways made more 
 accessible. 
 
 Difficulties are greatly multiplied when 
 three or four railroads have depots for the 
 same town at widely separated points. I 
 know a town of 2000 inhabitants which has 
 four railroad stations, yet the two nearest 
 together are a half mile apart, and one 
 would be required to make a trip of possibly 
 four miles to visit the four stations. Such 
 an arrangement is really intolerable. It 
 ought to be changed at once, and in a consid- 
 erable number of cases it would be changed 
 if everyone concerned could really see how 
 expensive and inconvenient it is. A few 
 moments' figuring will show that the people 
 of the town are wasting thousands of dollars 
 annually jaunting about all the points of the 
 compass to reach such scattered depots. 
 
 The trolley entrance more commonly 
 gives an attractive introduction to the vil- 
 lage. The trolley is apt to come in by one 
 of the best and pleasantest streets. The vil- 
 lage improvement society should take pains 
 
 26 
 
27 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 to see that this street is kept clean so as 
 to give strangers a good impression as they 
 arrive. 
 
 The trolley is so new, however, that it has 
 not quite found its place in the town. It has 
 taken away a large part of the business of 
 the steam railroad, without having accepted 
 quite all the steam roads' responsibilities. 
 This is especially the case with reference to 
 waiting stations, and the time must soon 
 come when all the principal trolley lines 
 will provide suitable waiting stations, just 
 as every railroad feels obliged to provide a 
 passenger and freight depot. The village 
 improvement society will then be under ob- 
 ligations to see that these waiting stations 
 are centrally located (without their being 
 put on the town common or permitted to 
 obstruct the street), that they are built in at- 
 tractive designs, that they are kept clean and 
 orderly. 
 
 The main roads entering a town will, of 
 course, be kept in good repair and their 
 borders will be kept clean and attractive 
 for the same reasons. Visitors coming by 
 
 28 
 
MEANS OF ACCESS 
 
 x 
 
 carriage or automobile should be given a 
 favorable impression. The building and 
 maintenance of such roads will be discussed 
 in another place. 
 
 When any given town or village is stud- 
 ied, it will be seen that the actual entrances 
 are surprisingly few in number. There 
 may be one or two railroad stations, but 
 aside from this, in the very great majority 
 of cases, the entrances are reduced to three 
 or four main roads. Frequently the num- 
 ber of important entrances is still less. It 
 becomes, therefore, a relatively simple mat- 
 ter to manage the entrance problem effec- 
 tively. 
 
 Most of all, it must always be remem- 
 bered that these entrances should have the 
 character and dignity of village portals. 
 Civilization has passed the day of city gates. 
 We no longer have walled towns, guarded 
 by drawbridge and portcullis. In olden 
 times, it was literally possible to meet a 
 stranger at the city gate and to bring to him 
 the keys of the city. The fact that the gates 
 have disappeared, however, does not mean 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 that we are less hospitable than formerly. 
 Indeed, it means quite the opposite. We 
 wish to welcome people freely and cordially 
 to our town. We must see, therefore, that 
 the town entrance is clean, dignified, hospi- 
 table, inviting. We should give to it the 
 same character which we would give to the 
 front door of a church or to the front doors 
 of our own homes. 
 
Roadways are generally made crowning 
 in the center, so that water runs to the sides, 
 but frequently the fall lengthwise of the 
 roadway is less than it should be. City en- 
 gineers are usually inclined to make the 
 grade along the length of a street as nearly 
 level as possible. Authorities who have 
 given the subject of roads considerable study 
 recommend a fall lengthwise of not less than 
 one foot in one hundred and twenty-five, nor 
 more than six feet in one hundred. Such 
 grades are not always feasible, but a certain 
 amount of variation in level can usually be 
 made in a residence street which will make 
 it much more pleasing in appearance, and 
 have certain practical advantages in keeping 
 the street dry. 
 
 L. H. BAILEY, 
 "Garden Making." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 ROADS AND STREETS 
 
 ROAD improvement is one of the most 
 obvious forms of rural betterment. It 
 is also one of the most fundamental. It is 
 most closely and positively related to eco- 
 nomic advances; and improvement in eco- 
 nomic efficiency forms the absolute basis of 
 all permanent community progress. Every 
 phase of country and village life is affected 
 by the condition of the public highways 
 usually profoundly affected. Centralized 
 schools and rural mail delivery wait on good 
 roads; church congregations fluctuate with 
 the condition of the highways; and one 
 political party or the other carries the elec- 
 tion according to whether the rural roads 
 are passable and the country vote comes to 
 the polls. 
 
 It has been estimated rather carefully that 
 there are 2,200,000 miles of public roads in 
 
the United States. Between 8 and 9 per 
 cent of this enormous mileage has been im- 
 proved by surfacing with gravel, oyster 
 shells, stone and other material. Something 
 
 VILE COUNTRY ROAD 
 Thousands of miles like this still exist 
 
 over ninety per cent of the public high- 
 ways, on the other hand, are totally unim- 
 proved. 
 
 It has been shown also that the average 
 cost of handling farm crops on the public 
 
 33 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 roads of the United States is approximately 
 23 cents per ton mile. The cost of hauling 
 similar freight on the highly improved 
 roads of France and Germany is known to 
 be about 8 cents per ton-mile, or only a 
 
 THE IMPROVED ROAD IMPROVES THE SCHOOL 
 
 trifle over one-third the average cost in 
 America. We may show these differences 
 in our own country by comparing the rela- 
 tively good roads of Massachusetts with the 
 average unimproved roads of Arkansas. The 
 average cost of hauling farm crops in 
 
 34 
 
Massachusetts is calculated to be 9^2 cents 
 the ton-mile, while in Arkansas it is over 
 twice as much, or 20 cents. Inasmuch as 
 the average distance from farm to railroad 
 station is about twice as great in Arkansas 
 as in Massachusetts, the farmers of the 
 former state are paying about four times as 
 much for hauling their crops to market. 
 And this computation makes no account of 
 railroad freight charges either. 
 
 The Bureau of Road Inquiry in Wash- 
 ington has estimated that in 1906 there were 
 over 200 million tons of farm, garden and 
 forest products hauled to railway stations 
 by wagon over an average haul of 9.4 miles, 
 which, at the rate of 23 cents per ton mile, 
 would mean the enormous expense of $432,- 
 400,000. And this certainly represents less 
 than one-half the use of the highways. If 
 our roads could have been as good as the 
 best of the French and German roads, so as 
 to reduce this cost to 8 cents per ton-mile, 
 it would have meant the saving of $278,- 
 130,000. 
 
 Statistics which we need not stop to quote 
 
 35 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 will show further that the money spent in 
 this country for road improvement is largely 
 wasted. This is more disheartening than 
 the other fact that the sums raised for road 
 betterments are always too small. Consid- 
 ering these figures, which are rough but 
 safe estimates, or looking at the matter from 
 any standpoint, it appears that the road 
 problem is one of enormous magnitude and 
 incalculable importance 
 
 ROAD AND STREET PLANNING 
 
 In America we are too much committed 
 to the rectangular, checkerboard system of 
 road design. The damage has gone farthest 
 in the flat prairie states of the Central West, 
 but it has gone too far in every state. Towns 
 which are suddenly created, as those of 
 Minnesota and Oklahoma, are most subject 
 to this defect. The town is made first on 
 paper, months or years before it exists on the 
 land; and in projecting such a town it is 
 always easier to draw the map with the 
 straightedge than to follow contours. On 
 
 36 
 
ROADS AND STREETS 
 
 the other hand, those villages of New Eng- 
 land, old England and the old country gen- 
 erally, which have grown up gradually and 
 were not mapped until their growth was 
 
 COUNTRY LANE IN AUTUMN 
 
 accomplished, have a very different layout. 
 The plan is much more irregular than that 
 of the Oklahoma town; it seems less sim- 
 ple and less logical. The fact is, however, 
 
 37 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 that it is more natural and therefore more 
 logical and convenient. Besides being more 
 natural and convenient the irregular ar- 
 rangement is infinitely more pleasing to the 
 eye. Compare the best prairie town in Illi- 
 nois, Iowa or Nebraska with the poorest 
 rural village in England, Germany, Switz- 
 erland or Northern Italy and see how 
 bright and picturesque appears the latter, 
 how plain and stupid appears the former. 
 
 Modern study of the problems of street 
 and road design has developed some pretty 
 definite ideas which we may present as sim- 
 ple rules. 
 
 I. Main roads should be as direct as 
 possible between all principal centers. This 
 principle is constantly violated in town and 
 country. The railroad depot may be eight 
 blocks south and six blocks west of the hotel, 
 but the omnibus has to travel fourteen 
 blocks to and from every train; while if 
 there was a reasonable diagonal street the 
 distance would be reduced to ten blocks, 
 and a haul of eight blocks saved in every 
 round trip. This would mean a saving of 
 
 38 
 
ROADS AND STREETS 
 
 several dollars every day combining all 
 traffic in the smallest and sleepiest town. 
 It is incomprehensible how the big and 
 thriving towns, accustomed as they are to 
 take themselves so seriously and to boast of 
 
 THE MODERN CEMENT BRIDGE ON COUNTRY ROAD 
 
 their practical improvements and their busi- 
 ness enterprise, should ever tolerate such an 
 absurd and wasteful town plan. 
 
 It is an odd fact that the people who live 
 on the central prairies imagine that their 
 
 39 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 rectangular road system is correct and are 
 always laughing at the crooked and irregu- 
 lar roads of the northeastern states. The 
 New England system, though by no means 
 perfect, is much the better. 
 
 For a concrete example let us look at 
 Saline County and Rice County, Kansas, 
 two counties which almost touch corners. 
 From Salina, the county seat of Saline 
 County, to Lyons, the county seat of Rice 
 County, the direct distance is roughly 55 
 miles, say a good two hours' ride in a com- 
 fortable automobile. But there is no direct 
 road, and the traveler would be obliged to 
 "follow section lines" all the way, some- 
 times on good roads and sometimes on poor 
 roads, turning at right angles every few 
 miles, and covering 80 miles of such road in- 
 stead of 55 miles of straight trunk road 
 which a better system would put at his dis- 
 posal. 
 
 2. Main roads should be well built and 
 ic ell maintained. Where there are no main 
 roads, all highways being 66 feet wide, it 
 is difficult to carry out this rule. 
 
 40 
 
ROADS AND STREETS 
 
 3. Secondary roads should be narrower, 
 and the cost of construction and main- 
 tenance should be proportioned to their im- 
 portance and use. In the prairie states, 
 opened under government survey, all roads 
 are 66 feet wide a most absurd width for 
 the majority of them. Nine-tenths of these 
 roads could be narrowed to one rod in 
 width; leaving less space for the road over- 
 seers to care for and adding six acres of 
 farming land to each mile of farms. 
 
 4. The radiating or spider-web system 
 of roads is generally best, but this must 
 always be more or less modified to meet the 
 local conditions. Of these local conditions 
 the most important is the one next to be 
 mentioned. 
 
 5. Roads and streets should follow the 
 contours of the land. Instead of being 
 forced in straight lines directly over hills, 
 streets should circle about the hills on prac- 
 ticable grades. 
 
 The protection of roads where they cross 
 railway lines at grade, and the abolition of 
 grade crossings wherever practicable, are 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 also points to be kept in mind in all schemes 
 of road improvement. 
 
 In any local scheme of road improvement 
 there is much to be done besides making 
 
 THE CONCRETE BRIDGE ON A LARGER SCALE 
 A bridge of beauty as well as utility 
 
 the attempt to apply the foregoing rules. 
 The rules, indeed, cannot be carried out, 
 except in part, in any established com- 
 munity. More changes can be made, in the 
 
 42 
 
ROADS AND STREETS 
 
 course of time, than one would suppose; 
 and it is possible by careful study and con- 
 tinued effort to approximate these ideals 
 more closely than the pessimist would ad- 
 mit. Yet in most neighborhoods the im- 
 provement of the road plan is largely a mat- 
 ter of adjusting details of clearing up 
 small defects. A heavy grade may be abol- 
 ished in one place; in another place a bridge 
 may be put in so as to offer a shorter cut 
 between important traffic points; one road 
 may be turned along a level valley instead 
 of being forced over a hill; another road 
 can be diverted round a swamp ; and so on 
 through the list. There is hardly a town- 
 ship in the United States where the road 
 plan could not be improved; and in many 
 cases truly revolutionary improvements 
 would be possible. 
 
 When all practicable changes in road 
 plan have been made there remain such im- 
 portant improvements as cuts and fills, 
 bridges, culverts, drainage, macadamizing, 
 etc. Road improvement is in fact a never- 
 ending task. 
 
 43 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 KINDS OF ROAD CONSTRUCTION 
 
 There are hundreds of systems of road 
 making, and thousands of variations of these 
 systems. The subject is such a large and 
 difficult one that there have been dozens of 
 books written on it. It would be quite out 
 of place here to take up a treatise on road 
 construction, but it is worth while to notice 
 
 PICTURESQUE AND SOLID STONE BRIDGE 
 
 a few of the more important methods, with 
 special reference to their adaptability to 
 rural conditions and village improvement. 
 Of course, we must not lose sight of the fact 
 that, with state assistance, and perhaps 
 eventually with federal assistance, in the 
 building of permanent highways, we shall 
 be constantly tending toward more and 
 
 44 
 
ROADS AND STREETS 
 
 more permanent and expensive types of con- 
 struction. While we must urge that more 
 thoughtful study be given to the common 
 earth roads, we must not lose any oppor- 
 tunity to introduce telford or macadam. 
 
 Earth Roads. Taking it the continent 
 over, it would be perfectly safe to guess that 
 ninety-five per cent of all the country roads 
 are earth roads. Probably a proportionate 
 number of these are of the local soil without 
 amendment. If the road passes over a sandy 
 stretch, the road bed is of sand; if the way 
 passes over clay or black loam, the road bed 
 is of the same material. These roads have 
 been constructed at very low cost, thousands 
 of miles having cost practically nothing at 
 all, and the annual maintenance expense is 
 kept in proportion. But the results are not 
 always satisfactory. As soon as the traffic 
 begins to make any severe demands on such 
 roads they prove inadequate, and substantial 
 improvements are required. 
 
 Nevertheless, well-made earth roads are 
 often among the pleasantest to travel and 
 often render very satisfactory service. In 
 
 45 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 constructing earth roads, drainage is a 
 prime requirement. Underdrainage with 
 tile should be applied wherever thorough 
 work is attempted. This should be supple- 
 mented by proper side ditches, and surface 
 drainage should be constantly assured by 
 keeping the road crowning and well graded 
 The proper construction of earth roads is 
 greatly facilitated by the use of good mod- 
 ern road machinery. 
 
 Gravel Roads. Next to the earth road 
 we may place the gravel road. Almost 
 anywhere where any sort of gravel can be 
 secured it can be used to advantage in im- 
 proving the surfaces of earth roads. How- 
 ever, there are very great differences in 
 gravel roads, some being no better than un- 
 improved loam, others being hardly less 
 satisfactory than good macadam. The 
 gravel should be of good quality, that is 
 hard and tough. It should be of different 
 sizes and it should contain or should be 
 mixed with some sort of binding material. 
 Clay is the material most commonly used 
 as a binder, but limestone, ground oyster 
 
ROADS AND STREETS 
 
 shells, fine silica and other local materials 
 are often used. 
 
 Burnt Clay Roads are finding some favor 
 in sections where sand and gravel do not 
 exist and where stone roads would be too 
 expensive. In such districts where the soil 
 is tough, sticky clay, the common earth 
 roads are particularly bad. During the 
 spring season they may be impassable for 
 weeks. By thorough burning, however, 
 this clay may be rendered so hard as to make 
 a fairly good road material. It is then 
 broken into lumps and rolled into place on 
 the road surface much as gravel is used. 
 
 Sand-Clay Roads. Sand and clay mixed 
 in proper proportions and suitably worked 
 into place make a most excellent earth road. 
 Frequently they do not naturally exist in the 
 right proportions. There may be too much 
 sand, in which case the road bed cuts to 
 pieces and traction is very heavy. Or there 
 may be too great a proportion of clay, in 
 which case the road bed absorbs water and 
 becomes sticky and impassable. Where 
 these deposits of clay and sand exist in the 
 
 47 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 same neighborhood, however, they may be 
 artificially mixed in the right proportions; 
 after which, with proper working, they 
 make excellent country roads. 
 
 RUSTIC BRIDGE, BEAUTIFUL AND SATISFACTORY 
 
 Oil or Tar Roads. Various kinds of oil, 
 tar and asphalt have been used in road mak- 
 ing. These are applied in various ways to 
 sand roads, clay roads, gravel roads, and 
 even to stone roads. The results vary all the 
 way from complete satisfaction to utter fail- 
 
ure. Oil and tar in the hands of experi- 
 enced engineers seem to be generally rather 
 valuable, more especially in the preserva- 
 tion and maintenance of well-built streets. 
 At the present time it can hardly be said that 
 these materials promise much for the im- 
 provement of rural highways under the 
 management of untrained road overseers. 
 
 Stone Roads. Telford and macadam 
 roads constructed of stone at an expense of 
 $3,000 to $10,000 a mile have proved alto- 
 gether the most satisfactory styles of road 
 construction. The initial cost is so great 
 as to limit their use to a small fraction of 
 our national road mileage. The high cost 
 also makes it wise at all times to undertake 
 their construction only under the direction 
 of trained engineers. However, where a 
 reasonable state road policy has been 
 adopted with a view to the development of 
 permanent roads, these more expensive 
 methods of construction should nearly al- 
 ways be used. Even under county subsidy 
 and control a considerable proportion of 
 permanent stone road ought to be built. 
 
 49 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 
 
 ROAD TAXES 
 
 Road taxes in America are mostly of three 
 kinds, as follows: 
 
 1. Poll taxes, levied in nearly every 
 state, usually at the rate of $2.00 per head. 
 Often these are payable in labor, and in 
 many districts practically the whole amount 
 is collected in this form. It is an old custom, 
 and a thoroughly bad one. It represents a 
 state of social and political organization too 
 crude to be tolerated anywhere in America, 
 where newspapers penetrate. The poll tax 
 is unjust in principle and vicious in practice. 
 
 2. Property Taxes, levied with other 
 taxes, sometimes by towns, sometimes by 
 counties and occasionally by states. These 
 are and should always be the principal sup- 
 port of the public roads. 
 
 3. Special Taxes, as those on dogs, auto- 
 mobiles and other special luxuries. There 
 seems to be an obvious propriety in taxing 
 automobiles for the support of road im- 
 provement, for these machines are exceed- 
 
 50 
 
ROADS AND STREETS 
 
 ingly destructive to every sort of roadbed 
 on which they run. 
 
 ROAD MANAGEMENT 
 
 The highways of the United States are 
 under various forms of ownership and con- 
 trol. Usually control follows ownership, 
 but occasionally state-built roads are turned 
 over to local control. The principal forms 
 of management are by towns, counties or 
 states. 
 
 The town form of government, prevalent 
 in the T^ew England states, usually carries 
 with it the ownership, support and manage- 
 ment of the bulk of the roads. The actual 
 management commonly falls to a highway 
 surveyor or similar elective individual, sub- 
 ject more or less to direction from a board 
 of selectmen, and subject further to special 
 instructions through votes in town meetings. 
 In western states, where the town form of 
 government is hardly known, the roads are 
 looked after by districts. There may be two 
 to four districts to each township, with a 
 separate road overseer elected for each dis- 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 trict. This system is the least efficient and 
 satisfactory yet devised. The administrative 
 district is too small, the responsibility of the 
 overseer too slight, the interests of the citi- 
 zens too much scattered. The town system 
 in the eastern states is better, because the 
 responsibility of the highway surveyor is 
 larger and better enforced. 
 
 In a few states county systems of super- 
 vision have been put on trial. These sys- 
 tems usually provide for the election of a 
 county engineer or road surveyor, with 
 more or less control by the board of county 
 commissioners. These county systems have 
 generally been proposed as reforms, and two 
 special objects are commonly sought: First, 
 a larger accumulation of funds can be ap- 
 plied to the construction of permanent road- 
 ways on important routes instead of fritter- 
 ing everything away in little dabs on unused 
 byways. Second, the county can pay the 
 salary necessary to command the continuous 
 services of a trained engineer. On the face 
 of it this system is much better than the 
 town or district system, but it has not yet 
 
 52 
 
ROADS AND STREETS 
 
 established itself widely throughout the 
 United States. 
 
 Several of the more progressive states 
 have now established systems of state roads, 
 usually employing expert engineers under 
 the direction of a permanent state highway 
 commission. These systems of state roads, 
 supplementing county or town roads or 
 both, have fully justified their creation. 
 They should be extended rapi'dly to every 
 state in the Union. 
 
 A good deal has been said about national 
 aid to good roads. National roads have 
 been discussed since the foundation of the 
 federal government, and at the present time 
 federal aid is strongly urged by an enlight- 
 ened and influential section of our popula- 
 tion. The present writer entertains serious 
 doubts as to the wisdom of this policy, feel- 
 ing that the present tendency to invoke fed- 
 eral aid and control in every sort of enter- 
 prise is being enormously overdone, and 
 that there is likely soon to be a strong reac- 
 tion toward state sovereignty. 
 
 Under whatever system or systems the 
 
 S3 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 work may be done, its very great importance 
 is altogether obvious. Road improvement 
 is one of the most primary, most far-reach- 
 ing and most persistent forms of rural or 
 village betterment. In this connection it is 
 
 STONE MASONRY BRIDGE WITH GOOD PLANTINGS 
 
 interesting to note the findings of the Coun- 
 try Life Commission. After their extended 
 public hearings and letter inquiries, covering 
 with remarkable thoroughness all parts of 
 the United States, they had the following 
 
 54 
 
ROADS AND STREETS 
 
 report to make on the question of rural road 
 improvement: 
 
 "The demand for good highways is gen- 
 eral among the farmers of the entire United 
 States. Education and good roads are the 
 two needs most frequently mentioned in the 
 hearings. Highways that are usable at all 
 times of the year are now imperative, not 
 only for the marketing of produce, but for 
 the elevation of the social and intellectual 
 status of the open country and the improve- 
 ment of health by insuring better medical 
 and surgical attendance. 
 
 "The advantages are so well understood 
 that arguments for better roads are not 
 necessary here. Our respondents are now 
 concerned largely with the methods of or- 
 ganizing and financing the work. With 
 only unimportant exceptions, the farmers 
 who have expressed themselves to us on this 
 question consider that the Federal Govern- 
 ment is fairly under obligation to aid in the 
 work. 
 
 "We hold that the development of a fully 
 serviceable highway system is a matter of 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 national concern, co-ordinate with the de- 
 velopment of waterways and the conserva- 
 tion of our native resources. It is absolutely 
 essential to our internal development. The 
 first thing necessary is to provide expert 
 supervision and direction and to develop a 
 national plan. All the work should be co- 
 operative between the Federal Government 
 and the States. The question of federal 
 appropriation for highway work in the 
 States may well be held in abeyance until a 
 national service is provided and tested. We 
 suggest that the United States Government 
 establish a highway engineering service, or 
 equivalent organization, to be at the call of 
 the States in working out effective and eco- 
 nomical highway systems." 
 
Nicht jeder Baum eignet sich fur ]ede 
 Strasze. Nur gedankenlose Unwirtschaft- 
 lichkeit wird fur die Strasze beliebige 
 Baume anpflanzen. Der Boden, der Zweck 
 und schlieszlich auch der etwaige Nutzen 
 werden in erster Reihe zu beachten sein, 
 <wenn man den Baumschmuck auch kunstle- 
 risch einiverten will. Nicht die Gleichheit 
 der Baume oder ihre V erteilung an den 
 Wegen macht die kunstlerische Wirkung, 
 sondern die uberlegene Planung, die fur 
 leden Weg den entsprechenden Baum zu 
 finden weisz, der im Zusammenhang mil 
 dem ganzen Landschaftsbilde durchaus 
 harmonisch sein follte. 
 
 ROBERT MIELKE, 
 
 "Das Dorf." 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 ROADSIDE TREES 
 
 NOTHING goes farther to give a rural 
 village an air of peace, prosperity 
 and happiness than an abundance of well- 
 grown trees along its streets. This truth 
 needs no argument; it is universally ac- 
 cepted. Trees are introduced into city 
 streets as far as traffic will allow, and many 
 miles of country road have likewise been 
 planted. With respect to the country roads 
 it is easy to judge that tree planting has not 
 gone far enough. Stretches of tree-lined 
 country streets are still decidedly rare; and 
 unquestionably all rural dwellers and 
 country travelers would be glad to have 
 more planting done. It might not be desir- 
 able to have every mile of country road 
 bordered by trees, and in some places they 
 would be a distinct detriment; but for the 
 present everyone is safe in practicing and 
 
 58 
 
ROADSIDE TREES 
 
 urging on others the planting of good 
 adaptable trees on public and private streets 
 in all villages and rural districts. Such im- 
 provements will add to the beauty of any 
 farm. Road planting, if generally under- 
 taken in any neighborhood, would quickly 
 bring that community into high reputation 
 for progressive public spirit. A campaign 
 for the upbuilding of any neighborhood 
 can hardly miss this easy and attractive 
 feature of roadside planting. 
 
 On country roads a good many species of 
 
 CUT-LEAVED MAPLES ON A NARROW VILLAGE STREET 
 
 59 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 trees can be used which are unavailable in 
 city planting, as, for example, white pines 
 and evergreens generally. These make 
 possible magnificent effects otherwise un- 
 known. Fruit trees, too, are sometimes 
 planted along country lanes. In the apple 
 districts of Nova Scotia, for instance, there 
 are miles of streets glorious in May with 
 apple blossoms and at harvest time with the 
 ripening fruit. The practice of growing 
 fruit trees on public roads, the community 
 owning the trees, is often recommended in 
 America, the recommendations usually be- 
 ing fortified by citations from European 
 practice. After having traveled through all 
 the countries of central Europe, I am left 
 with the impression that this scheme of 
 fruit trees along public roads is much less 
 common and much less successful than en- 
 thusiastic newspaper writers have allowed 
 us to believe. 
 
 Tree planting nowadays is largely done 
 on arbor day. There is no objection, how- 
 ever, to planting trees on other days. The 
 old Scotchman's advice holds good univer- 
 
 60 
 
ROADSIDE TREES 
 
 sally, "Aye be plantin' a tree, Jock!" Ar- 
 bor day exercises ought to be encouraged, 
 though, and more systematically planned 
 for. Each school district or country neigh- 
 borhood should have some settled scheme 
 of tree planting. The usual custom of wait- 
 ing till arbor day morning, and then look- 
 ing about to find a corner where some tree 
 may be bestowed, is not sufficiently fore- 
 sighted to suit rational people. There 
 should be a neighborhood plan in which 
 it is specified, on the basis of proper study 
 and consultation, that this street is to be 
 treated in one way and that street in another. 
 Then when it is thus deliberately planned 
 to set a certain stretch of public road to 
 pines or oaks or cottonwoods the school can 
 turn out on arbor day, and with the help 
 of parents and friends, set a stretch of the 
 permanent rows. 
 
 In all the northern states spring planting 
 is the most common practice and is gener- 
 ally to be recommended. In the southern 
 states winter is usually the better season for 
 setting out trees. 
 
 61 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 Street trees usually receive very little 
 care. Often the small attentions they re- 
 ceive are worse than useless, coming from 
 the trolley men or telephone linesmen, who 
 
 NATURAL GROWTH OF TREES AND SHRUBS, GIVING BEAUTIFUL 
 ROADSIDE EFFECT 
 
 cut and hack them to pieces to make way for 
 ugly and unsafe wires. The practices of 
 many wire stringers is hardly less than crim- 
 inal, and it is a wonder that any civilized 
 
 62 
 
ROADSIDE TREES 
 
 community would allow the work to go on 
 unchallenged. In every neighborhood 
 there ought to be some officer or some mo- 
 bile and effective committee especially 
 authorized to take the part of the trees and 
 to prevent these shameless, senseless and 
 useless depredations. Where no other offi- 
 cer has the work particularly assigned to 
 him it is the duty of the road overseer or 
 street commissioner to look after the trees. 
 They stand in the public roads and are as 
 much public property as the bridges and 
 culverts. Strangely enough, road overseers 
 generally do not take this part of their work 
 seriously. Not only do they neglect to pro- 
 tect the street trees, but many of them are 
 themselves the perpetrators of the most 
 wretched indignities upon their wards. A 
 higher standard of morals and common 
 sense needs greatly to be inculcated in these 
 matters. 
 
 In some states, as in Massachusetts, the 
 law provides for the appointment of special 
 tree wardens. Such officers, if properly 
 chosen, can do a vast amount of good. In 
 
 63 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 any state where the tree warden system ex- 
 ists an annual conference or school of in- 
 struction for these men is of immeasurable 
 value. Each local man attending such a 
 conference has a chance to check up his own 
 work, to see what good ideas have been 
 
 THE WILD ROADSIDE IN SPRINGTIME 
 
 adopted by the best tree men in his state, to 
 receive expert instruction on insect and 
 fungus diseases and on spraying and to ac- 
 quire a new head of enthusiasm to carry 
 him through the drudgery of another year. 
 In well-managed parks and on private 
 
ROADSIDE TREES 
 
 estates nowadays considerable time and 
 money are spent in the care of trees. Each 
 good large tree is worth a large sum of 
 money, running into hundreds and even 
 thousands of dollars. It is fair to say that 
 each mature tree is worth an average annual 
 care of one to five dollars. A village which 
 has 1,000 good mature trees to care for 
 should spend at least $1,000 annually on 
 them; and in sections where elm-leaf 
 beetle, gipsy moth, the telephone linesman 
 or other serious pest has to be fought, this 
 cost should be trebled or quadrupled or 
 more. 
 
 Trees need fertilizing: some street trees 
 starve to death. In many sections street 
 trees need irrigation. Trees need pruning, 
 and this work should be done by intelligent 
 men not left to the tree butcher. Spray- 
 ing is absolutely necessary in many districts 
 and would be a paying investment in many 
 others. There are professional men in all 
 parts of the country now who undertake all 
 these kinds of work, but the tree warden or 
 some reliable local nurseryman is usually 
 
 65 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 the best one to be intrusted with it. The 
 professional "tree doctors" are mostly tree 
 quacks, and many of them are humbugs of 
 the first quality, though there are indeed a 
 few honest men in the fraternity and an- 
 other few who really have some expert 
 knowledge of trees. 
 
 THE BEST KINDS OF TREES 
 
 The best street tree known is probably 
 the American elm. It comes nearest the 
 American ideal. Its broad-spreading, 
 shady top, its arching branches, and its gen- 
 eral air of dignity commend it strongly to 
 the American taste. It is planted by prefer- 
 ence everywhere in the region where it suc- 
 ceeds. This region, however, is rather 
 closely limited to the New England states, 
 New York state, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsyl- 
 vania, and northern New Jersey. Westward 
 and southward it does not succeed so well, 
 and though frequently planted, it is gener- 
 ally less valuable than other species. At the 
 present time, the American elm is suffering 
 
 66 
 
ROADSIDE TREES 
 
 seriously from the elm-leaf beetle, and with 
 this attack suffers also a waning favoritism. 
 The elm-leaf beetle, combined with many 
 other troubles, has killed thousands of the 
 best elms in the eastern states during the past 
 few years. The beetle can be restrained by 
 proper spraying, but this is expensive and 
 requires considerable political organization 
 as well as horticultural apparatus. 
 
 The English elm is sometimes planted in 
 America, but does not do well as a street 
 tree. Under no circumstances is it to be 
 compared with the American elm. It suf- 
 fers equally from the attacks of the elm- 
 leaf beetle. The cork elm is planted in some 
 districts in the western and central states, 
 and is regarded as a very promising sort. 
 It is a native of Michigan and Ontario, and 
 is to be specially recommended in that sec- 
 tion. 
 
 Next to the elms, the sugar maple doubt- 
 less makes the most attractive street tree, es- 
 pecially for country roads. It does its best 
 on the rich rolling uplands of New Eng- 
 land, Quebec, Ontario, New York, Michi- 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 gan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and northern New 
 Jersey, thus covering much the same section 
 as the American elm. Outside of this region 
 it is practically worthless. In the central 
 prairie, and Rocky Mountain states, the 
 place of the sugar maple is usually taken by 
 the silver or soft maple. This is a much less 
 valuable tree, and never reaches the size or 
 dignity of the northeastern rock maple. It 
 has the advantages, however, of growing 
 rapidly, of withstanding drouth, and of be- 
 ing otherwise adapted to the exigencies of 
 street planting in the prairie states. Along 
 with the soft maple, one finds : also the ash- 
 leaved maple, or box elder, which is suited 
 to even drier, warmer districts. It is planted 
 on the extreme edge of the prairies, where 
 no other trees grow. It has the advantage of 
 growing quickly, but very little else to 
 recommend it. 
 
 The Norway maple is also largelv 
 planted as a street tree, and while it has ad- 
 vantages in certain localities, and perhaps is 
 better adapted than other maples for nar- 
 row city streets, it is not generally to be 
 
 68 
 
ROADSIDE TREES 
 
 recommended. It has been thus far more 
 widely planted than its merits deserve. The 
 sycamore maple stands somewhat in the 
 same class, being a good ornamental tree 
 and worth using in special circumstances, 
 but not to be compared with some of the 
 native sorts for general street planting. 
 
 Doubtless the next place in our list of 
 trees belongs to the sycamore or buttonwood. 
 The American species thrives over a wide 
 range, from the eastern seaboard to central 
 Kansas and Nebraska. It is a large tree 
 and requires plenty of room. For this rea- 
 son, it is better adapted to the broad streets 
 of country villages and to country roads 
 than to most other situations. The Euro- 
 pean plane tree, or sycamore, is somewhat 
 more formal in habit of growth, more sym- 
 metrical, and not quite so large. This makes 
 it better for formal streets. It is a species 
 which deserves more general planting in the 
 central and eastern states. 
 
 The American basswood or linden suc- 
 ceeds throughout the central and eastern 
 states, and is sometimes planted with fair 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 satisfaction, especially on country roads. 
 The European linden is very much better, 
 however, as a street tree if one succeeds in 
 getting a good variety. There are a num- 
 ber of different varieties sold by nursery- 
 men, but these are so badly mixed at the 
 present time that it would be difficult to sep- 
 arate them. Most of the varieties are fairly 
 good. The linden is particularly good for 
 village and city streets. 
 
 Another tree which is well adapted to 
 street use is the horse chestnut, the Euro- 
 pean species being generally best. This has 
 not been used as much as it deserves, and 
 should be more widely planted, especially 
 in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the central 
 and southern states. It has some defects, 
 but these have been too much magnified by 
 its critics. 
 
 The native American ashes, especially the 
 white ash, are good street trees. They are 
 healthy, vigorous, symmetrical trees and 
 subject to few enemies. They form com- 
 paratively low heads, and this makes them 
 inconvenient for planting along the line of 
 
 70 
 
ROADSIDE TREES 
 
 sidewalks. For farm roads and country 
 streets, on suitable soils, they will be found 
 wholly adapted. 
 
 The oaks have never had the favor which 
 their merits deserve. They make excellent 
 street trees. The common notion that they 
 grow so slowly as to make them undesirable 
 is not justified by the facts. The pin oak, 
 red oak, scarlet oak, and white oak, all make 
 good street trees and grow almost as rapidly 
 as the elms or maples, when properly estab- 
 lished on good soils. The pin oak is partic- 
 ularly graceful and attractive, and is now 
 coming into something like general favor. 
 Other species of oaks are desirable in par- 
 ticular localities. The live oak is every- 
 where planted and admired in California 
 and the Gulf states. In the central and 
 southern states, on heavy, moist land, the 
 willow oak is a particularly beautiful tree. 
 Its charm is widely recognized in its native 
 region, but the species has not been suffi- 
 ciently utilized for street planting, perhaps 
 largely because it does not succeed on high, 
 dry situations chosen for village streets. 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 In the prairie and Rocky Mountain states 
 the poplars are widely used and enjoy a 
 well-earned favor. Their rapid growth, 
 freedom from disease, their ability to with- 
 stand drouth and other untoward circum- 
 stances make them invaluable. In some 
 circles it is fashionable to sneer at the pop- 
 lars, but they deserve more kind treatment. 
 The American cottonwood and the Carolina 
 poplar are the most valuable kinds. The 
 Lombardy poplar, sometimes used in the 
 eastern states, is valuable for special effects. 
 It is not to be generally recommended for 
 street planting. 
 
 The black locust is sometimes planted in 
 the central and western states. Formerly, it 
 was widely used in the eastern states, par- 
 ticularly in the district of Long Island. In 
 general, it is not suited to American condi- 
 tions and should not be chosen \vhen other 
 trees can be grown. In Europe, where it is 
 frequently planted, it is grown in the form 
 of small pollards, and under this treatment 
 makes an excellent ornamental effect along 
 narrow city streets and about city squares. 
 
 72 
 
ROADSIDE TREES 
 
 There is very little demand for anything of 
 this kind in America, and especially in rural 
 districts. 
 
 The ailanthus is worth using in some 
 special instances in the central and southern 
 states. It is particularly good for city 
 streets, where the smoke and dust seriously 
 handicap other better species. 
 
 The hackberry somewhat resembles the 
 elm in general appearance and may be 
 profitably substituted for it in many places 
 in the central states. 
 
 The honey locust, umbrella tree, pepper 
 tree, various palms, and various eucalypti, 
 besides other odds and ends of trees, are used 
 for street planting, sometimes with excellent 
 effect. All these belong in particular local- 
 ities and are to be used in special instances. 
 
 TREES FOR VARIOUS LOCALITIES 
 
 The following paragraphs will give a 
 general idea of the best trees and those most 
 commonly grown in the various parts of the 
 country. It should be understood, however, 
 that local conditions vary enormously, and 
 
 73 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 that great care should be taken in all cases 
 to select such species as are adapted to par- 
 ticular soils and other special local condi- 
 
 WILD BLACKBERRIES AND MIXED SHRUBBERY ALONG THE 
 COUNTRY ROADSIDE 
 
 tions. When trees are planted, it is for a 
 long term of years, and mistakes are not 
 easily rectified. It is highly important that 
 trees well adapted to the site should be 
 
 74 
 
ROADSIDE TREES 
 
 chosen and a good start made, because the 
 uniformity of the street rows is a very im- 
 portant element in their beauty. 
 
 New England. The American elm un- 
 questionably stands at the head of New 
 England trees. The second best tree for 
 New England planting is the rock maple. 
 Probably the third best tree for New Eng- 
 land conditions in general, and especially 
 for planting on the large streets of villages 
 and country districts, is the sycamore. Many 
 of the oaks are also desirable and have not 
 been sufficiently used. White pines, which 
 cannot be used in cities, nor even in busy 
 villages, produce magnificent effects when 
 planted in avenues along country roads. An 
 avenue of white pines leading up from the 
 public street to a farmhouse, in the south- 
 ern manner, makes a magnificent effect, 
 though one rarely seen in New England. 
 Other coniferous trees which can be used 
 in New England rural districts are the na- 
 tive spruce and the Norway spruce. The 
 Canada balsam is sometimes planted in 
 New Hampshire and Maine. . 
 
 75 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 Central States. In this section the 
 American elm is still planted to some ex- 
 tent; the silver maple takes the place of the 
 sugar maple; the sycamore becomes rela- 
 tively more valuable and should be widely 
 planted; and the poplars begin to deserve 
 considerable notice. Catalpas are sometimes 
 used for street planting, but are not gener- 
 ally valuable. The hackberry, the honey 
 locust, and the ailanthus are worth using in 
 special instances. The several species of 
 native oaks should be more widely used. 
 
 Central-Southern States. In this district, 
 the cork elm takes the place of the Ameri- 
 can elm to a large extent. The Carolina 
 poplar is successful and valuable. The 
 American and European sycamores grow 
 especially well and should be largely used. 
 Some of the European lindens are excellent. 
 The native oaks, especially the pin oak, 
 should be largely used. 
 
 Gulf States. In this section, the syca- 
 more is still valuable, and the American elm 
 is grown to some extent; also the cork elm 
 and the hackberry. The sweet gum is a 
 
PLEASING GROUP OF ROADSIDE PINE TREES 
 
ROADSIDE TREES 
 
 beautiful and valuable tree, especially for 
 rural villages and country districts. The 
 live oak is everywhere highly regarded, and 
 the willow oak should be more widely 
 planted. The native magnolia is quite 
 widely used, especially in villages, but is 
 not often presented in the long, dignified 
 street rows, as it should be. The camphor 
 tree and the Texas umbrella tree are also 
 used to some extent. Palm trees are occa- 
 sionally attempted in street plantings, espe- 
 cially in Florida, but the examples of their 
 successful use are very rare. 
 
 Prairie and Rocky Mountain States. In 
 this naturally treeless region, species must 
 be chosen which will withstand drouth, 
 and the poplars are among the best of these. 
 The cork elm is coming into greater favor, 
 the American elm being attempted only on 
 the rich bottom lands, with relatively large 
 water supply. On land not too dry the pin 
 oak also does well. In the very driest 
 regions, dependence will be placed on honey 
 locust, hackberry, and box elder. It is diffi- 
 cult to secure fine street trees in this section 
 
 77 
 
except in those fortunate localities where 
 irrigation is practicable. Still, much can be 
 done to give the landscape a dress of green- 
 ery, to supply shade for streets and door 
 yards, and to give villages and farm yards 
 a tidy and homelike appearance. Efforts of 
 this kind count for more in such a district 
 than they do in sections where trees grow 
 themselves and have to be cut down to make 
 room for civilization. 
 
 Washington and Oregon. Professor C. 
 I. Lewis writes me that for this region the 
 growing of street trees is more or less in an 
 experimental stage. He says: "The tree 
 that is used more than any other is the 
 Oregon maple, but it is of doubtful value as 
 a street tree. It is more adapted to some of 
 the country roads, farm homes, etc. The 
 cork elm is proving to be one of the finest 
 trees that we have, it stands drought, and 
 also moisture, and is the best elm. The 
 black locust is especially good, is a better 
 tree than the honey locust, is long lived, 
 and has good characteristics for our street 
 trees. The Oriental plane is a fine tree, and 
 
 78 
 
ROADSIDE TREES 
 
 the European linden should be used more 
 than at present. The scarlet oak I have 
 noted also will do splendidly, since I have 
 seen quite a number of them in some of our 
 towns. Walnuts are planted to quite an ex- 
 tent, but I do not recommend them. The 
 California maple should be given more of 
 a trial than it has had. The horse chestnut 
 is being planted quite a little. When you 
 get up into eastern Oregon, and the table 
 lands of the Inland Empire, the box elder, 
 black locusts, and the poplars are the best. 
 The native poplars seem to be the hardiest 
 of all, and succeed where many other trees 
 will fail." 
 
 California. In an admirable article on 
 trees for California planting by Mr. J. 
 Burtt Davy in Bailey's "Cyclopedia of 
 American Horticulture" the following trees 
 are recommended for streets 60 feet wide 
 or less: White birch, yellow birch, paper 
 birch, poplar-leaved birch, three species of 
 catalpas ( C. bignonoides, C. ovata and C. 
 speciosa), Koelreuteria paniculata, Helia 
 Azedarach umbraculiformis, Paulownia 
 
 79 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 imperialist Rhus typhagia, Sorbus aucupa- 
 ria. Amongst palm tr^es for similar streets 
 the following species are recommended : 
 GOT dy line aus traits, C. Banksii, C. indivisa, 
 C. stricta, Erythea edulis, Livistona aus- 
 tralis, Trachy carpus excelsus, Washing- 
 tonia filifera, and W . robusta. Other ever- 
 green species, however, are often better than 
 palms, and of these Mr. Davy recommends 
 Acacia Baileyana, A. cyanophylla, A. fal- 
 cata, A. lineata, A. longifolia, A. neriifolia, 
 Myroporum laetum, Pittosporum eugeni- 
 oides, P. tenuifolium, Herculia diversifolia. 
 For larger streets of 80-100 feet width, the 
 following deciduous trees are named : Silver 
 maple, white ash, velvet ash (Fraxinus velu- 
 tina), coffee tree, pecan, American syca- 
 more, Quercus pedunculata, black locust, 
 Scotch elm. There are several large grow- 
 ing palms also which will serve for planting 
 wide streets. The most popular are Wash- 
 ingtonia filifera, W . robusta and Livistoma 
 australis. To these should be added the 
 larger species of acacia and eucalyptus 
 
 80 
 
ROADSIDE TREES 
 
 Mr. Davy also names a long list of trees 
 as suitable for California country roads, as 
 follows: 
 
 DECIDUOUS 
 
 Acer campestre, 
 
 Acer macrophyllum, 
 
 Acer Negundo, 
 
 Acer Negundo, var. Califor- 
 
 nicum, 
 
 Acer platanoides, 
 Acer saccharinum, 
 Aesculus carnea, 
 Aesculus Hippocastanum, 
 Ginkgo biloba, 
 Hicoria Pecan, 
 Juglans Californica, 
 Juglans nigra, 
 Juglans Sieboldiana, 
 
 Liriodendron Tulipifera, 
 Paulownia imperialis, 
 Phytolacca dioica, 
 Populus nigra, var. Italica, 
 Quercus lobata, 
 Quercus pedunculata, 
 Robinia pseudacacia, 
 Sophora Japonica, 
 Taxodium distichum, 
 Tilia Americana, 
 Tilia European, 
 Ulmus Americana, 
 Ulmus campestris, 
 Ulmus racemosa. 
 
 EVERGREEN 
 
 Acacia melanoxylon, 
 Acacia mollissima, 
 Arbutus Menziesii, 
 Cinnamomum Camphora, 
 Cryptomeria Japonica, 
 Eucalyptus botryoides, 
 Eucalyptus calophylla, 
 Eucalyptus capitellata, 
 Eucalyptus cornuta, 
 Eucalyptus diversicolor, 
 Eucalyptus leucoxylon, 
 Eucalyptus rostrata, 
 
 Eucalyptus rudis, 
 Eucalyptus viminalis, 
 Ficus macrophylla, 
 Olea Europaea, 
 Pinus radiata, 
 Quercus, 
 Schinus molle, 
 Sequoia gigantea, 
 Sequoia sempervirens, 
 Sterculia diversifolia, 
 Tristania conferta, 
 Umbellularia Californica. 
 
Fence out pigs, we may if we know 
 how, and nobody leaves the gate open but 
 to fence out a genial eye from any corner of 
 the earth which Nature has lovingly 
 touched with that pencil which never re- 
 peats itself to shut up a glen or a waterfall 
 for one man's exclusive knowing and enjoy- 
 ing to lock up trees and glades, shady 
 paths and haunts along rivulets it would 
 be an embezzlement by one man of God's 
 gift to all. A capitalist might as well cur- 
 tain off a star, or have the monopoly of an 
 hour. Doors may lock, but outdoors is a 
 freehold to feet and eyes. 
 
 N. P. WILLIS, 
 "Out-doors at Idlewild." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 CIVIC CENTERS 
 
 IN modern city building, we hear a great 
 deal about civic centers. The civic center 
 is a concrete expression, in city building, of 
 the modern genius for organization. It is 
 the public effort toward efficient adminis- 
 tration combined with a public exhibition 
 of power and splendor. It is the imperial- 
 ism of democracy. 
 
 In village and rural improvement, we 
 hear less of civic centers. In the first place, 
 rural improvement has not progressed so far 
 as the science of city making. In the second 
 place, there is not the same strong executive 
 organization in the rural community as in 
 the large city. In the third place, the village 
 is not so much given to display of power. 
 
 Nevertheless, the civic center belongs to 
 the rural community as well as to the city. 
 It occupies the same place in village affairs 
 that it should in city affairs. The village 
 
 83 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
CIVIC CENTERS 
 
 needs to take the same pride in itself which 
 is manifest in the city. There should be the 
 same exhibition of pride and patriotism. 
 Relatively speaking, there will be the same 
 gain in efficiency of administration. 
 
 Practically considered, the proposition 
 for the development of a civic center in the 
 village or country town means an aggrega- 
 tion in some central and suitable position of 
 the public business and of the public build- 
 ings. The most important of these, viewed 
 from our present standpoint, is the town 
 hall. With this we may include the court 
 house, town library or other local institu- 
 tions. If the town possesses a separate pub- 
 lic library, this can be the next most impor- 
 tant building and the one most urgently to 
 be desired at the civic center. The day will 
 soon come, with or without the help of Mr. 
 Carnegie, when every enterprising village 
 in this country will have its public library. 
 In many cases the library will have its sepa- 
 rate building. It is reasonably to be ex- 
 pected that in a large percentage of cases the 
 public library will be chaste and dignified 
 
 85 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 in design, a building expressing the senti- 
 ment and civic aspiration of the citizens. 
 Such a building should be geographically 
 central in the town, as it is central in the in- 
 tellectual life of the community. 
 
 The post office, though representing the 
 federal rather than the local government, is 
 
 ANOTHER VILLAGE CENTER IN MASSACHUSETTS 
 
 86 
 
CIVIC CENTERS 
 
 a public institution and peculiarly the prop- 
 erty of all the people. In very many country 
 towns it has developed naturally and 
 through the force of circumstances to be the 
 civic center. It is the forum where neigh- 
 bors meet, where senators are elected and 
 where horse trades are consummated. Here 
 the notices of auctions are posted and the 
 coming circus announced. Obviously the 
 postoffice should be centrally located, and 
 perhaps it is no more than right that the 
 other public buildings should revolve 
 around it. 
 
 The greatest of public institutions in the 
 small towa (and, in fact, in the city as well) 
 is the public school. Therefore the high 
 school building, or the main school build- 
 ing, should occupy a place in that group of 
 public structures which constitutes the civic 
 center. When the public school buildings 
 come to be used, as they certainly will be in 
 the near future, for a great variety of public 
 business, the propriety and the need of a 
 very central location will at once be evident. 
 
 The next most important institution in the 
 
 87 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 community is, or ought to be, the church. 
 There are many, indeed, who would be glad 
 to name it as the institution of first impor- 
 tance. Looking the facts honestly in the 
 face, however, we cannot claim too much 
 for its influence and its position in public 
 esteem. If the church could be a single in- 
 stitution, physically represented by a single 
 beautiful edifice, the situation would be 
 very different, both as regards spiritual in- 
 fluence and civic design. The church 
 would then hold a more powerful place in 
 the community, and it could command a 
 more dignified setting in the community 
 architecture. Unfortunately, even the most 
 rural towns sometimes try to support a half 
 dozen churches. A consequence is that no 
 one of these organizations has any large in- 
 fluence in public affairs or can provide a 
 church building which is a credit to the 
 town. A half dozen mean and shabby 
 structures would add nothing to the civic 
 center, either physically or spiritually. On 
 the other hand, when one or more churches 
 have really achieved a sufficiently high 
 
CIVIC CENTERS 
 
 COMMON AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS, NORTH BROOKFIELD, MASS. 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 standing in town so as to represent the senti- 
 ment of the people in an important degree 
 and so as to be able to build really suitable 
 buildings, then those church buildings be- 
 long to the public and will be placed, with 
 the other public buildings, at the center of 
 the town. 
 
 Nothing could be finer, from the stand- 
 point of civic design, nor as representing the 
 civic life of a community, than the large, 
 beautiful, dignified (usually Congrega- 
 tional or Unitarian) church, fronting on the 
 town commons in many New England vil- 
 lages. These come the nearest to represent- 
 ing the ideals, both of civic design and 
 church influence, of anything we have ever 
 seen in America. Of course in many Euro- 
 pean villages, where the citizens are all ad- 
 herents of a single confessional, the case is 
 equally good. Here the church naturally 
 and properly becomes the physical, intellec- 
 tual and spiritual center of the village. As 
 one sees such a town from a distance, it is 
 beautifully dominated by its own church. It 
 is greatly to be hoped that the follies and 
 
 90 
 
>> 
 
 O O 
 
 / 
 
 DESIGN FOR A SIMPLE CIVIC CENTER 
 
 (enter* 
 by; /JcMs 
 /<?/!. 
 
 91 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 abuses of sectarianism and church division 
 in this country will be greatly abated in the 
 future. Some slight progress seems to be 
 making in that direction, but it is altogether 
 too slow. 
 
 In certain towns and villages there are 
 other public or semi-public institutions 
 which ought to be reckoned as part of the 
 central group, which we here call the civic 
 center. One of the most appropriate of 
 these is the grange hall, which one finds in 
 many towns in the New England states. 
 This, in fact, often becomes the center of the 
 center, the principal place of communal in- 
 terest. 
 
 The following buildings and institutions 
 should therefore be considered as belonging 
 essentially to the civic center: i, the town 
 hall or court house; 2, the public library; 
 
 3, the high school or main school building; 
 
 4, the church or principal churches ; 5, other 
 public institutions and buildings, as the 
 grange hall. 
 
 The arrangement which is given these 
 buildings is of the greatest importance. 
 
 92 
 
PAVD 
 PLAZA 
 
 ' 
 
 CIVIC CENTER, BELLEFONTE, PA. 
 
 93 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 They should, first of all, be central, a fact 
 that should be sufficiently obvious. They 
 should be placed in a single group, reason- 
 ably near together, and not separated by 
 private buildings, especially those of no con- 
 sequence. Placing the buildings close to- 
 gether in this manner facilitates the transac- 
 tion of public business; and what is much 
 more important, it gives the public works of 
 the town a much more effective setting. 
 The buildings are massed in such a way as 
 to make a proper show of the life and re- 
 sources of the town. They contribute more 
 effectively to civic pride and serve as 
 reasonable advertisements of the thrift and 
 resources of the community. Just as a good 
 farmer takes pride in a big and imposing- 
 looking house, so the whole town takes pride 
 in the imposing array of beautiful, appro- 
 priate and useful public buildings. 
 
 Undoubtedly the best arrangement for 
 such a series of buildings is to be found in 
 placing them about the central public 
 square. In many New England villages 
 these buildings naturally gravitate to the 
 
 94 
 
CIVIC CENTERS 
 
 DESIGN FOR A SIMPLE CIVIC CENTER 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 town common. As a matter of tact, the 
 common ought to represent a larger area, 
 while the public square, as a civic center, 
 should have an entirely different character. 
 The meaning and design of the town com- 
 mon are more fully discussed elsewhere. In 
 many of the New England towns referred 
 to, however, the so-called town common is 
 a small village square which comprises the 
 civic center, which we now have under con- 
 sideration. While this arrangement is less 
 frequent in western towns than in New Eng- 
 land, it is by no means unknown. I recall 
 the fact that Lyons, Kansas, for example, 
 has designed a central block, in which the 
 court house is located. The original design 
 for McPherson, Kansas, provided for two 
 blocks on the west side of the town for pub- 
 lic buildings belonging to the county, and 
 two blocks on the eastern side of the town 
 for public buildings belonging to the city. 
 While the arrangement might have been 
 improved by grouping the county and city 
 buildings together, this, nevertheless, is a 
 recognition of the correct principle. 
 
97 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 In many small towns the civic center has 
 been practically made by placing the prin- 
 cipal buildings at, or near, the central cross- 
 roads or four corners. If the center of the 
 village is represented by such a crossroads, 
 it is perfectly natural, and therefore to a cer- 
 tain extent good design, to place public 
 buildings there. A town hall may stand on 
 one corner, and if the grocery store occupies 
 the second corner, as it usually does, no 
 great violence is done to the body or the 
 spirit of the civic center. If a clean and dig 
 nified public hostelry should appropriate 
 the fourth corner, the result would be 
 almost all that could be desired, so far as 
 the collection of buildings is concerned. 
 
 The main defect in this arrangement of 
 public buildings on the central four corners 
 is that the buildings themselves do not show 
 to the best advantage. Any church, town 
 hall or school building can be seen more 
 effectively if placed so as to face upon an 
 open common, or if placed at the head of 
 an open street. The latter arrangement, of 
 
A RyilAL COlUIVmTY CEHT11E 
 
 A SUGGESTION FROM CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
 99 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 course, supplies no opportunity for the 
 grouping of several public buildings. 
 
 Finally, the public buildings may be 
 placed along both sides of a straight or curv- 
 ing street. This is the least satisfactory ar- 
 rangement of all, though, of course, it is 
 better than having the buildings scattered 
 all over the town. At any rate, it brings 
 them into close proximity and secures the 
 advantage of administrative efficiency. It 
 makes public business easier, though it does 
 not give the buildings the beauty of effect 
 which is so much to be desired. 
 
 In the most rural of rural communities 
 there are still civic centers, and these might 
 greatly develop. I well remember my early 
 days on the sparsely inhabited plains of 
 Kansas, and I can vividly recall the various 
 social activities which centered at the dis- 
 trict schoolhouse. There used to be church 
 and Sunday-school sessions at the school- 
 house on Sundays. The evenings were oc- 
 cupied with literary societies, debating 
 clubs and revival meetings. If there were 
 any political meetings they were also held 
 
 100 
 
TOWN HALL FROM THE COMMON, AMHERST, MASS. 
 
CIVIC CENTERS 
 
 at the schoolhouse. The boys used to meet 
 there sometimes on Saturday afternoons for 
 a match game of ball (and, I may also 
 say, sometimes on Sunday afternoons). In 
 fact, every kind of public meeting was held 
 at the schoolhouse. This seems to me to 
 represent an almost perfect social organiza- 
 tion and, so far as it went, a perfect social 
 equipment. 
 
 At the present time the more advanced 
 country districts are providing a more elab- 
 orate equipment for the more advanced and 
 enriched society life. Neighborhood cen- 
 ters are being established in some places. 
 These, of course, are merely civic centers 
 under another name. They usually combine 
 the high school house with a library and 
 playground or some similar equipment. 
 This idea is capable of very large extension 
 in all progressive communities in the near 
 future. 
 
 101 
 
Most of the wild plant wealth of the East 
 also has vanished gone into dusty history. 
 Only vestiges of its glorious prairie and 
 woodland wealth remain to bless humanity 
 in boggy, rocky, unplowable places. For- 
 tunately, some of these are purely wild, and 
 go far to keep Nature's love visible. White 
 water lilies, with rootstocks deep and safe 
 in mud, still send up every summer a Milk\ 
 Way of starry, fragrant flowers around a 
 thousand lakes, and many a tuft of wild 
 grass waves its panicles on mossy rocks, be- 
 yond reach of trampling feet, in company 
 with saxifrages, bluebells, and ferns. Even 
 in the midst of farmers' fields, precious 
 sphagnum bogs, too soft for the feet of cat- 
 tle, are preserved with their charming 
 plants unchanged Chiogenes, Andromeda } 
 Kalmia, Linncea, Arethusa, etc. Calypso 
 borealis still hides in the arbor vitce swamps 
 of Canada, and away to the southward there 
 are a few unspoiled swamps, big ones, where 
 miasma, snakes, and alligators, like guar- 
 dian angels, defend their treasures and keep 
 them as pure as paradise. And beside a' that 
 and a that, the East is blessed with good 
 winters and blossoming clouds that shed 
 white flowers over all the land, covering 
 every scar and making the saddest landscape 
 divine at least once a year. 
 
 JOHN T MUIR, 
 "Our National Parks." 
 IO2 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 PUBLIC GROUNDS 
 
 THE development of public parks, play- 
 grounds and boulevards and their or- 
 ganization into efficient park systems has 
 come to be recognized as an important part 
 of city improvement. The improvement 
 of a rural community requires similar lines 
 of development. This has generally not 
 been recognized. It has been a common 
 assumption that the country needs no parks, 
 and that its boulevard system is sufficiently 
 represented by a neglected network of coun- 
 try roads. 
 
 The following types of public grounds or 
 reservations are to be considered in a general 
 scheme of rural betterment: (a) National 
 parks, (b) state parks, (c) local scenery 
 reservations and roads, (d) school grounds, 
 (e) cemeteries and church grounds, (f) 
 town commons, (g) playgrounds. Let us 
 
 103 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 look at each of these questions to see what is 
 the nature of the problem. 
 
 The national parks are destined to play 
 a very important role in the future develop- 
 ment of America. If we look at civic art 
 from the national standpoint, they are of 
 prime importance. These national parks 
 should be established in various parts of the 
 country, their location being determined 
 primarily by the desire to preserve spots of 
 national historic importance, or with the 
 intention of preserving typical examples of 
 natural scenery or special more or less spec- 
 tacular features of national importance. 
 The Yellowstone Park in Wyoming is a fine 
 exemplification of this idea. Niagara Falls 
 and its environs ought to become a 
 great national (really international) park > 
 and this again illustrates the idea distinctly. 
 The battleground reservations at Gettys- 
 burg and Lookout Mountain give examples 
 of areas reserved on account of their his- 
 toric interest. Should we secure an ade- 
 quate park reservation in the White Moun- 
 tains or in the Adirondacks under federal 
 
 104 
 
A PLEASANT PUBLIC PLAYGROUND ON A LAKE SHORE 
 
PUBLIC GROUNDS 
 
 control, this would be an example of a park 
 in which would be preserved fine types of 
 natural scenery. However, we ought to 
 present in the same way the equally beauti- 
 ful scenery of the sea coast dunes, of the 
 great interior prairies and of the arid des- 
 erts. All these scenery types are beautiful, 
 valuable and highly important. They can- 
 not be permanently kept for succeeding gen- 
 erations in America unless they are appro- 
 priated by the national government and ad- 
 ministered in behalf of the whole people. 
 The time should never come when the peo- 
 ple of the United States cannot have access 
 to the great and beautiful landscapes which 
 make America what it is today. 
 
 Other and similar reservations, however, 
 are needed under state control. There are 
 many spots of natural beauty, many types of 
 fine native scenery, many places of historic 
 interest in every state, which are especially 
 valuable to the state itself. Though these 
 should all be preserved, they may not be of 
 such national importance as to justify the 
 federal government in patronizing them. 
 
 105 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 Several of the states are now definitely en- 
 tered upon this program of developing state 
 parks. The work has usually been begun on 
 quite the proper theory, as we have stated it 
 here. 
 
 RIVER BANK RESERVED FOR PUBLIC RECREATION 
 
 Besides this, however, even the local com- 
 munity has similar opportunities. The 
 smallest and poorest town has also its spots 
 of historic interest, its types of beautiful 
 scenery, its picnic grounds, its lakes and 
 
 106 
 
PUBLIC GROUNDS 
 
 hills, which should not be allowed to pass 
 into private control. Rather should they be 
 acquired by the public and kept open to all 
 the citizens of the town. This is a matter 
 of great consequence which is being widely 
 neglected. There is hardly a town in the 
 country, in fact, where the people have 
 taken reasonable precautions to own their 
 own lakes or even to have access to them. I 
 recently visited a country town where they 
 boasted of a beautiful lake covering 100 
 acres. They were very proud of it. They 
 used it for boating parties, for fishing, for 
 skating and the boys went swimming there. 
 On investigation, it proved that the town did 
 not own a single foot of the shore, and that 
 aside from a few private owners, nobody 
 could reach the lake legally except to fall 
 into it out of a balloon. All the boys who 
 went swimming or fishing, all the boating 
 parties, and all the skating parties, used the 
 lake only by trespassing on private land. 
 These private owners were constantly mak- 
 ing new restrictions, so that, without some 
 action, in the near future the lake would 
 
 107 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 become practically useless to the com- 
 munity. At the present time it would be 
 easy for this town to acquire the title to a 
 considerable portion of the lake shore at a 
 very moderate expense, and such a course 
 is altogether wise. Indeed no other course 
 is excusable. 
 
 This actual example is only one of thou- 
 sands which might be given showing what 
 the important and very urgent need is 
 in most country places. During the last few 
 years I have visited more than a hundred 
 rural communities, and have examined the 
 situation in detail with reference to the 
 general questions of civic betterment, and I 
 have found this particular problem with 
 this particular opportunity most frequently 
 present, and most conspicuously neglected. 
 
 The items most communities need to look 
 after in this way are: (a) Ponds and lakes, 
 which ought either to be owned in toto, or 
 should be accessible through the ownership 
 of shore properties; (b) river shores, (c) 
 mountain tops or hills commanding espe- 
 cially good scenery, (d) small streams, 
 
 1 08 
 
WOODLAND USED FOR PUBLIC RECREATION A MUNICIPAL 
 FOREST IN GERMANY 
 
PUBLIC GROUNDS 
 
 brooks and water falls, (e) rocky glens, 
 caves, etc. 
 
 Very often special pieces of scenery can 
 best be opened up and made available by 
 establishing scenic drives or roadways. This 
 will be particularly the case along river 
 banks and lake shores. It is by no means 
 necessary that such a scenic roadway should 
 lead to any particular point. In fact, it is 
 better not to have it so. If the roadway is 
 a convenient highway for traffic it will soon 
 be taken up with heavy hauling, or infested 
 with automobiles. If it is inconvenient for 
 such traffic it will be left as it should be to 
 the pleasure seekers. It will be a comforta- 
 ble drive for Sunday afternoon. It will be a 
 resource of pleasure and beauty in the town, 
 and this is precisely what progressive towns 
 ought to provide for. 
 
 All the school grounds in the country 
 need attention. There has never been re- 
 ported a case of one which was too highly 
 improved. Everywhere school grounds 
 need to be cleaned up and made more 
 orderly. This is the most fundamental and 
 
 109 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 the most far-reaching and the most impor- 
 tant improvement which can be suggested in 
 this field. As a rule school grounds ought 
 to be larger everywhere, and this statement 
 applies most emphatically to country school 
 grounds. It is a matter of sorrow that in 
 the country, where land is cheap > school 
 grounds should be pinched in size and the 
 pupils crowded into the public streets. 
 
 Many progressive communities through- 
 out the country have taken steps to correct 
 this evil. Country schools are being pro- 
 vided with commodious grounds. On these 
 grounds are being developed some of the 
 enterprises which should center around a 
 school. There are school gardens, some- 
 times fruit trees, sometimes experimental 
 grounds, sometimes adequate playgrounds. 
 Occasionally at such points there are de- 
 veloped rural civic centers. A rural civic 
 center should include a public meeting hall, 
 which may or may not be separate from the 
 school building; it should include a local 
 library, if the community is the fortunate 
 possessor of such an institution; it may very 
 
 no 
 
PUBLIC GROUNDS 
 
 properly include a grange hall; and the 
 rural church should meet on this ground 
 with the other institutions of the rural com- 
 munity. In this physical co-operation they 
 can begin a larger organization of harmoni- 
 ous association which will help them 
 develop the community as it ought to be 
 developed. 
 
 Much has been said about the ornamenta- 
 tion of school grounds, about how to lay off 
 walks, where to plant shrubbery, how to 
 grow flower beds, and other things of like 
 character. All this is good work and well 
 worth doing, but it will follow as a matter 
 of course when the whole scheme is rightly 
 organized. It represents a detail and not 
 the main principle. As a rule, rural im- 
 provement begins at the wrong end, when 
 the first undertaking is to plant a flower bed 
 on the school grounds. 
 
 Cemeteries everywhere are notoriously 
 neglected. This is especially so in rural 
 districts. It is by no means uncommon in 
 older sections of the country to come upon 
 a forgotten cemetery, overgrown with 
 
 in 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 bushes and trees. Even in the new prairie 
 states there are thousands of cemeteries 
 given up to sunflowers and ragweeds. A 
 progressive and self-respecting community 
 would hardly allow such conditions to exist; 
 and when the local improvement society 
 lays out its program of work, cemetery im- 
 provement will be naturally one of the earli- 
 est undertakings. The thing to be done is 
 sufficiently plain and simple. The grounds 
 are to be cleaned up and put in good order. 
 Weeds and brush are to be removed, and in 
 their places grass and trees are to be en- 
 couraged. Head stones are to be straight- 
 ened up, walks to be marked out and a gen- 
 eral condition of order and cleanliness sub- 
 stituted for the present state of disorder and 
 slovenliness. 
 
 In olden times cemeteries existed as a part 
 of the church grounds, and such an arrange- 
 ment is still to be found in some places. In 
 other places church grounds exist sepa- 
 rately. Plainly that tract of land belonging 
 to the church should be kept in repair. Two 
 old sayings may be borne in mind: "Order 
 
 112 
 
PUBLIC GROUNDS 
 
 is heaven's first law" and "Cleanliness is 
 next to godliness." Let order and cleanli- 
 ness prevail and the church has, in its physi- 
 cal aspect, opened the way to its higher 
 work. 
 
 The finest feature in many a New Eng- 
 land town is the town common. It is strange 
 that so fine an element in town planning 
 should not have been kept up more carefully 
 in the more ambitious, though less attractive 
 towns, founded farther west by the emi- 
 grants from New England. Every town 
 which possesses a central common has an 
 asset of priceless value. It is one which 
 should be guarded at every point and at all 
 costs. Nothing should be allowed to en- 
 croach upon it under any circumstances. 
 Public-spirited citizens should strenuously 
 resist every effort to place public buildings 
 upon it, and even the habit of placing a 
 memorial monument, band stands, fountains 
 and other alleged ornaments on the town 
 common should be strictly discountenanced. 
 Such property should be kept strictly open 
 except for its shade trees. Even flower 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 beds are a doubtful improvement in most 
 instances. 
 
 Those towns which do not have central 
 parks or commons should let pass no oppor- 
 
 AN OLD SUGAR BUSH ADMIRABLY SUITED TO BE A RURAL 
 PICNIC GROUND 
 
 tunity for creating them. Sometimes a wise 
 plan, undertaken with sufficient forethought 
 and followed out with sufficient patience, 
 will secure a piece of property which will 
 serve this purpose. 
 
 114 
 
PUBLIC GROUNDS 
 
 Whether the local community has or is 
 able to secure a central common, or not, it 
 will be found good sound public policy to 
 hold the ownership of other outlying tracts, 
 especially picnic grounds, or pieces of 
 property which the community is likely to 
 need for the common use of its citizens. 
 This is hardly the place to introduce the dis- 
 cussion of public ownership of profit-earn- 
 ing properties; but it may be pointed out 
 that many communities in various parts of 
 the world have had very happy experiences 
 in the ownership and operation of such 
 lands. A considerable number of Swiss and 
 German towns own public forests, and 
 while these add enormously to the beauty 
 and attractiveness of these several localities, 
 they return at the same time substantial rev- 
 enues. There are a number of towns and 
 cities in Germany and Switzerland where 
 the entire expenses of government are borne 
 by these public forests. 
 
 One of the most common deficiencies in 
 the country communities is the lack of play- 
 grounds. There is no place in America 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 where boys do not play ball, and yet there is 
 hardly one town in a thousand where any 
 public provision is made for this and similar 
 games. The consequence is that the boys 
 play in the streets or upon private property. 
 Playing in the streets is dangerous to the 
 players and to the public, and playing upon 
 private property is trespass. Boys who play 
 ball in the street or who trespass upon 
 private property for this purpose have taken 
 the first long step toward robbing the neigh- 
 boring orchards. From robbing orchards 
 they easily pass to more ambitious depreda- 
 tions and so on to downright felony or plain 
 political graft. There is, in fact, no reason- 
 able excuse of any sort which can be given 
 by any village or rural community for not 
 owning a public ball ground. Provision 
 should be made for other sports besides 
 baseball. One reason why country life in 
 the past has been less attractive than city 
 life is just this, that no attention has been 
 paid to such legitimate sports. If some 
 pains could be taken to promote baseball, 
 football, hockey, basket ball and all similar 
 
 116 
 
PUBLIC GROUNDS 
 
 recreations in country neighborhoods, it 
 would go a long way toward solving more 
 important economic and social problems. 
 
 "7 
 
The seuerall situations of mens dwellings, 
 are for the most part vnauoideable and vnre- 
 moueable; for most men cannot appoint 
 forth such a manner of situation for their 
 dwelling, as Is most fit to auoide all the In- 
 conuenlences of wlnde and weather, but 
 must bee content with such as the place will 
 afford them; yet all men doe well know, that 
 some situations are more excellent than oth- 
 ers: according therfore to the seuerall situa- 
 tion of mens dwellings, so are the situations 
 of their gardens also for the most part. And 
 although diners doe diuersly preferre their 
 owne seuerall places which they hane 
 chosen, or wherein they dwell; As some 
 those places that are neare vnto a rluer or 
 brooke to be best for the pleasantnesse of the 
 water, the ease of transportation of them- 
 selues, their friends and goods, as also for 
 the fertility of the soyle, which is s el dome 
 bad neare vnto a riuers side; And others ex- 
 toll the side or top of an hill, bee It small or 
 great, for the prospects sake; and aqaine, 
 some the plalne or champlan ground, for 
 the euen leuell thereof : euery one of which, 
 as they haue their commodities accompany- 
 
 118 
 
ing them, so haue they also their discom- 
 modities belonging vnto them, according to 
 the Latine Prouerbe, Omne commodum fert 
 suum tncommodum. 
 
 JOHN PARKISON, 
 "Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris." 
 
 Old New England villages and small 
 towns and well-kept 'New England farms 
 had universally a simple and pleasing form 
 of garden called the front yard or front 
 dooryard. . . . This front yard was an 
 English fashion derived from the forecourt 
 so strongly advised by Gervayse Markham, 
 and found in front of many a yeoman's 
 house. . . . The front yard was sacred 
 to the best beloved garden flowers and was 
 preserved by fences from the inroads of 
 cattle. 
 
 MRS. ALICE MORSE EARLE, 
 
 "Old Time Gardens." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 THE VILLAGE HOME GARDEN 
 
 THE treatment of the home grounds has 
 ever been the most popular problem in 
 American landscape gardening. How to 
 lay off the home grounds has been the theme 
 and sometimes the title of a clear majority 
 of all American books on landscape archi- 
 tecture. Advice is asked more frequently 
 on these matters than on the big problems 
 of city design, park administration, state 
 reservations and other great works which 
 landscape architects themselves prefer to 
 undertake. 
 
 The importance of these problems of 
 home grounds improvement cannot be over- 
 looked. This is one of the largest factors 
 in general civic betterment. When the 
 proud citizen is visited by his cousin or his 
 long-lost sister from Arkansas or Montana, 
 his greatest delight is to show off his home 
 
 1 20 
 
THE VILLAGE HOME GARDEN 
 
 town. This he does driving up and down 
 the best streets and pointing out the most 
 attractive places. "There is where Colonel 
 Jones lives," says the proud citizen. "There 
 is where Mr. Brown, our member of the 
 
 HOME AND GARDEN FROM THE STREET AN INVITING GLIMPSE 
 
 legislature, lives." "There is where Mary 
 Muggins lives, who wrote the famous 
 novel." Thus does every citizen praise his 
 own town by pointing out the most attrac- 
 tive homes, and thus does every private 
 place become public property. We all own 
 
 121 
 
an important share in it. Its good looks are 
 the pride of the town. Its shabbiness and 
 neglect are a public shame. A vigorous 
 campaign should be undertaken to clean and 
 beautify all private grounds for the public 
 benefit. 
 
 The American taste for developing 
 private grounds is unique. Nowhere else 
 in the world are the same principles fol- 
 lowed. In the old country the theory is that 
 a man's home grounds are his private pos- 
 session, to be kept as secluded as possible. 
 In this country the theory is that every house 
 lot is a public possession, to be shown off to 
 the best advantage. Americans always 
 speak of the development of the front yard, 
 sometimes allowing the back yard to be 
 nothing but a rubbish dump. Doubtless 
 there is some good in both theories. We 
 have already spoken of the public owner- 
 ship and enjoyment of private grounds; and 
 the wish of every American citizen to make 
 his premises look pleasing from the street 
 is sound and wholesome. At the same time 
 a man's private garden should be his per- 
 
 122 
 
THE VILLAGE HOME GARDEN 
 
 sonal possession to some extent. This senti- 
 ment, moreover, is gaining ground in this 
 country. There are more people who want 
 to live out-of-doors, who want an opportu- 
 
 VILLAGE HOUSE AND FRONT YARD 
 
 nity to play with their own children or eat 
 supper with the family in the garden, out- 
 of-doors and yet with privacy. 
 
 Now, the way in which this division is 
 made largely determines the treatment of 
 
 123 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 the whole garden. The American plan re- 
 quires the development of a large front 
 yard. The English and German plan 
 requires an inclosed rear yard which is de- 
 veloped to be a real garden. The American 
 plan requires the house set fairly well back 
 from the street; the European plan requires 
 the house set close to the street. On grounds 
 of moderate size, or larger, it is possible to 
 accomplish both things. There may be an 
 attractive front yard, published to the atten- 
 tion of the world, and then a private garden 
 separated from this by a hedge or screen, 
 forming a sequestered range for the family. 
 Aside from this question of privacy versus 
 publicity, the design of the grounds should 
 be determined first in relation to the main 
 factors. If there is to be a vegetable garden, 
 it should be given its separate and suitable 
 area. If there is to be a dwarf fruit garden, 
 the proper space should be appropriated. If 
 there are to be fruit trees they should be 
 given room. If there are to be a chicken 
 yard and paddock for the horse or a garage, 
 the necessary space should be definitely set 
 
 124 
 
THE VILLAGE HOME GARDEN 
 
 aside. If members of the family are fond 
 of growing flowers, it will be much better 
 to provide a definite cultivated area for 
 them, presumably at the rear of the grounds, 
 rather than to mix the flower-growing ex- 
 periments with the orchard growing or the 
 front yard. If there are croquet grounds, 
 tennis courts or similar equipments for 
 family recreation, they should be properly 
 located before the remaining details of the 
 design are planned. It is a very sad and a 
 very common mistake to leave such ques- 
 tions as these until the grounds have been 
 planted. After everything is done then 
 someone suddenly brings in the demand for 
 a tennis court, which has to be laid off in an 
 unsuitable space, seriously infringing on 
 lawns and flower beds already established. 
 After the main feature of the grounds 
 like those enumerated have been definitely 
 settled, the ornamental design proper may 
 be taken up with reasonable hope of a fair 
 issue. This problem, however, is not one of 
 ornamentation. It is, instead, primarily a 
 question of order versus disorder. The most 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 orderly place is the one that is best designed. 
 This is why the simple and intelligible 
 order of the formal garden is so likely to 
 please. 
 
 Now, the first principle, and the most im- 
 portant one, in garden design is simplicity. 
 
 MASSES OF LILACS AND WILLOWS ADORNING AN OLD HOUSE 
 
 Simplicity is the queen of garden virtues. 
 The prominence of this virtue is peculiarly 
 visible in dealing with home grounds. Un- 
 fortunately, simplicity is one of the rarest 
 accomplishments everywhere, and more 
 
 126 
 
THE VILLAGE HOME GARDEN 
 
 rare in gardening than in ordinary life gen- 
 erally. 
 
 There are a few recurring features in 
 home grounds design which must every- 
 where be guarded against. The first of these 
 is making collections of plants. All sorts 
 of strange things are bought from the florist, 
 from the tree agent, from the catalog and 
 even from the department stores, and are 
 jumbled together all over the front yard. 
 Many of these things are unsuitable to the 
 place. They are usually inharmonious, they 
 disagree with one another and with the 
 house, and the grounds are merely cluttered 
 up with horticultural rubbish. The results 
 are exactly the same as occur in house fur- 
 nishing when the mistress gets the fad for 
 collecting furniture and bric-a-brac. 
 
 The results are especially bad when the 
 horticultural collector has a taste for freaks. 
 Then he buys Camperdown elms, cemetery 
 birches, variegated weigelias, yellow-leaved 
 poplars, red-leaved Prunus Pissardi. Crip- 
 pled and weeping specimens are particu- 
 larly recherche and particularly vulgar. 
 
 127 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 Along with these horticultural freaks one 
 commonly finds such curiosities as leaky 
 boats sailing across the lawn, full-freighted 
 with brilliant nasturtiums, disused camp 
 kettles on rustic tripods and boiling over 
 with red geraniums, leaky boilers elevated 
 
 COMBINATION OF STREET PLANTING AND HOME ADORNMENT 
 
 on gas pipes doing service as garden boxes, 
 whitewashed rockeries and beautiful flower 
 beds edged with inverted soda-pop bottles. 
 It ought not to be necessary to condemn such 
 things, but the frequency with which they 
 occur shows that the improvement cam- 
 paign has something to meet in this respect. 
 
 128 
 
THE VILLAGE HOME GARDEN 
 
 A fair question to be raised in garden 
 design for home grounds is whether a for- 
 mal or a natural style should be preferred. 
 Each style has its devotees and its advan- 
 tages. It is foolish to condemn either style. 
 As a rule, however, the former style should 
 not be presented in the front yard. It should 
 be used in an inclosed garden, which means 
 the private garden of the rear premises. In 
 small inclosed yards the formal method of 
 treatment is the easiest and apt to be the most 
 effective from the standpoint of design. 
 
 When the grounds, or any part of them, 
 are to be developed in the natural style the 
 main requirement is to have plain and open 
 lawn. Special effort should be made to 
 secure spacious areas of good grass growing 
 on nicely graded land. The land should 
 either be practically level or should show 
 the most pleasing curves possible. Very 
 few people appreciate how much beauty 
 can be secured in the contours of the land 
 itself. 
 
 In order to secure such spacious and open 
 lawns, the plantings should be pushed back 
 
 129 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 to the margins. It is an almost fixed rule 
 that planting in the natural style the trees, 
 shrubs and flowers should be placed in 
 masses along the outer margins. These mar- 
 gins should be irregular, retreating here, ad- 
 vancing there, giving heavy masses alternat- 
 ing with light feathery screens, letting in 
 the sunlight in one part, throwing heavy 
 shadows in another. Great skill can be used 
 in developing such setting to the very high- 
 est effectiveness; yet an amateur will hardly 
 make serious mistakes if some thought and 
 patience are given to the work. 
 
 Having disposed of the general design, 
 we may now consider the planting. The 
 first caution is not to overplant. Still, many 
 persons make the mistake of planting too 
 meagerly. The rule of professional land- 
 scape gardeners is a good one. It is "Plant 
 thick, thin quick." This is poor grammar 
 but good horticulture. If the young shrubs 
 and trees are set close together they help one 
 another. The moment they begin to grow, 
 however, the poorest ones must be thinned 
 out to make room for those which are to re- 
 
 130 
 
SPRING TIME IN THE PRIVACY OF THE HOME GARDEN 
 
THE VILLAGE HOME GARDEN 
 
 main permanently. This method of devel- 
 oping grounds has an additional advantage 
 in that it gives complete effects from the first 
 year of planting. 
 
 The next point to be observed is to use 
 hardy stuff. Plants which will not with- 
 stand the climate in which they are placed 
 may be very rare and curious, but it is bad 
 policy to use them. The superior value of 
 thoroughly hardy plants is fully recognized 
 in America at the present time. 
 
 This desire for hardy materials has led to 
 the addition of another rule; namely, that 
 we should always use native stuff. Where 
 specifically naturalistic effects are aimed at, 
 especially where the backgrounds of the 
 landscape are brought into the design, the 
 use of strictly natural stuff is wholly to be 
 justified. On the other hand, in small home 
 gardens there is seldom reason in employing 
 such an arbitrary rule. There are many 
 splendid plants from Europe and Asia 
 which are hardy and should be freely used. 
 What could we do, for instance, without 
 Japanese barberries and European lilacs? 
 
When thoroughly hardy plants are 
 chosen for a garden we are apt to give a 
 preponderating allowance of shrubs and 
 perennial herbs. Now hardy shrubs and 
 perennials are desirable for still other rea- 
 sons; and so we have developed a sort of 
 general preference for this class of materi- 
 als. They should usually be the principal 
 reliance in garden making. 
 
 A person who makes a garden should ex- 
 pect to plant something every year. The 
 idea of making a garden now and keeping 
 it without alteration forever is founded on a 
 series of misapprehensions. The planting of 
 new things every spring is a large part of 
 the enjoyment of a garden. Furthermore, 
 there are improvements to be made even in 
 the best planted gardens. 
 
 Every garden needs care. No matter 
 how perfectly it is made it needs constant 
 looking after. Weeds have to be kept out, 
 trees and shrubs pruned and lawns mowed. 
 A great part of the attractiveness of every 
 garden is secured at this very point. A well- 
 kept garden is a good one, even if the design 
 
 132 
 
THE APPLE TREE IS UNSURPASSED FOR ORNAMENTAL PLANTING 
 
be poor; a neglected garden is a bad one, no 
 matter if it were laid off by the best land- 
 scape architect living. A large part of the 
 garden work is merely maintenance. 
 
 How are these things to be promoted in 
 a civic betterment campaign? Perhaps the 
 simplest and the best method is to arouse 
 enthusiasm and distribute knowledge 
 through the schools. If school teachers are 
 proficient in these lines, if they develop 
 school gardens and if they do still better by 
 developing home garden movements, then 
 a community is in the possession of a work- 
 ing force capable of great good. 
 
 Wherever an active village improvement 
 society exists such a society ought to under- 
 take, as a part of its work, to promote good 
 taste and enthusiasm in the development of 
 home grounds. This can be done by bring- 
 ing into the community good lecturers on 
 such subjects and by placing in the local 
 library suitable books. A village improve- 
 ment society can also take up any of the 
 work of the regular horticultural society 
 like that mentioned below. Where a 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 woman's club acts as the agent of the com- 
 munity betterment it can do the same work. 
 In some parts of the country, notably in the 
 Province of Ontario, Canada, there are 
 many local horticultural societies. These 
 societies hold stated and special meetings, 
 at which all questions of gardening, tree 
 planting, flower growing and such improve- 
 ments are discussed. Such societies also 
 hold flower shows, fruit shows, and special 
 fairs. They also organize gardening con- 
 tests, which are particularly helpful in pro- 
 moting village improvement along these 
 lines. In such garden contests the various 
 home grounds are visited by committees of 
 experts, who make suggestions, give instruc- 
 tions and point out the best results. As a 
 matter of fact, all these methods of arousing 
 enthusiasm and organizing and attracting 
 interest in the home grounds are capable of 
 easy application and the results are likely to 
 be altogether good. The only absolutely 
 essential thing is the leadership of a few 
 sensible men or women. 
 
 J 34 
 
Les conditions d'un ordre plus speciale- 
 ment material qui doivent etre considerees 
 dans le choix d'une residence rurale, soit 
 dans son ensemble, c'est-a-dire avec une ex- 
 ploitation agricole ou forestiere, soit au 
 point de vue plus restrient du pare ou du 
 jardin, sont principalement les suivantes: 
 ( l) le paysage environnant, (2) I' altitude 
 et la facilite d' acces, (j) le climat et I' 
 orientation, (4) la forme et la nature du sol, 
 (5) les abris, les arbres, et les vues, (6) les 
 eaux, (j} les constructions, (8) les orna- 
 ments pittoresques, (Q) les ressources finan- 
 cieres. 
 
 ED. ANDRK. 
 "L' Art des Jardms." 
 
 '35 
 
Men do usually covet great quantities of 
 Land; yet cannot mannage a little 'well. 
 There 'were amongst the Auncient Romans 
 some appointed to see that men did till their 
 Lands as they should do, and if they did not, 
 to punish them as Enemies to the Publique ; 
 perhaps such a law might not be amisse with 
 us, for without question the Publique suf- 
 fereth much, by private mens negligence; I 
 therefore wish men to take Columell's 
 Councell; which is, Laudato ingentia Rura, 
 Exiguum Colito. For melior est culta exi- 
 guitas etc. as another saith, or as we say in 
 English, A little Farme well tilled, is to be 
 preferred. 
 
 SAMUEL HARTLIR'S 
 
 "Legacie." 
 
 136 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 FARM PLANNING 
 
 IN any scheme of rural improvement 
 great emphasis must be placed on the de- 
 velopment of individual farms. If each 
 farm is clean, tidy, well kept, with a thrifty 
 and home-like air, then the whole neighbor- 
 hood will be attractive to visitors and satis- 
 fying to residents. To say of any valley that 
 it is a district of fertile and well-kept farms 
 is to picture it before the human imagina- 
 tion in the most engaging language possi- 
 ble. Those railway companies and state 
 boards of agriculture which have given 
 prizes for the best kept farms in certain dis- 
 tricts have been promoting a very practical 
 form of rural progress. 
 
 Let us consider the farm, therefore, as a 
 unit, to see what can be done for its better 
 organization, convenient administration, 
 and for the atmosphere of beauty and com- 
 fort which ought to characterize it. 
 
 137 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 PLAN OF A ROMAN FARM LAYOUT TAKEN FROM "WET DAYS AT 
 EDGEWOOD." 
 
 A. THE FARMHOUSE 
 
 a Inner court. 
 b Summer dining room. 
 c Winter dining room. 
 d Withdrawing rooms. 
 e Winter apartments. 
 / Summer apartments. 
 g Library. 
 
 h Servants' hall. 
 
 i Dressing room of baths. 
 
 k Bathing room. 
 
 / Warm cell. 
 
 m Sweating room. 
 
 n Furnace. 
 
 o Porters' lodges. 
 
 B. FARM BUILDINGS AND CONNECTIONS 
 
 1 Inner farmyard. 
 
 2 Pond. 
 
 3 Outer yard. 
 
 4 Kitchen. 
 
 5 New wine. 
 
 6 Old wine. 
 
 7 Housekeeper. 
 
 8 Spinning room. 
 
 9 To sick room. 
 
 10 Lodges. 
 
 1 1 Stairs to bailiff's room. 
 
 12 Keeper of stoves. 
 
 13 Stairs to work house. 
 
 14 Wine press. 
 
 15 Oil press. 
 
 16 Granaries. 
 
 17 Fruit room. 
 
 18 Master of cattle. 
 
 19 Ox stalls. 
 
 20 Herdsmen. 
 
 21 Stables. 
 
 22 Grooms. 
 
 23 Sheepfold. 
 
 24 Shepherds. 
 
 25 Goat pens. 
 
 26 Goatherds. 
 
 27 Dog kennels. 
 
 28 Cart houses. 
 
 29 Hog sties 
 
 30 Hog keepers. 
 
 31 Bakehouse. 
 
 32 Mill. 
 
 33 Outer pond. 
 
 34 Dunghills. 
 
 35 Wood and fodder. 
 
 36 Hen yard. 
 
 37, 38 Dove houses. 
 
 39 Thrushes. 
 
 40 Poultry. 
 
 41 Poulterers. 
 
 42 Porter. 
 
 43 Dog kennels. 
 
 44 Orchard. 
 
 45 Kitchen garden. 
 
 138 
 
ROMAN FARM LAYOUT 
 (See opposite page.) 
 
 139 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 We find that some farms are disadvan- 
 tageously planned at the outset. In the old 
 French districts of Canada, for example, 
 the original farms were measured out in 
 arpents along one central road, from which 
 they ran back at right angles in long narrow 
 strips. Subdivision of these lands has al- 
 ways run lengthwise, the strips growing nar- 
 rower as each generation divided its patri- 
 mony. I have myself seen farms on the Red 
 River in Manitoba two miles long and sixty- 
 six feet wide; and I have been told of others 
 the same width and four miles long. In 
 New England and the eastern states gener- 
 ally, farms are often very irregular and 
 composed of scattered, more or less isolated 
 tracts. There will be a pasture field of 20 
 acres one-half mile distant from the home; 
 a good farm lot detached by a mile, and per- 
 haps a lo-acre wood lot two miles away. 
 The care of such a farm is obviously much 
 more expensive than for the same area com- 
 pactly located. In many cases it would be 
 good business to sell outlying holdings and 
 buy other land adjoining the farm head- 
 
 140 
 
FARM PLANNING 
 
 quarters, even at a considerable capital 
 outlay. 
 
 In this connection we may remember that 
 the deeds and surveys of farm lands are not 
 always satisfactory, and this criticism ap- 
 plies especially to the farm lands of New 
 England. A new system of land transfer, 
 such as the Torrens system, slowly coming 
 into use in parts of New York state, would 
 be an advantage to all landholders. What- 
 ever the system, the farmer ought to be sure 
 that his titles are clear and altogether sound. 
 
 The method of drawing deeds in use in 
 the eastern states is very faulty. The bulk 
 of the land has never been surveyed. No 
 lines are definitely established. Brown's 
 deed reads that his farm is bounded on the 
 west by Black's land; and Black's deed 
 shows that his land is bounded on the east 
 by Brown's farm. On the only important 
 question of where Brown's land divides 
 from Black's the records are absolutely non- 
 committal. It would be a very important 
 and substantial public improvement, and in 
 most neighborhoods worth many times the 
 
 141 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 cost, if the entire district could be officially 
 surveyed and placed on permanent record, 
 so that a man, in case of an emergency, could 
 go out and find his own farm. 
 
 Now, when a man has found his farm and 
 has got possession of a suitable tract, con- 
 veniently and compactly located, his next 
 problem is to plan that whole area so that it 
 may be most effectively and economically 
 administered. The first thing to be done is 
 to fix an administrative center. In plain 
 English this usually means the location of 
 the farmhouse and farm buildings. There 
 are a good many farms now, and ought to 
 be more in the future, on which the busi- 
 ness will be conducted from a central office, 
 leaving the dwelling house to seek a de- 
 tached location. It is plain that the admin- 
 istrative center of the farm should be placed 
 as nearly as possible at the geographical 
 center. The location of buildings at one side 
 or extreme corner of the farm is a very com- 
 mon and expensive fault. It is important, 
 of course, that the buildings be located con- 
 veniently to the public road; and in case the 
 
 142 
 
FARM PLANNING 
 
 public road touches only one side of the 
 farm, this may justify an eccentric location. 
 The practical question is whether there will 
 be more coming and going between the 
 buildings and the various parts of the farm, 
 or between the buildings and the village 
 corners and the railroad station. 
 
 Other considerations which should influ- 
 ence the location of the farm buildings are 
 (i) water supply, (2) drainage, (3) aspect 
 and protection, (4) outlook to the sun, the 
 sky and the landscape. In coming to a 
 decision one site will often have to be con- 
 sidered against another. The claims gov- 
 erning sites can then be balanced best by 
 by means of a sort of score card, which 
 might take the following form: 
 
 SCORE CARD SITE FOR FARM BUILDINGS 
 
 Administrative convenience 30 
 
 (central location) 
 
 Public convenience 20 
 
 (outlet to village and R. R.) 
 
 Water supply 15 
 
 Drainage 10 
 
 Protection from winds 10 
 
 Outlook 15 
 
 Total ioo 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 Of course every man (or woman) would 
 have to make up such a score card for him- 
 self, for to some the outlook would seem as 
 important as administrative convenience, or 
 water supply as important as either. 
 
 ^^&P0 
 
 HIT-OR-MISS LOCATION AN ACTUAL EXAMPLE 
 
 With the buildings centrally located the 
 next step will be the convenient subdivision 
 of the farm land so as to make all parts 
 readily accessible. Practicable roads and 
 lanes should be located where needed, cul- 
 verts put in where necessary, manageable 
 
 144 
 
FARM PLANNING 
 
 farm gates installed where they cannot be 
 omitted, stiles provided in certain places, 
 and a systematic orderly movement of the 
 farm traffic substituted for the usual hap- 
 hazard style. There are thousands of 
 orchards which cannot be reached with a 
 loaded spray pump, and thousands of fields 
 from which a load of hay cannot be drawn 
 without a large chance of upsetting. 
 
 Much of this is founded, to be sure, more 
 upon the principles of farm management 
 than upon the principles of landscape archi- 
 tecture; but it is a fact which ought to be 
 universally acknowledged that rural im- 
 provement cannot travel far unless good 
 farm management and taste pull together. 
 
 The farm buildings being located, their 
 grouping with reference to one another in- 
 terests us in turn. In actual practice we can 
 seldom find a farm where this prob- 
 lem has been seriously considered. Such 
 arrangement as we find in certain parts 
 of the country is obviously the result of 
 tradition rather than of intelligent study 
 of the matter. In most parts of Amer- 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 ica farm buildings are merely scattered 
 about, hit-or-miss, without much rela- 
 tion to one another. The house is com- 
 monly placed next the road, the barn 100 
 feet away from it in almost any direction, 
 and the other buildings fall into any space 
 which happens to be open at the time of 
 
 THE CONNECTED SERIES VERMONT EXAMPLE 
 
 their making. This system (or lack of sys- 
 tem) reaches its worst when the buildings 
 are scattered " all over a forty-acre lot," so 
 that the farmer must walk 20 miles to do a 
 day's chores. 
 
 Conditions of life and climate in New 
 England serve to develop a type of arrange- 
 
 146 
 
FARM PLANNING 
 
 ment compact and in many ways useful. 
 The house was placed next the street (typi- 
 cally, end to the street), back of it and 
 joined to it came the woodshed, next the 
 granary or toolhouse, and lastly the barn, 
 the whole forming a connected linear series. 
 The only serious objection to this arrange- 
 ment is the fire risk. If one building catches 
 fire the whole layout is pretty sure to burn. 
 
 Another and inferior style of arrange- 
 ment occasionally found in the eastern states 
 places the house on one side of the public 
 road with the barn and dependent build- 
 ings directly opposite, and facing the house. 
 This arrangement is fairly convenient and 
 reduces the fire risk somewhat, but it ex- 
 hibits the premises in bad odor to the pub- 
 lic; and no one can hope to find the best 
 type of human culture developed in that 
 family which from year's end to year's end 
 gazes wistfully into the cattle yards and the 
 manure spreader. 
 
 From a purely scientific point of view 
 the best arrangement of farm buildings is 
 probably the quadrangular, as shown in the 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 HIGHWAY 
 
 /1..1..J l\V...v--' 
 
 v. , .:. ^ri;;;.:^*;.vM'^RS==*2Kas= K^' 
 
 Q 
 
 FARM BUILDINGS ARRANGED AROUND A QUADRANGLE 
 
 I 4 8 
 
FARM PLANNING 
 
 accompanying diagrams. The several unit 
 buildings may be placed against one an- 
 other, or may be somewhat detached, as cir- 
 cumstances may dictate. This grouping 
 supplies the basis for the most economical 
 management of farm business. The fire 
 risk should be reduced by fireproof or slow- 
 burning construction a type of building 
 properly within the means of modern and 
 prosperous agriculture. There is one draw- 
 back to the quadrilateral scheme of arrange- 
 ment, namely that a closed square offers 
 great difficulties in the addition of new 
 buildings or the extension of old ones. Fore- 
 sight will deprive this objection of some of 
 its force, the preventive measures being to 
 plan the extensions with the original layout, 
 or to leave an open axis along which the 
 building scheme may be extended. 
 
 The artistic and purely ornamental treat- 
 ment of the farm grounds is a matter which 
 has often been discussed. It is, indeed, about 
 the only phase of the subject which receives 
 popular attention, although it is the last one 
 which can be taken up in actual practice. It 
 
 149 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 is difficult within reasonably brief compass 
 to give any really constructive advice in this 
 matter, but a few suggestions must be 
 offered nevertheless. 
 
 The ornamental treatment of farms may 
 follow an almost infinite variety of methods, 
 
 QQQGQo 
 QOQGQ w 
 
 o 
 
 ;. .- IT TWX 
 
 ANOTHER QUADRANGULAR ARRANGEMENT 
 150 
 
FARM PLANNING 
 
 but in order to simplify our discussion of the 
 subject, we will, rather arbitrarily, reduce 
 these to three types, which we will call re- 
 spectively the park treatment, the garden 
 treatment and the plain treatment. 
 
 The park treatment is applicable to rela- 
 tively large and prosperous farms, or to 
 those which are the country homes of city 
 people rather than the business farms of 
 actual farmers. On such places there must 
 be considerable areas perhaps 4 or 5 acres, 
 perhaps 400 or 500 acres which can be 
 given up to ornamental treatment. These 
 areas are then developed as a private pleas- 
 ure park, emphasizing all natural features 
 of beauty, such as meadows, streams or 
 woodland, or even creating these where con- 
 ditions are favorable. Such "country seats" 
 or farm parks are characteristic of rural 
 England, and the artistic style to be em- 
 ployed in their development is inevitably 
 English. It is the natural style of landscape 
 gardening in its pristine and bucolic sim- 
 plicity. There are a few good examples of 
 it in America, but there ought to be thou- 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 sands more. There are today many thou- 
 sands of American farmers (omitting for 
 the present the city farmers) who can well 
 afford to appropriate 10 acres or 20 acres 
 apiece from their farms to be made into 
 parks and pleasure grounds. In many in- 
 stances such a move would pay its way as 
 a real estate investment. 
 
 The garden treatment ought to be the 
 most common one, especially for bona-fide 
 farms. This scheme is based upon the prin- 
 ciple that every farm residence should have 
 a small bit of lawn, a flower garden and a 
 vegetable garden, and that all these ought 
 to be artistically brought together as one 
 organic unit focusing upon the farmhouse 
 as the center. These ornamental grounds 
 ought to be small, otherwise they cannot be 
 maintained in presentable order. Perhaps 
 the ideal type will be somewhat like that 
 shown on page 155 a small lawn in front 
 of the house, a vegetable garden on the 
 kitchen side and a flower garden on the liv- 
 ing side of the house. The outline sketch 
 here given is not meant necessarily to sug- 
 
 152 
 
FARM PLANNING 
 
 PARK-LIKE TREATMENT OF FARM GROUNDS 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 gest a formal garden, for, though the re- 
 stricted grounds will naturally lead to a 
 more or less formal treatment, still the taste 
 of many farm families will develop a more 
 free and easy arrangement. 
 
 It should be particularly noticed that the 
 scheme here offered shows the lawn in front 
 of the house bare of all flower beds, foun- 
 tains, statuettes and furniture of every de- 
 scription. All these things belong in the 
 flower garden and never on the lawn; and 
 it is the commonest mistake of farming and 
 gardening to put them directly in front of 
 the house. Keep the front lawn clear and 
 open to the last degree, plant flowers and 
 shrubs in the garden where they can be suc- 
 cessfully cultivated, put the cast-iron deer 
 and the camp kettle flower pot on the junk 
 heap. 
 
 The plain treatment, as we have called it, 
 is a rough caption under which to describe 
 the large number of farms whereon still 
 simpler schemes of ornamentation must be 
 adopted. There will still be thousands of 
 farms where flower gardens will not be 
 
 154 
 
7PSSfH3S3W<msa^^ 
 
 m 
 
 u 
 \ 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 prized and when a semi-ornamental treat- 
 ment of the vegetable garden will seem un- 
 necessary. But even the poorest and mean- 
 est farmyard should not be without its touch 
 of beauty, order and dignity. There will be 
 some front yard at least, and this will be 
 kept clean and tidy. There will be clumps 
 of lilacs at the front door or a trumpet vine 
 climbing on the piazza. And best of all 
 there will be a few big trees elms, maples 
 or tulip, between the house and the street. 
 The trees are almost indispensable, but 
 given a few really good trees the whole 
 scheme is safe. 
 
 In case the farmhouse can sit back 100 to 
 500 feet from the public road, with nearly 
 level land intervening, a straight avenue of 
 trees leading direct to the front door is 
 always dignified and in good taste. This 
 arrangement is seen rather frequently before 
 the fine old plantation houses of Virginia 
 and the southern states and is usually in the 
 highest degree pleasing and satisfactory. 
 
 Finally, in dealing with the improvement 
 of farms and farm yards, we come to a mat- 
 
FARM PLANNING 
 
 ter of the utmost consequence, viz., the con- 
 stant care of the premises. Many farms 
 "look all run down," the buildings needing 
 paint, the fences sagging, the windmill 
 minus a wing, plows, wagons and self- 
 binders out to the weather and standing in 
 helpless disorder all over the front yard. 
 Even when it does not reach its worst this 
 disease is fatal to any real beauty in the farm 
 life. Disorder of every sort must be abso- 
 lutely banished. The place must be kept 
 clean and tidy and constantly put to rights. 
 This is a thousand times more important 
 than the making of a flower garden or the 
 planning of a pergola and a croquet court. 
 
 Such improvements of farms, farm yards 
 and farm neighborhoods as are here urged 
 can be promoted in various ways. Prizes 
 can be offered by boards of agriculture or by 
 local fair associations. It would be just as 
 legitimate to give a liberal prize for the best 
 planned and best kept farm in a county as to 
 the biggest pumpkin or the gaudiest bed- 
 quilt. Farm improvement can be talked up 
 in farmers' clubs and especially in granges. 
 
 157 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 There are hundreds of subordinate and 
 pomona granges where a vigorous propa- 
 ganda of this sort would be the most helpful 
 work undertaken in a decade. This busi- 
 ness has so much good in it that even the 
 churches might take it up, and an occasional 
 sermon from the pulpit on these lines would 
 be a welcome relief from the curse of riches 
 and the general bow-wows. Indeed, there 
 is not a club, lodge or organization of any 
 sort, in business for the good of the com- 
 munity, which cannot wisely assist in such a 
 campaign. 
 
There are many misconceptions current 
 about town and city planning, but none is 
 farther from the fact than the notion that 
 comprehensive plans are only for large cit- 
 ies. The reverse is nearer the truth. 
 
 JOHN NOLEN, 
 "Replanning Small Cities." 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 COMMUNITY PLANNING 
 
 THAT branch of civic art in which the 
 most active work is now being done is 
 usually called city planning. On every hand 
 new cities and city additions are being 
 planned by experts, following modern ideas 
 and introducing many features of marked 
 improvement over old styles. Similar sane, 
 scientific and artistic ideals ought to be ap- 
 plied to the planning of the rural districts 
 and of those natural rural centers, the coun- 
 try villages. As relates to the planning of 
 country roads something has already been 
 said, in the chapter on roads and streets. 
 The general principles of community de- 
 sign may now be considered in more detail 
 and with more special reference to the 
 villages. 
 
 We meet one serious obstacle at once in 
 the fact that many small country villages 
 
 1 60 
 
HANOVER, N. H., COMMON AND CHURCH. 
 SPRINGFIELD, VT., VILLAGE CENTER 
 
COMMUNITY PLANNING 
 
 are trying to be big cities. Even when they 
 have actually given up all hope of metro- 
 politan growth they still persistently, 
 though half unconsciously, ape metropoli- 
 tan behavior. They are like old maids, for- 
 saken by opportunity, but still simpering 
 and smiling as though commanding a 
 fecund future. The western states are espe- 
 cially burdened with such still-born me- 
 tropoli. Every crossroads is going to be a 
 county seat, and every county seat aspires to 
 be the state capital. Meanwhile no town 
 has the inspiration and ignity to be itself. 
 The condition of those unhappy towns 
 which cannot be even county seats is espe- 
 cially pitiable. They stand about the prai- 
 ries, forlorn and wretched in the extreme. 
 The New England village is a much better 
 community in every respect, chiefly because 
 it is satisfied and even proud to be a village, 
 and being proud of its place in the world it 
 undertakes earnestly to make the best of it. 
 In 99 villages and towns out of every 100 
 throughout the United States more espe- 
 cially in the South and West the first work 
 
 161 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 of community improvement lies in killing 
 the poison of false ambition and establish- 
 ing a patriotic self-respect. 
 
 From our present point of view the great 
 damage that results from this foolish ambi- 
 tion is that the town is wrongly planned. It 
 is laid out on the expectation that it will 
 one day be a Chicago, a Winnipeg or a Seat- 
 tle. If it were definitely designed from the 
 first to take care of a population of 250 or 
 600, as the reasonable expectation might be, 
 it would be a great deal better. 
 
 That is, it would if intelligently planned. 
 It is wonderful, however, how little intelli- 
 gence is commonly used in city planning, 
 and especially in those places where the 
 projectors are free to make a plan. Out on 
 the plains railroads are still being built and 
 some hundreds of towns (including some 
 county seats) are being laid out on clean 
 land every year. Surely here is the greatest 
 opportunity in the world to put to use the 
 best new knowledge of community planning. 
 As most of these new towns are born with a 
 railroad company for one parent, one would 
 
 162 
 
COMMUNITY PLANNING 
 
 expect the companies to introduce some 
 technical experience into the youngsters' 
 education. But they do not. As each new 
 town is projected by its heedless sponsors, 
 the land boomers and the railroad promot- 
 ers, it merely follows the old, trite, childish 
 checkerboard pattern, now known to be the 
 worst ever devised for village, town or city. 
 
 Other expensive and inexcusable mis- 
 takes accompany this gridiron plan. Be- 
 sides having spent all my boyhood in the 
 country where this happens, I have recently 
 visited and studied several of these new and 
 ambitious towns and have vividly renewed 
 my knowledge of their defects. The worst 
 of these defects are as follows: 
 
 (i) The streets are made all the same 
 width. Here one finds a street serving a 
 population of 50 souls, but the street is 80 
 feet wide, and 60 feet of that is asphalt. The 
 street really has no need for asphalt, but 
 there must be so many miles of asphalt 
 street to beat the rival town 20 miles away. 
 Even so, 16 feet wide would have been quite 
 asphalt enough and much cheaper; and the 
 
 163 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 164 
 
COMMUNITY PLANNING 
 
 abutting property owners would have had 
 cool grass in front of their houses in place 
 of black asphalt, which absorbs heat all day 
 and gives it up all night, especially in July 
 and August. 
 
 (2) Streets are generally too wide. In 
 thousands of prairie towns every street is 
 wider than the Strand in London, Friedrich- 
 strasse in Berlin or Broadway, New York. 
 Such streets are by no means needed for 
 traffic and are a needless expense. 
 
 (3) Streets do not follow the contours of 
 the land. This is the fault primarily of the 
 rigid checkerboard system, the results of 
 which are doubly deplorable when the 
 straight streets run up steep hills or across 
 narrow gullies, involving interminable ex- 
 pense in street making and endless damage 
 to adjoining real estate. This is one of the 
 most ridiculous, and fortunately one of the 
 most widely recognized mistakes in com- 
 munity planning. 
 
 (4) There is a lamentable failure to re- 
 serve public grounds. Every Old World 
 village has its open marketplace, and the 
 
 165 
 
New England town has its common. These 
 public forums have been of inestimable 
 value in the civic life of those communities, 
 and it is beyond explanation that the intelli- 
 gent and ambitious people who have made 
 and are making the new towns should 
 neglect a matter of such consequence. 
 
 (5) There is a similar failure to reserve 
 sites for public buildings. At the very out- 
 set the town expects to have schoolhouses, 
 churches, a library and possibly other pub- 
 lic buildings. Why provision is not made 
 for these in the original plan passes all un- 
 derstanding. 
 
 The best results in the way of small vil- 
 lages have been secured through natural 
 growth rather than through premeditated 
 planning. That is, a slow and natural devel- 
 opment in response to actual needs and 
 guided by natural conditions of topography, 
 will more fully satisfy all utilities than any 
 theoretical plan evolved on paper. And the 
 utilities thus fully satisfied -- legitimate 
 needs frankly met there has been achieved 
 one of the prime elements of beauty. In the 
 
 1 66 
 
COMMUNITY PLANNING 
 
 mushroom towns of the central and western 
 states, however, the growth method cannot 
 be so confidently relied on. There must be 
 some sort of plan at the start. Having re- 
 jected the checkerboard layout, we are in 
 duty bound to say what should take its place. 
 
 Now, it must be admitted that in the flat 
 prairie regions the checkerboard design is 
 less disastrous than in rolling or hilly coun- 
 try. Though it is certainly not the best 
 style of town making, the designer hesitates 
 to manufacture irregularities of street plan 
 for a perfectly level site. On hills or moun- 
 tainsides he can follow the contours and 
 thus achieve picturesqueness of aspect com- 
 bined with variety of prospect and conveni- 
 ence of life. On flat land, what shall be the 
 designer's motif? Evidently it must be the 
 long level horizon line the straight line. 
 Winding, circuitous streets will be out of 
 the question. 
 
 Now, these straight street lines can be 
 combined in an infinite variety of ways be- 
 sides that of the gridiron. First of all they 
 should be broken into short sections, the 
 
 167 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 long, unterminated street on flat land being 
 especially monotonous. It has a peculiarly 
 futile effect. It seems to arrive nowhere. 
 
 These straight streets, broken up into 
 short sections, should now be arranged so as 
 to avoid, on the one hand, the monotonous 
 parallelism of the checkerboard system, and 
 on the other, the helter-skelter effect of no 
 system at all. The divergencies from the 
 four points of the compass should be reason- 
 able and moderate. 
 
 The next point in such a plan is to secure 
 a variety of street intersections. This highly 
 important matter has been worked out only 
 by the modern German planners and by the 
 architects of the Renaissance in northern 
 Italy. It may be applied, however, directly 
 to the design of streets for modern Ameri- 
 can villages. Now, when two streets cross 
 in this country it is usually thought obliga- 
 tory that they should make a clean inter- 
 section; as at A. The fact is that a broken 
 intersection, as that shown in B, has many 
 sound advantages which make it best under 
 certain circumstances. It gives command- 
 
 168 
 
COMMUNITY PLANNING 
 
 ing locations, at the end of street vistas, to 
 four buildings. Such locations are desir- 
 able either for public buildings, business 
 blocks or residences. Traffic is not ob- 
 structed. 
 
 B 
 
 STREET INTERSECTIONS 
 
 But even this arrangement, though de- 
 cidedly superior to the usual featureless in- 
 tersection, is more stiff and formal than 
 
 169 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 necessary. Moreover, it cannot be fre- 
 quently repeated, or it becomes more monot- 
 onous and tedious than a less pretentious 
 
 MORE STREET INTERSECTIONS 
 
 unit. Since the streets in our ideal plan are 
 not to be parallel, they need not meet at 
 right angles, and a great diversity and in- 
 formality in the intersections may be 
 secured, as suggested at C, D and E. 
 
 170 
 
COMMUNITY PLANNING 
 
 Now, in the intersections at B and E re- 
 spectively there appears to be a little dot of 
 unused room. In this spot a fine tree may 
 
 
 SMALL OPEN SQUARE, GEORGETOWN, MASS. 
 
 be very effectively placed, or such points 
 become the very best of sites for fountains, 
 statues or other memorials when required. 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 If this system of planning is carried to its 
 proper conclusion, however, there will be 
 
 RECESSED GROUP OF RESIDENCES 
 
 considerable larger open spaces left at many 
 points, especially, though not always, at 
 street junctions. Such varied and irregular 
 
 172 
 
COMMUNITY PLANNING 
 
 open spots are shown in the modern Ger- 
 man plans; and in practice they give the 
 most interesting and delightful results. The 
 sketch plan at F shows a most attractive lit- 
 tle open spot of this kind, something less 
 than 100 feet square, occurring accidentally 
 in an old New England village. 
 
 In the "garden suburbs" of England, 
 especially in those designed by Mr. Ray- 
 mond Unwin, rather frequent use is made of 
 small public or semi-public greens recessed 
 from the street, as shown in plan G. This 
 little space is used for a green or park, or 
 for a children's playground, or for a tennis 
 court or for a common flower garden. In 
 any case it provides a very delightful front- 
 age for eight or a dozen dwellings. These 
 houses, though still within immediate reach 
 of the street, are away from the dust and 
 gasoline and enjoy a much pleasanter out- 
 look than can ever be arranged from 12 
 houses standing in a straight line along a 
 straight street. The inlook is also to be con- 
 sidered; and certainly the view given to the 
 passerby glimpsing across this little green 
 
 173 
 
MORE ELABORATE RECESSED GROUP 
 After Raymond Unwin 
 
COMMUNITY PLANNING 
 
 is novel, varied, and altogether charming. 
 
 In village planning also there ought to be 
 more frequent short streets or "places" with 
 dead ends, accommodating six to a dozen 
 residences. Such streets are necessarily 
 quiet and clean, being free from every pos- 
 sibility of through travel. The cost of street 
 making and maintenance is reduced to the 
 minimum. 
 
 Such suggestions as these can be put into 
 effect freely only in towns in the nascent 
 state, towns just being planned or new addi- 
 tions to existing towns. It is greatly to be 
 hoped that future community planning, 
 whether in cities, suburbs, or country vil- 
 lages, will show more variety, more art and 
 more intelligent attention to utilitarian 
 needs than the American plans of the last 
 200 years. 
 
 A pertinent question is, What can be done 
 for the improvement of towns already 
 monotonously built on the checkerboard 
 plan ? Careful, intelligent study of any par- 
 ticular case will reveal a good deal that can 
 be done. Here and there are corners that 
 
 175 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 Hat<l 
 
 FA yVaugh. /VoV /^V. Tbct (Surrey- Jc^/e / VW 
 
 ACTUAL STREET INTERSECTIONS, SHOWING EXISTING 
 IRREGULARITIES 
 
 ,76 
 
COMMUNITY PLANNING 
 
 can be knocked off, and which, when 
 planted with trees or grass, become practic- 
 able commons, breaking up the dull regu- 
 larity of the scheme, and introducing a 
 sense of cozy homeliness. Here and there 
 are entire blocks, sometimes two blocks in 
 a place, which can be condemned for play- 
 grounds or other public uses. The width of 
 the streets, or at least the paved portions, 
 can be varied in proportion to the traffic. 
 On the surplus width varying schemes of 
 tree planting and parking can be carried 
 out In a few cases street junctions may be 
 broken up to secure diversity; and occasion- 
 ally neighboring houses can be grouped so 
 as to secure some mass effect of architecture. 
 In this last particular truly wonderful re- 
 sults are secured in the garden suburbs of 
 England and Germany results which we 
 cannot approach under most American con- 
 ditions. 
 
 The principles of community planning 
 are here discussed with special reference to 
 the conditions in country towns and vil- 
 lages; but the same considerations apply to 
 
 177 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 IMPORTANT CENTRAL STREET CORNERS, FROM ACTUAL SURVEY 
 
 ,78 
 
COMMUNITY PLANNING 
 
 some extent to community planning in the 
 open country. For the open country ought 
 to be planned as carefully as the town or 
 city. The subject in its rural applications, 
 however, is dealt with more fully in the 
 lecture on roads. 
 
 179 
 
Denn die Krdfte, die jene Welt der Ruhe, 
 des reifen kiinstlerischen Behayens geschaf- 
 fen haben, sind noch immer lebendig. Nur 
 die Achtung und die Kenntnis sind vermin- 
 dert. Haben <wir diese erstarken lassen, 
 dann werden auch die Krdfte wirksam und 
 damit ein Eiinklang mit den Bedurfnissen 
 des modernen Lebens <wieder hergstellt <wer- 
 den. Diese Krdfte sind in der Hauptsache 
 die geographischen Verhdltnisse der Erdo- 
 berfldche, die mit ihren Land, Wasser und 
 V 'egetationsformen Lebensgewohnheit und 
 L/ebensmoglichkeit bestimmen. Erganzt 
 iverden sie durch den V erkehr mit seinen 
 wirtschaftlichen Einflussen, die die Landge- 
 biete einander ndher bringen, die Landein- 
 heiten in Vielheiten auflosen und umgek- 
 ehrt wieder E/inheitsgebiete schaffen. Diese 
 Krdfte hatten bisher die Formen der Siedel- 
 lungen, in weiterem Sinne auch die der Er- 
 doberfldche bestimmt; sie hatten kilnstle- 
 rische und wirtschaftliche V 'erdnderungen 
 auszerordentlich beeinfluszt. 
 
 ROBERT MIELKE, 
 
 "Das Dorf." 
 
 180 
 
CHAPTER X 
 RURAL ARCHITECTURE 
 
 IN architecture the two elements of art, 
 utility and beauty, meet in a peculiarly 
 even balance. Every work of architecture 
 grows out of a genuine utilitarian need. The 
 bridge, the church and the silo each is 
 built to serve some very definite purpose. 
 Yet each must be in its way beautiful. An 
 ugly church, an ugly bridge or an ugly silo 
 is inexcusable. Men and women must spend 
 their precious daily lives looking at these 
 objects. If each look brings pleasure, then 
 these works of architecture are serving a 
 higher purpose in human happiness than in 
 meeting the needs which first called them 
 forth. On the other hand, if every look at 
 bridge or church or silo fills the beholder 
 with disappointment and disgust, it were 
 better that a car wheel had been tied about 
 that architect's neck and he had been 
 drowned in the depths of the Great Salt 
 Lake. 
 
 181 
 
Architecture plays a great part, almost a 
 leading role, in community betterment. If 
 we are to have a country beautiful or a vil- 
 lage beautiful (and at the same time use- 
 ful), architecture must be appealed to on 
 many sides. There must be good and beau- 
 tiful houses for homes, substantial, conveni- 
 ent, dignified public buildings, serviceable 
 and beautiful barns, attractive bridges, and 
 many other public and private works of the 
 right kind. Let us begin with the farm- 
 houses. 
 
 It is well known that the farmhouses of 
 America leave much to be desired. Just 
 why they should continue to be so ugly and 
 inconvenient is very hard to explain. To be 
 sure, farmers generally do not and cannot 
 employ expensive architects in planning 
 their houses; but there are plenty of good 
 models described and illustrated in the mag- 
 azines for which the farmer subscribes, and, 
 furthermore, there have been excellent tra- 
 ditions in some parts of the country which 
 should have had a greater influence. 
 
 There are three good types of farmhouse 
 
 182 
 
RURAL ARCHITECTURE 
 
 known in America. The first of these is the 
 old colonial country house of New England. 
 There are two or three varieties of this type, 
 but all of them good. The second is the old 
 ante-bellum plantation house of the South. 
 
 OLD STYLE NEW ENGLAND FARMHOUSE 
 
 These two types were widely multiplied 
 and universally admired in the days before 
 the civil war; and the deep and horrible re- 
 sults of that war are nowhere more demon- 
 strable than in the disappearance of these 
 fine architectural forms. After the war men 
 
 183 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 simply ceased to build good houses and pro- 
 ceeded shamelessly to build the most crude 
 and vulgar buildings that ever cumbered a 
 fair country. In the South poverty and dis- 
 couragement gave some excuse; but in the 
 North, where such plausible explanation 
 was absent, the results were even worse. It 
 may be said with emphasis that the dwell- 
 inghouse architecture of the United States, 
 whether on farms, in villages, or in cities, 
 in the twenty-five years following the civil 
 war was execrably bad. The exceptions 
 were hardly sufficient to prove the rule. 
 And at the present time we are just begin- 
 ning to awaken from that awful architectu- 
 ral nightmare. 
 
 The third type of rural dwelling to which 
 we have referred is a modern one, and has 
 been introduced as a part of our awakening 
 to better ideals. This is the bungalow. 
 Now the bungalow is a special type of 
 architecture, developed in response to rather 
 special conditions, these conditions being 
 primarily a level country and a warm cli- 
 mate. As these conditions prevail widely in 
 
 184 
 
RURAL ARCHITECTURE 
 
 the United States, the bungalow seems 
 adapted to a great area of country. It has 
 two additional qualities recommending it to 
 use on farms. First, it covers a good deal 
 of ground and is unsuited to the crowding 
 
 PRIZE DESIGN FOR MINNESOTA FARMHOUSE 
 
 of three-story apartments and six-story fac- 
 tories in cities and towns. Second, the 
 bungalow being usually all on one floor, 
 greatly relieves the strain of housekeeping 
 at the precise point where relief is much to 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 be desired. It seems fair to recommend the 
 bungalow style rather freely for use on the 
 prosperous farms of the interior prairie 
 states a section where the farmhouses gen- 
 erally are distressingly inferior to the scale 
 of the surrounding civilization, and where 
 
 1 
 
 SIMPLE BUNGALOW DESIGN FROM THE CRAFTSMAN 
 
 some reasonable type of architecture is 
 sorely missed. The farmers of the middle 
 West have generally copied their dwelling 
 houses from the towns, and have taken the 
 worst models at that. 
 
 This recommendation of the bungalow, 
 
 1 86 
 
RURAL ARCHITECTURE 
 
 however, must not be taken wholly without 
 qualification. A new style like this is bound 
 to be abused. Already one sees more bun- 
 gles than bungalows. People who have no 
 intelligent ideas of the style, its logic or its 
 adaptations, try to compromise it with their 
 hereditary prejudices and with their pref- 
 erences for Queen Anne, renaissance and 
 early Chicago details, the results being won- 
 derful, but seldom either convenient or 
 beautiful. 
 
 For the northeastern states nothing could 
 be happier than a return to the typical forms 
 of the old colonial farmhouses, modifying 
 these forms only enough to bring into them 
 the modern conveniences. Such modifica- 
 tions would be very slight, for, though fur- 
 nace heat would be introduced, the old fire- 
 places might well be retained, and the wir- 
 ing for electric lights would not affect the 
 house design. 
 
 Similarly the best thing that could hap- 
 pen to the farm architecture of the southern 
 states would be a renaissance of the colonial 
 type of plantation house. Spanish, mission 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 and bungalow styles are being experimented 
 with to a considerable extent in the South; 
 but while these may be useful in cities, 
 villages and in the winter homes of affluent 
 northerners, they are of very doubtful avail- 
 ability as models for farmhouses. 
 
 A CRAFTSMAN DESIGN FOR A FARMHOUSE 
 
 Along with questions of style and exterior 
 design should go considerations of interior 
 arrangement. Farmhouses have been nota- 
 bly lacking in interior design and in all the 
 modern conveniences. The time has fully 
 come to change all this. While we have not 
 space here to tell how the kitchen should be 
 
 188 
 
RURAL ARCHITECTURE 
 
 arranged, how the cellar should be built, 
 or how the closets should be designed, we 
 may insist that these matters be given thor- 
 ough study whenever a new farmhouse is 
 built. If the builder cannot afford to em- 
 ploy an architect (or thinks he cannot, for 
 usually it would be economy to do so), he 
 can at least get good plans from various 
 magazines, and many of the state agricultu- 
 ral colleges are now giving considerable at- 
 tention to farmhouse design. 
 
 When the modern farmhouse has been 
 intelligently planned by the best architect 
 it is ready to profit by all the so-called mod- 
 ern conveniences. These are fresh air, elec- 
 tric or gas lighting, furnace heat, water sup- 
 ply, sewerage, and in some cases electric 
 power. 
 
 One of the greatest luxuries of life is 
 fresh air, and in the country it is one of the 
 cheapest. Perhaps this is the very reason 
 why it is so lightly regarded. But the way 
 many farmhouses are left without ventila- 
 tion is hardly less than criminal. The usual 
 style of winter comfort is to gather in the 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 small sitting room, with all the doors and 
 windows doublelocked and with a roaring 
 stove fire which burns up all the oxygen in 
 circulation. In this hot, stuffy atmosphere, 
 breathed hundreds of times over, the happy 
 family, after a heavy dinner of beef stew, 
 baked beans and mince pie, quickly goes 
 to sleep, or at best, subsides into a stupor 
 too dull for reading or playing checkers or 
 figuring feeding rations for the dairy herd. 
 The bedrooms are apt to be likewise with- 
 out ventilation, and though they have the 
 advantage of being cold, they are not fit 
 places for human beings to sleep in. This 
 is all very wrong, and superlatively unneces- 
 sary. It can be easily changed by anyone 
 w r ho has the enterprise to recognize its 
 wickedness. 
 
 Many farmhouses are nowadays within 
 reach of electric lighting systems. On a few 
 farms when water power is at hand private 
 generating plants may be wisely established. 
 In either case the home is entitled to the 
 benefit and convenience of the electric light. 
 Where electric lights are not to be had, 
 
 190 
 
RURAL ARCHITECTURE 
 
 private gas plants can be put in at quite 
 moderate expense. The total cost for a good 
 gas lighting installation should be between 
 $150 and $300; on which the total annual 
 charge for interest, repairs and operation 
 will be between $25 and $50. 
 
 A furnace of any pattern can be installed 
 in a farmhouse exactly as well as in a village 
 or city dwelling. Why is it, therefore, that 
 city houses are almost universally supplied 
 with them, while farmhouses are almost 
 universally without? My answer is that the 
 farmers have not taken so much pains as the 
 townspeople to make themselves comforta- 
 ble. 
 
 On any farm where there is a running 
 stream or a good well the buildings may en- 
 joy just as good a water supply as the usual 
 city house. In a few cases water may be 
 secured from springs or streams by gravity. 
 In other cases, where the streams are below 
 the level of the house, the supply may be 
 secured through the services of the oft- 
 described and rarely seen hydraulic ram. 
 In the large majority of cases, however, the 
 
 191 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 farm water supply will come from a good 
 well. Everyone knows that this well should 
 not be in the barnyard o;r where it receives 
 the seepage from the privy and the kitchen 
 sink. It will be better, indeed, to have it at 
 
 TOWN HALL, BRIDGEWATER, MASS. 
 
 some distance from the farm buildings, 
 above them if possible, and have the water 
 piped to the house and barn. This is en- 
 tirely practicable if a good windmill or 
 gasoline engine be used to pump the water. 
 The modern method of handling this water 
 supply is through an underground non- 
 192 
 
RURAL ARCHITECTURE 
 
 freezable tank, and not through the old 
 style inconvenient freezing overhead tank. 
 The water is pumped into the underground 
 tank under pressure, and this air pressure is 
 sufficient to deliver the water wherever it is 
 desired. Such an arrangement costs from 
 $100 to $300, or about the same as the over- 
 head installation, and makes it possible to 
 have a continuous supply of hot and cold 
 water in all parts of the house, dairy or other 
 buildings, just as easily as the same conveni- 
 ences can be secured in any city or village. 
 
 With the installation of a running water 
 supply will come bathtubs and modern 
 water closets, and these will require some 
 species of sewage disposal. A drain from 
 the kitchen sink into the well will no longer 
 be regarded as sufficient provision for the 
 farmhouse. Now, the quickest way to dis- 
 pose of the problem is to run the sewage into 
 a cesspool. A good cesspool, well con- 
 structed with proper overflow, will cost 
 from $10 to $100 on the ordinary farm ; and 
 such a system constitutes a very substantial 
 improvement over the usual inconveniences 
 
 193 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 of the farmhouse. Yet better sanitary facili- 
 ties than these are to be easily secured 
 through the use of modern septic tanks or 
 through a system of sewage disposal in un- 
 derground tiles. Detailed descriptions of 
 such installations with full directions for 
 doing the work are to be had in various 
 bulletins. The very best possible sewerage 
 system on the ordinary farm may be put in 
 for the price of one wagon-load of fat hogs. 
 The home of the prosperous and up-to- 
 date farmer should also be supplied with 
 power, usually secured from the electric 
 current or from the ubiquitous gasoline en- 
 gine. Such power may be used for churn- 
 ing, washing, ironing and for many other 
 purposes not yet clearly seen; for it is a no- 
 torious and scandalous fact that the im- 
 provements in house work on the farms have 
 not kept pace with the improvements in 
 barn work. While the drudgery of the 
 men's work has been greatly relieved in later 
 years through the introduction of machin- 
 ery, very little has been done to eliminate 
 the drudgery from women's work. Yet 
 
 194 
 
RURAL ARCHITECTURE 
 
 careful attention to this problem in the light 
 of present knowledge will accomplish won- 
 ders. 
 
 THE VILLAGE HOME 
 
 It has long been the rule in this country 
 for farmers to move to town as soon as the 
 stress of making money and educating the 
 children is over. It is a bad rule, and one 
 which we hope soon to see revoked or re- 
 versed. It has been founded on the belief 
 to a large extent erroneous that more of 
 the comforts and conveniences of life are to 
 be secured in the town than in the country. 
 
 In exterior architectural style and dignity 
 the town house assuredly has not led the 
 country house. During the last half cen- 
 tury the most shoddy, squalid, vulgar dwell- 
 ing-house architecture ever known since 
 men dwelt beautifully in tents has flourished 
 in American villages and suburbs. The 
 great problem now is the popularization of 
 saner and simpler styles. These are unques- 
 tionably coming in; and it should be a part 
 of every improvement campaign to promote 
 
 195 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 the public interest in better architecture. 
 Though the public is interested first in the 
 external appearance of village dwelling 
 houses, attention must always be directed at 
 the same time to the improvement of inter- 
 nal arrangements. Throughout these chap- 
 ters we have insisted that beauty and util- 
 ity must travel hand in hand, and this is cer- 
 tainly not the place for them to part com- 
 pany. 
 
 PUBLIC BUILDINGS 
 
 All public buildings ought to be beauti- 
 ful, dignified, honest and well constructed. 
 How few of them in our day and place ful- 
 fill these plain requirements! Public build- 
 ings grow up through a world of graft. 
 Some contractor, making a good thing for 
 himself and a mighty poor thing for the 
 public, leaves the community disgraced 
 with a shabby library. The architect for the 
 court house is chosen, not for his knowledge 
 of architecture so much as for his knowl- 
 edge of politics. Somebody with a pull is 
 almost sure to turn up in connection with 
 
 196 
 
RURAL ARCHITECTURE 
 
 every public building. Even the churches 
 are scarcely honest. Many of them are cry- 
 ing examples of sham and shoddy. Instead 
 of being community examples of honesty, 
 dignity and beauty, they stand as monu- 
 ments of pretentious, vulgar ugliness. 
 
 GRANGE HALL, NORWAY, ME. 
 
 Of course not all public buildings are so 
 bad as this. Times are improving, both 
 architecturally and politically. Every- 
 where we are seeing more good school- 
 houses, fine churches, excellent town halls 
 and county courthouses, libraries and even 
 
 197 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 railway stations in which the country can 
 well take pride. Such examples should be 
 greatly multiplied. A good public building 
 in any community has an enormous influ- 
 ence for good; it does more perhaps to raise 
 the public taste than any other lesson that 
 can be given. Conversely, a vulgar, and 
 shoddy public building can have no other 
 effect than to corrupt the public taste and to 
 lower the whole tone of civic life in the com- 
 munity afflicted with it. No more glorious 
 testimony could be imagined to the high 
 civic ideals of Florence, Rothenberg, Brem- 
 en and hundreds of other old European 
 towns and cities than the magnificent pub- 
 lic buildings which have come down from 
 earlier centuries. Two hundred years from 
 now how many of our American public 
 buildings will remain? And what will our 
 great-grandchildren then think of them? 
 The answer to these questions will give us 
 a juster valuation of our present civic work. 
 Any town or village of fine civic spirit 
 and high ambitions will go still further in 
 fostering high ideals in architecture. Such 
 
 198 
 
RURAL ARCHITECTURE 
 
 communities will secure the benefit of good 
 design also in shops and factories. The 
 usual country store, though it may be, in 
 fact, the main center of social and political 
 life in the small village, does not present 
 the physical appearance to justify so high a 
 calling. In England, Germany, France and 
 Belgium, however, shopkeepers have shown 
 that such little stores may be gems of archi- 
 tectural beauty. Such buildings are good 
 advertising, and worth much more to any 
 groceryman's business than a million square 
 yards of soap and axle grease announce- 
 ments painted on the country landscape. In 
 a few glad spots in America the old country 
 stores have been replaced by beautiful and 
 suitable modern buildings. In a good 
 many places factories have been built hav- 
 ing considerable dignity and architectural 
 beauty. A certain soap factory in Buffalo, 
 for instance, has more artistic distinction 
 than many an art museum or Carnegie 
 library. These admirable beginnings mark 
 the plain way along which civic art will 
 make its progress. 
 
 199 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 The same spirit should extend at once to 
 all other kinds of construction wherever the 
 work falls under the public eye. Bridges 
 ought to be good looking, as well as strong 
 and durable. The present vogue of cement 
 has done a great deal to bring in attractive 
 bridges and to drive out the peculiarly 
 wretched iron trusswork which has been 
 almost universal in American bridge con- 
 struction. 
 
 Even the small items will be carefully re- 
 garded in this way, and the lamp posts, 
 crossroads signs and rubbish boxes will be 
 studied with a view to making them agree- 
 able to the eye. Telephone and trolley poles 
 will be made as inconspicuous as possible, 
 and on occasion may appear to be even orna- 
 mental. 
 
 When we come to public monuments, 
 memorials, fountains, etc., which are 
 frankly valued as civic embellishments 
 without utilitarian excuse, the esthetic test 
 ought to be rigorously applied. That is cer- 
 tain. But how many of our existing Amer- 
 ican examples of public statuary and semi- 
 zoo 
 
RURAL ARCHITECTURE 
 
 public memorials would stand even .a 
 schoolgirl's test for dignity and beauty? 
 The usual soldiers' monument is a fright, 
 and the customary "ornamental" fountain 
 is a writhing heap of ugliness. It has been 
 
 COUNTRY BANK, HOLLISTER, MO. A BEAUTIFUL AND APPRO- 
 PRIATE BUILDING 
 
 a great national misfortune that our crop of 
 soldiers' and sailors' monuments in this 
 country was harvested in the period just 
 following the civil war that period when 
 the public taste, like the public morals, ran 
 down to the lowest possible ebb. In all the 
 
 20 1 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 states, North and South, these soldiers' 
 monuments stand, fine reminders of the 
 loyalty and love which prompted them, but 
 awful examples of the impoverished taste 
 which could design nothing beautiful nor 
 worthy of the heroic deeds yet to be com- 
 memorated. Too many such monuments 
 have been designed by the village black- 
 smith and the constable, or by the board of 
 aldermen. It ought to be plain that such 
 works of art should be designed by artists; 
 and unless something truly compatible with 
 the theme can be built, it would be much 
 better to go without the statue. 
 
 Perhaps this is the place to say a word 
 about temporary decorations for passing 
 festivals. During old home week the village 
 would put on gala dress. Or "When 
 Johnny comes marching home," or the pop- 
 ular politician is elected governor, or the 
 one hundredth anniversary of the town is to 
 be celebrated, a special effort will be made 
 to have the town look its best and merriest. 
 All such undertakings should be put into the 
 hands of a small committee, preferably not 
 
 202 
 
RURAL ARCHITECTURE 
 
 more than three to five, including men and 
 women of education and taste, and a unified 
 scheme of decoration carried out under 
 their strict direction. If a professional dec- 
 orator can be employed, so much the better 
 -and cheaper. When the decorations are 
 left to the personal initiative of each indi- 
 vidual citizen the result is scattering, in- 
 harmonious and trivial, while the entire cost 
 is likely to be greater than when the work is 
 all in the hands of one experienced man. 
 
 It is everywhere recognized to be the 
 common fault of American civil and politi- 
 cal life that people disregard the services 
 of experts. In architecture, statuary and art 
 matters generally, the need of expert help is 
 peculiarly plain. Here is the point at which 
 better methods can be most easily intro- 
 duced. 
 
The incessant and increasing duties of 
 farm life leave one, however well disposed, 
 but little time and but scant strength for 
 esthetic study. The farmhouse is the cen- 
 ter of the home life and of the homely 
 thought and feeling of its inmates. The 
 farm on which one has been born and bred 
 is the center and standpoint from which he 
 regards the world without. All those more 
 tender emotions which are common to our 
 nature, and which attach themselves to the 
 home, find their development on the farm 
 as well as in the town. Sentimentally con- 
 sidered, it matters little whether the object 
 of these emotions be on the farm, in the 
 wilderness, in the village, or in the city. 
 Fortunately, man is by no means a creature 
 of emotion alone; and the satisfaction and 
 good of living are less a matter of feeling 
 than of activity, industry and intelligence. 
 The place in which one lives is more or less 
 satisfactory in proportion as it facilitates 
 and encourages the better and more useful 
 living. 
 
 GEO. E. WARING, JR., 
 
 "Farm Villages." 
 
 204 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 INCIDENTAL PROBLEMS 
 
 THE problems of civic improvement 
 have been dealt with in a somewhat sys- 
 tematic manner in the foregoing chapters. 
 For the most part these problems have been 
 related to large general principles. There 
 remain, however, some incidental smaller 
 problems which need to be spoken of, and 
 which can be most conveniently treated by 
 grouping them together in this chapter. 
 Those which we shall speak of here are 
 school grounds, cemeteries, trolley stations, 
 rest rooms and nuisances. 
 
 SCHOOL GROUNDS 
 
 Every local community takes special in- 
 terest in the schoolhouse and grounds. It is 
 because these are universally recognized as 
 public property. It is everywhere under- 
 stood, further, that these schoolhouses and 
 
 205 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 grounds are not all they ought to be, and 
 the fact that nearly every neighborhood is 
 sincerely ashamed of the squalid conditions 
 of school premises is in itself evidence of 
 higher ideals. Whenever anyone says a 
 word for the improvement of schoolhouse 
 
 SCHOOLHOUSE WITHOUT PLANTINGS OR OTHER IMPROVEMENT 
 
 or school grounds his suggestions meet an 
 immediate response from all the neighbors. 
 With this firmly established sympathy, the 
 conditions at the various country schools 
 certainly ought to be better than they are. 
 Obviously the, country people need to be 
 aroused on .this subject, and particularly 
 
 206 
 
INCIDENTAL PROBLEMS 
 
 they need someone to take the lead in bring- 
 ing about better conditions. 
 
 A great deal has been said and written 
 about the beautification of school grounds. 
 This has meant chiefly the planting of trees 
 and shrubbery, and in extreme cases the de- 
 velopment of flower gardens. Unfortunately 
 this enthusiasm has run chiefly to talk and 
 only in rare instances has come down to 
 actual practice. Tree planting is under- 
 taken more or less systematically on arbor 
 days. This is a pleasant custom. Arbor day 
 ought to be annually celebrated with suit- 
 able festivities. There should be attractive 
 programs and a well-organized social meet- 
 ing, including the parents and patrons of the 
 school. The social program ought not to 
 be allowed to crowd out the tree-planting 
 feature, for there should be substantial, 
 practical accomplishment in this line on 
 every arbor day. Not only should trees be 
 planted, but shrubs and other things also. 
 There should be older trees, which will re- 
 quire pruning; and tree pruning, spraying, 
 repairing and fertilizing are just as appro- 
 
 207 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 priate to arbor day as tree planting itself. 
 In fact, the purposes of the program should 
 be broadened to cover all the life and care 
 of trees rather than being confined to the 
 mere incident of planting. 
 
 In most of the small publications on this 
 subject, there are more or less elaborate 
 plans shown for the development of school 
 grounds. Most of these are suggestive and 
 good. It is still very rare, however, to find 
 a school ground which has been developed 
 according to any definite plan. On most 
 small grounds, it is obvious that any elabo- 
 rate landscape gardener's design would be of 
 little use. In a rough, general way, w r e may 
 say that a border of trees and shrubs along 
 the boundary of the grounds will constitute 
 the only important plantings. Unless the 
 grounds are above the average size, it will 
 hardly be advisable to use any part of the 
 remaining space except for play. By all 
 odds, the most important feature in school 
 grounds development is the simple, syste- 
 matic arrangement on orderly lines of the 
 few necessary furnishings. If there is a 
 
 208 
 
INCIDENTAL PROBLEMS 
 
 fence, it should be straight; if there is a 
 gate, it should hang on its hinges; if there 
 are trees, they should be in straight rows; 
 if there is a row of trees, they should be all 
 of the same kind; if there are shrubs, they 
 
 SCHOOLHOUSE WITH APPROPRIATE PLANTINGS CORNELL 
 UNIVERSITY GROUNDS 
 
 should be in straight hedge rows or in com- 
 pact masses; if there are privies and other 
 outbuildings, they should be set on the 
 boundary lines and in proper alignment 
 with the main building; if walks are built, 
 
 209 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 they should be direct and should be kept 
 clean and properly edged ; if there is a lawn, 
 it should be kept clean. These things are 
 far more important than a landscape plan 
 or any botanical collection of plants. 
 
 The school grounds require not only a 
 neat and orderly arrangement of the origi- 
 nal materials, but they require the still more 
 important element of care. Most cases of 
 disheartening squalor which one finds on 
 school grounds are due merely to the fact 
 that no care is given. The place must be 
 kept clean and tidy. This may be easily 
 accomplished providing the school has an 
 energetic teacher and the teacher has the 
 sympathy and support of the parents and 
 patrons. No appropriations of money are 
 necessary the teacher and pupils can do 
 all the work that is required to keep any 
 school grounds in order. 
 
 In connection with the schools and school 
 grounds, other similar problems are arising, 
 especially in more progressive communi- 
 ties. It is found that other civic needs may 
 be supplied and that the public property 
 
 210 
 
INCIDENTAL PROBLEMS 
 
 delegated for this purpose can best be cen- 
 tered about the schoolhouse. In some rural 
 communities, country life has developed so 
 far already as to provide civic centers, 
 which are merely groupings of community 
 interests. At such centers, one will find the 
 public schoolhouse (usually a centralized 
 school), public playgrounds, experimental 
 grounds, and sometimes the churches and 
 grange halls. The location of these build- 
 ings in a group of this sort is highly to be 
 commended. It amounts to the same thing 
 in the neighborhood planning which the 
 centralization of farm buildings means in 
 farm planning. When the public buildings 
 are scattered all over the township, there is 
 the same unfortunate dispersion of business 
 which results when the farm buildings are 
 scattered all over the farm. 
 
 Suitable playgrounds are particularly 
 needed in all country districts, and naturally 
 and almost necessarily are located with the 
 public schools. Such playgrounds should 
 contain always a baseball diamond, some- 
 times a football field, usually provisions for 
 
 211 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 basket ball, in thickly settled neighborhoods 
 should contain tennis courts, should have 
 some special playground apparatus for the 
 use of small children, and if possible should 
 have provisions for skating in winter. The 
 equipment for small children is now sup- 
 plied at moderate prices at many large man- 
 ufacturers' and some of this apparatus may 
 fairly be called indispensable. If the play- 
 ground is not for the small children, what, 
 indeed, is it for? 
 
 School gardens and experimental grounds 
 are now being undertaken by some of the 
 more progressive country schools. There 
 can be no difference of opinion about the de- 
 sirability of such improvements in any 
 neighborhood where they can be reasonably 
 well supported. It may be well to enter 
 here a word of caution to prevent failure 
 from over-enthusiasm. Such school gardens 
 and experimental grounds need not and 
 should not be so large and elaborate as the 
 experiment grounds of a state experiment 
 station. The experiments must be really 
 very minor demonstrations, undertaken on 
 
 212 
 
a small scale chiefly for the benefit of the 
 school children. A plot of land 20 feet 
 square, well cared for, will be much more 
 valuable than 20 acres well neglected. 
 There are very few schools which can give 
 sufficient care to more than a quarter of an 
 
 AN ATTRACTIVE COMMON, AMHERST, MASS. 
 
 acre. Probably the usual area will have to 
 be even less. If the school experiment 
 grounds go above half an acre, it will usu- 
 ally be necessary to hire outside help for 
 their maintenance, and as soon as that is 
 
 213 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 done, the limit of usefulness has been 
 reached. 
 
 CEMETERIES 
 
 The public cemeteries have been referred 
 to already in the chapter on public grounds. 
 It seems proper, however, to add a word or 
 two on this subject here. It is a matter of 
 public knowledge and almost of public scan- 
 dal that cemeteries in general are shame- 
 lessly neglected. The remedy for this is not 
 the discovery of any artistic design, but the 
 enforcement of plain, ordinary principles 
 of housekeeping. If people will not adopt 
 the cremation plan, which is altogether bet- 
 ter from every standpoint, they should at 
 least keep the cemeteries in presentable con- 
 dition. 
 
 Something can be gained, however, in the 
 matter of the primary design. Most ceme- 
 teries are dreary and repulsive merely in the 
 matter of arrangement. A dreary plain is 
 usually chosen as the cemetery site, chiefly, 
 as I am told, because the digging is easier 
 there. If pleasant undulating ground, well 
 
 214 
 
INCIDENTAL PROBLEMS 
 
 furnished with trees, could be chosen, the 
 premises would always be more pleasant, 
 restful and attractive. It would seem as 
 though graves placed beneath the shade of 
 well-grown woods were always more 
 properly situated than those on an open 
 sandy territory out in the blazing sun. And 
 yet it is not once in a thousand times that 
 we ever see interments made in this manner. 
 There are a few instances, mostly of expen- 
 sive city cemeteries, where attractive scen- 
 ery has been used or developed, and where 
 the cemetery comes to be a beautiful park. 
 Such a treatment of the cemetery problem, 
 however, seems to be especially appropriate 
 to the country, and as there are positively 
 no objections to it, it may be confidently 
 urged. 
 
 TROLLEY STATIONS 
 
 i >. 
 
 In another chapter, something has been 
 said about the development of trolley sta- 
 tions. We have seen that they serve much 
 the same purposes now served by the rail- 
 way stations. They are the entrance gates 
 
 2*5- 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 to the villages. Thousands of trolley sta- 
 tions must be built in the next few years, and 
 it is highly important that they should be 
 wisely located, decently designed, and well 
 built In connection with such trolley sta- 
 
 TROLLEY STATION, MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 tions, other minor public services should be 
 developed in certain cases. For instance, 
 many of the trolley lines are used for freight 
 and express shipments. Especially where 
 the shipment of milk is an important item 
 these trolley stations should make some pro- 
 
 216 
 
INCIDENTAL PROBLEMS 
 
 vision for this traffic. In other words, the 
 station should contain suitable room for the 
 storage of milk cans or other materials 
 which have to be handled. 
 
 In a great many cases, the trolley station 
 will offer the most practicable opportunity 
 for the installation of a public comfort 
 room, a convenience sadly needed in most of 
 our towns and villages. Where drainage 
 facilities are suitable and water supply and 
 sewage connections convenient, the best way 
 is to have such public comfort stations be- 
 low the ground level, forming thus a sort 
 of cellar to the trolley station. In many 
 instances, however, such an arrangement is 
 impracticable, and then the necessary con- 
 veniences may be arranged in a separate 
 room on the same level as the waiting room. 
 
 REST ROOMS 
 
 Somewhat in the same line is the plan of 
 the village rest room, now being developed 
 in many places, especially in the central 
 western states. Every progressive town has 
 
 217 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 found it highly desirable to cater to the 
 needs of the visitors from the farming dis- 
 tricts. In this way such rest rooms are usu- 
 ally provided with special reference to the 
 needs of women and children. There are 
 bathroom conveniences, and frequently also 
 
 REST ROOM, LUVERNE, MINN 
 
 cooking conveniences where a cup of tea can 
 be made or a pot of coffee warmed. Re- 
 ports agree most unanimously to the effect 
 that where such rest rooms have been estab- 
 lished and reasonably well managed, they 
 have been very popular. The whole scheme 
 
 218 
 
INCIDENTAL PROBLEMS 
 
 is so simple, easy and inexpensive that it is 
 hard to explain why it has not been more 
 generally adopted. 
 
 NUISANCES 
 
 In keeping any community up to its best, 
 there occasionally arise problems in the sup- 
 pression of nuisances. In fact, there are 
 certain features of our civilization which 
 naturally tend to become nuisances, and 
 which have to be checked in every locality, 
 and which sometimes have to be dealt with 
 by most vigorous means. One of the most 
 common of these is the advertising nuisance. 
 Patent medicine advertising, liquor adver- 
 tising, and corset advertising are permitted 
 to cover the face of the landscape. These 
 are sometimes excused as being necessary 
 to the promotion of business. This excuse 
 is wholly worthless and ridiculous no 
 legitimate business needs this kind of ad- 
 vertising or indeed thrives by it. Advertis- 
 ing in itself is thoroughly sound business, 
 but in order to serve its purpose, it must 
 219 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 please the people whom it reaches. The 
 moment it becomes offensive to them, it has 
 lost its business utility. 
 
 A good deal has been written as to the 
 best ways of dealing with this advertising 
 nuisance. It has been found that any com- 
 munity which judiciously and vigorously 
 sets about it can do away with its bill boards. 
 The women's clubs have managed many 
 successful campaigns of this sort. In gen- 
 eral the best way to combat this evil is 
 through legislation, and the best legislative 
 means is through heavy excise taxes on bill- 
 board advertising. Happily the trouble is 
 much less in rural districts than in cities, but 
 at the same time it is a more conspicuous 
 evil in the country than in the city. Every- 
 thing should be done at all times to rid the 
 country of every form of landscape adver- 
 tising. 
 
 Trolley, telephone and electric light 
 wires also tend to become a public nuisance. 
 They clutter up the public highways, some- 
 times becoming truly dangerous, always 
 forming a serious detriment to the land- 
 
 220 
 
scape. Wires carrying electricity are always 
 dangerous put near trees, and in the last 
 few years have killed hundreds of thousands 
 of the best street trees in the country. They 
 should be constantly looked after to prevent 
 injuries of this kind, but as far as possible 
 the policy should be to keep all such wires 
 out of the public highways. The proper 
 location for telephone, telegraph and elec- 
 tric light wires is positively not in the high- 
 ways, but in the alleys and along back 
 boundaries of lots. In closely settled vil- 
 lages, these wires should be carried under- 
 ground or along the tops of buildings. A 
 great deal can be done by intelligent plan- 
 ning and by vigorous campaigns toward the 
 reduction of the wire nuisance. 
 
 While the advertising nuisance and the 
 wire nuisance just mentioned are the most 
 serious ones in the country, neither one of 
 these comes under the legal definition of the 
 term. The law recognizes certain public 
 nuisances \vhich may be abated through the 
 action of the courts. Fortunately we have 
 very few such problems to deal with in the 
 
 221 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 country. It is a curious, significant and 
 illustrative example which we find in some 
 of the prohibition states where local rum 
 holes have been abolished under the nui- 
 sance laws. This shows that the community 
 can protect itself against every kind of pub- 
 lic damage. No man, woman or corpora- 
 tion will be permitted to injure the people 
 at large without due redress, no matter 
 what the nature of the difficulty may be. 
 The rights of the community are so well 
 established that they may take the matter 
 into their hands and remove the source of 
 trouble. 
 
 222 
 
Can nothing be done to preserve for the 
 use and enjoyment of the great unorganized 
 body of the common people some fine parts, 
 at least, of this seaside wilderness of Maine? 
 It would seem as if the mere self-interest of 
 hotel proprietors and landowners would 
 have accomplished much more in this direc- 
 tion than it yet has. If, for instance, East 
 Point near York, or Dice's Head at Gas- 
 tine, or Great Head near Bar Harbor 
 should be fenced off as private property, all 
 the other property owners of the neighbor- 
 hood would have to subtract something 
 from the value of their estates. And, con- 
 versely, if these or other like points of van- 
 tage, or any of the ancient border forts, were 
 preserved to public uses by local associa- 
 tions or by the commonwealth, every estate 
 and every form of property in the neighbor- 
 hood would gain in value. Public-spirited 
 men would doubtless give to such associa- 
 tions rights of way, and even lands occa- 
 sionally, and the raising of money for the 
 purchase of favorite points might not prove 
 to be so difficult as at first it seems. 
 
 CHARLES ELIOT, 
 Landscape Architect. 
 
 223 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMS 
 
 COMMUNITY improvement begins 
 with personal leadership. Unless 
 there is some man or woman, or some group 
 of persons, who can really exercise the facul- 
 ties and responsibilities of leadership, noth- 
 ing whatever can be accomplished. No 
 amount of imported talent, of outside in- 
 fluence or of donated money can move any 
 neighborhood, village or city forward with- 
 out this primary requisite of leaders perma- 
 nently identified with the community. 
 How are such leaders to be supplied 
 to communities which do not have them? 
 And how shall leadership be developed in 
 communities where it is now latent? 
 These are distinctly vital questions, but 
 they hardly belong in the realm of 
 civic art. For our purposes we shall be 
 obliged to assume the presence of live per- 
 
 224 
 
sonal leaders in every neighborhood where 
 systematic improvement work is to be un- 
 dertaken; but we must recognize the funda- 
 mental necessity of this personal beginning 
 point, and not make the foolish mistake of 
 thinking that any scheme of physical bet- 
 terments will run itself. 
 
 Given, therefore, a competent human 
 leadership, community improvement in- 
 volves four somewhat distinct phases, and 
 the work will progress much more satisfac- 
 torily if these different steps follow one an- 
 other in logical order. They are: 
 
 1. The survey. 
 
 2. The plan. 
 
 3. The organization and execution. 
 
 4. Maintenance. 
 
 Let us now consider these different phases 
 in some detail in order to see our way clear 
 with the whole serious business of neighbor- 
 hood development. 
 
 THE SURVEY 
 
 Every general undertaking for the im- 
 provement of any neighborhood, be it farm 
 
 225 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 ing district, country village or modern city, 
 should begin upon the basis of a logical 
 plan, and a logical plan can be made only 
 on the basis of a careful survey. Such a sur- 
 vey and such a plan should be made by an 
 expert, and it is usually important that the 
 expert making the survey and plan be not a 
 resident of the community. Local preju- 
 dices often work havoc with sound neigh- 
 borhood planning; and, furthermore, any 
 man who is a resident of a particular neigh 
 borhood or village and accustomed to its 
 various aspects is generally blind to many 
 obvious faults and is sure to overlook plain 
 opportunities of improvement. 
 
 Elsewhere we have given some emphasis 
 to the principle that community improve- 
 ment enterprises should be unified, and have 
 deprecated the very common mistake of 
 separating physical betterment, economic 
 improvement and social reform. This 
 highly valuable co-operation of effort 
 should begin with the survey. Let us sug- 
 gest it, therefore, in our outline showing 
 how these problems are to be taken up. 
 
 226 
 
IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMS 
 
 THE COMMUNITY SURVEY 
 
 1. Physical resources and needs, including such items 
 
 as roads, public buildings, commons, parks, 
 playgrounds, scenery, street trees, etc. in fact, 
 all the materials of civic art, every physical 
 thing which is to be touched by a campaign for 
 civic improvement. 
 
 2. Economic resources, conditions and needs, cover- 
 
 ing the agricultural and other industries and the 
 means of their improvement. 
 
 3. Social resources and needs, such as educational 
 
 facilities, churches, libraries, granges and other 
 organizations of all sorts. 
 
 As we shall be obliged to forego any de- 
 tailed study of the economic and social prob- 
 lems here introduced, we may be justified 
 in giving them a brief word or two before 
 dismissing them. 
 
 Personal leadership aside, the success of 
 any plan of community betterment rests 
 upon the economic basis. No improve- 
 ments of consequence can be made unless 
 the community is prosperous, unless indus- 
 try yields more than a niggardly subsistence 
 to the people. Thus in a farming commu- 
 nity the first undertaking must be to improve 
 the agriculture. As soon as the farmers 
 begin to find life easier it will be possible 
 for them to talk of playgrounds for the chil- 
 
 227 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 dren, of better schools, of libraries, and of 
 better preachers in the churches. 
 
 Now, the means of economic improve- 
 ment in agriculture are very well known 
 and very well organized. They center 
 
 
 A BIT OF PLEASANT RURAL ROADSIDE SCENERY 
 
 round the state agricultural colleges, the ex- 
 periment stations and the state boards of 
 agriculture. (I do not mention the grange 
 because I believe its influence to be prima- 
 rily social rather than economic.) The 
 agricultural survey of any section should 
 
 228 
 
IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMS 
 
 be made by the experts of the agricultural 
 college or under their direction, and the 
 subsequent plan for economic improvement 
 should come from the same source. An 
 enormous amount of work has already been 
 done by colleges, experiment stations and 
 boards of agriculture in fostering agricul- 
 tural improvement of all sorts, but the thing 
 which has not been done, and which cries 
 from the street corners to be done, is to give 
 individual communities broad, careful, 
 sympathetic, expert study, suggesting gen- 
 eral plans of economic organization and 
 progress. There are hundreds of commu- 
 nities, rural and suburban, in which the in- 
 dustries need to be completely reorganized 
 and put upon a new track; and such read- 
 justments would be acceptable anywhere. 
 Very roughly indicated, such a survey 
 might find in a particular community a 
 large area of land adapted to fruit growing, 
 but without the skill, the experience, the 
 capital or the organization to develop this 
 resource. The expert and disinterested out- 
 side adviser might plan for a demonstration 
 
 229 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 orchard and a local horticultural school to 
 develop the knowledge of fruit growing; he 
 might propose and possibly secure the es- 
 tablishment of local banking facilities for 
 making capital more available; and finally 
 he might outline and possibly assist in the 
 formation of a local fruit growers' organi- 
 zation which could develop a successful 
 market. 
 
 Farm industries change very slowly and 
 are notoriously hard to reorganize. For 
 this reason there are thousands of neighbor- 
 hoods where present farm practice is badly 
 adapted to present conditions. One com- 
 munity is making market milk and shipping 
 it 200 miles at a loss. Another section con- 
 tinues to grow coarse grain crops long after 
 the expansion of near-by cities offers a 
 profitable market for the products of more 
 intensive farming. Such general problems 
 as these should be studied in the economic 
 survey; and this work, if done by competent 
 men, should result in definite and service- 
 able plans for community advance along in- 
 dustrial lines. 
 
 230 
 
IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMS 
 
 In villages and cities other industries be- 
 sides agriculture have to be considered, and 
 the inter-relation of divers industries comes 
 to be of great significance. This may make 
 the industrial branch of the survey more 
 difficult, but it renders it even more impor- 
 tant. The general methods of procedure 
 will be the same as already outlined. 
 
 What we have said as to the economic sur- 
 vey and plan needs very little translation 
 to make it intelligible in the social world. 
 The opportunities here are quite as large, 
 and the needs as urgent. For, as no im- 
 provement can begin except on the founda- 
 tion of economic prosperity, so no real ad- 
 vance can continue without social efficiency. 
 If the community is socially sterile, no in- 
 crease in the production of potatoes or the 
 price of pork will ever save it. In Ameri- 
 can experience we have repeatedly met this 
 sobering fact, that families leave their farms 
 as soon as they become prosperous. The 
 kernel of the whole rural problem, as it has 
 been clearly stated by President Kenyon L. 
 Butterfield, is to maintain happy and effi- 
 
 231 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 cient families upon the farms. There must, 
 therefore, be made a social survey; and on 
 the foundation of such an investigation, the 
 whole social structure should be rebuilt 
 according to a well-considered, scientific, 
 modern plan. 
 
 The social survey will ascertain the school 
 population and compare it with the school 
 facilities; it will enumerate the churches 
 and learn what they are doing for the com- 
 munity; it will look to libraries and clubs; 
 in every rural neighborhood it will try to 
 find a live grange active in all economic, 
 educational and social enterprises; it will 
 take account of other organizations lodges, 
 women's clubs, farmers' institutes, boys' and 
 girls' clubs in short, every group in which 
 the social instinct of the people has mani- 
 fested itself. 
 
 The social expert will find it easy to point 
 out possible improvements in most neigh- 
 borhoods. A consolidation of churches is 
 so much needed in many places that present 
 conditions are recognized as a public scan- 
 dal. In some places there are too many 
 
 232 
 
IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMS 
 
 lodges, guilds, clubs and committees. Social 
 simplification would do wonders for some 
 communities. In other places, more often 
 in rural neighborhoods, an occasional new 
 
 organization would be very useful. Rural 
 districts especially lack organizations for 
 the benefit of women and boys perhaps for 
 girls. A good woman's literary or domestic 
 arts club would be a boon to many a coun- 
 
 233 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 tryside. We might even tolerate a suffra- 
 gist propaganda if it would get the women 
 out of their tiresome kitchens and lead them 
 together in friendly social intercourse. Sim- 
 ilarly a club for the big boys would solve 
 some of the knottiest neighborhood prob- 
 lems. Such a club might promote baseball, 
 rowing, competitive swimming, horse rac- 
 ing and trap shooting in the summer, and 
 snow shoeing, hunting and basket ball in the 
 winter. Should the big boys' club occasion- 
 ally invite the big girls' club to a sleigh ride 
 no great harm would follow. 
 
 We have dwelt thus at some length on the 
 economic and social aspects of these ques- 
 tions because no program of improvement 
 devoted exclusively to physical problems 
 (as commonly understood in the term vil- 
 lage improvement) can get very far. Physi- 
 cal, economic and social problems are 
 vitally inter-related. In neither field can 
 much progress be made while the other 
 fields are neglected. A church revival can- 
 not accomplish its whole purpose unless ac- 
 companied by street cleaning, and the em- 
 
 234 
 
IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMS 
 
 bellishment of front yards is hardly worth 
 while unless the home life is equally em- 
 bellished with good thoughts and acts of 
 social kindness. Every community there- 
 fore must be studied as a whole, and an im- 
 provement program must cover all its needs. 
 Returning now to the field of civic art, 
 where our immediate interests center, let us 
 consider more in detail the proposed sur- 
 vey. The civic artist, going into any neigh- 
 borhood for his professional work will be- 
 gin by a detailed examination of the physi- 
 cal resources. The usual matters of study 
 will be the following: 
 
 1. Roads. Street plan (see page 38), condition of 
 
 the roads, road building (page 44). 
 
 2. Street trees (page 58). 
 
 3. Town commons and local parks (page 113). 
 
 4. Picnic grounds, scenery reservations and scenic 
 
 roads (page 103) . 
 <:. Playgrounds (page 115). 
 
 6. Schoolhouses and grounds (page 109). 
 
 7. Civic centers (page 83). 
 
 8. Public buildings (page 196). 
 
 9. Churches, church grounds, cemeteries (page in). 
 
 10. Architectural conditions, including factories, 
 
 private dwellings, etc. (page 181). 
 
 11. Private grounds (page 122). 
 
 12. Railway stations and grounds (page 21). 
 
 13. Trollev entrances and trolley waiting stations 
 
 (page 26). 
 
 14. General maintenance (page 239). 
 
 235 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 THE PLAN 
 
 After checking over this list the civic sur- 
 veyor is able to see very clearly what the 
 specific needs of the district are the acqui- 
 sition of a beautiful lake, the building of 
 trolley waiting stations, the extension of the 
 school grounds, better care of street trees, 
 etc. Knowing these, he can usually sug- 
 gest means by which the needs can be even- 
 tually satisfied. 
 
 The man making the survey should then 
 make a full report to the community. In 
 it he should first enumerate and discuss all 
 the good things in the town or district (it 
 is more important for the community to 
 realize its good points than its defects) ; 
 second, he should point out the deficiencies, 
 with special suggestions for their correc- 
 tion; and, lastly, he should recommend gen- 
 eral policies and forms of organization or 
 administration likely to bring better results 
 in the future. 
 
 Especially in cases where civic art can be 
 combined, as it always ought to be, with 
 economic advance and social reform, there 
 
 236 
 
IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMS 
 
 should be prepared a definite program of 
 community betterments. When the list of 
 desirable improvements has been duly stud- 
 ied, verified and checked off, each approved 
 item should be given a date representing the 
 time at which it is expected the specific im- 
 provement can be accomplished. These can 
 then all be arranged in a chronological 
 order. Such a program would look some- 
 thing like the following: 
 
 IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM 
 
 FOR THE TOWN OF FREEBURG 
 
 NOTE. This imaginary town is supposed to cover 25 
 square miles, to contain one small village, to have a total 
 population of 3,000; to have one railroad and two trolley 
 lines, and to be devoted chiefly to diversified agriculture. 
 
 FOR THE YEAR 1915 
 
 1. Organize a local federation for community betterment 
 
 (see page 9). 
 
 2. Reorganize the grange (supposing it to be dormant) and 
 
 intensify its work, giving special attention to improved 
 methods in farming. 
 
 3. Hold a special agricultural school of one week. In this 
 
 seek the help of the state agricultural college and other 
 agencies. Probable cost $150. 
 
 4. Clean up the town common, streets, school grounds, ceme- 
 
 teries and other public grounds, and keep them clean. 
 Probable cost, $200. 
 
 FOR THE YEAR 1916 
 
 5. Organize a woman's club. 
 
 237 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 6. Build a mile of permanent macadam road between the 
 
 railroad station and the village center. Probable cost, 
 $3,500. 
 
 7. Hold another agricultural school of one \veek dealing 
 
 with some local specialty, as market milk, poultry rais- 
 ing or onion growing. Probable cost, $150. 
 
 FOR THE YEAR 1917 
 
 8. Build another mile of permanent road. Specify the loca- 
 
 tion. Probable cost, $4,000. 
 
 9. Organize in a small and tentative way a selling associa- 
 
 tion for handling the chief product or products of the 
 town. 
 
 10. Through co-operation of the grange, local churches and 
 
 other organizations, secure a course of good lectures 
 and entertainments. Should be self-supporting. 
 
 FOR THE YEAR 1918 
 
 11. Develop a tree-planting campaign for the benefit of street 
 
 and roadside trees. 
 
 12. Acquire a playground. Probable cost, $500. Perhaps 
 
 some ambitious citizen will accommodatingly die and 
 leave the desired land to the town. 
 
 13. Build a new schoolhouse in a new and larger lot. Prob- 
 
 able net cost, $7,500. 
 
 14. Celebrate the 3OOth anniversary of the founding of the 
 
 town by an "old home week," accompanied by a com- 
 munity exhibit in which all forces and all organizations 
 in the community will endeavor to show what each is 
 doing for the common welfare. 
 
 Such a program should be extended to 
 cover ten to twenty years, perhaps more. It 
 should be given the largest possible public- 
 ity. Copies should be put up in the post- 
 office, posted in every schoolhouse, and in 
 every church, and printed in the local paper. 
 
 238 
 
1 MPROVEMENT PROGRAMS 
 
 It should have the widest discussion and the 
 most searching criticism. Finally, it should 
 be adopted, as far as any legislative machin- 
 ery can adopt it, and given the sanction of 
 general acceptance, the presumption being 
 that a plan so constructed, so discussed and 
 so approved will be carried out. Of course 
 everyone will realize that changes in the 
 program will be inevitable, but they need 
 not be frequent and never vital. The main 
 issue lies in the co-operation of all the peo- 
 ple and all the forces in the community for 
 the constant improvement of the whole 
 neighborhood, and this great purpose will 
 be most materially assisted by keeping be- 
 fore the community such a thoroughly 
 tested improvement program as we have 
 here suggestively outlined. 
 
 MAINTENANCE 
 
 Every rational plan of improvement must 
 take account of maintenance. The first, 
 last and ever present problem is that of 
 keeping the town or the country clean. 
 Whether or not cleanliness is next to godli- 
 
 239 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 ness, it is the prime requisite of civic art. It 
 is to civic improvement just what house- 
 keeping is to household art. Without good, 
 efficient, ceaseless housekeeping the home 
 quickly falls into disorder; and a disorderly 
 house is just as great an impossibility as a 
 dirty disorderly town. To keep a town or a 
 neighborhood clean and in good order re- 
 quires just the same constant, laborious 
 housewifely care that is necessary in keep- 
 ing any home comfortable. 
 
 This sort of care, in housekeeping or 
 townkeeping, requires moral qualities of 
 some strength. It also requires a large 
 amount of hard labor. This labor is ex- 
 pensive; and just as housekeeping (when 
 the housekeeper is allowed reasonable 
 wages) costs more than house furnishing, so 
 town maintenance costs more than town im- 
 provements. Or rather let us say it ought 
 to for this principle is not recognized in 
 most places and the scale of local townkeep- 
 ing is not up to the common standard of 
 housekeeping. 
 
 A few professional estimates will throw 
 
 240 
 
IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMS 
 
 some light on the proper cost of town clean- 
 ing. The most definitely ascertained cost 
 pertains to the care of commons or parks. 
 The average cost under favorable condi- 
 tions throughout the United States is $no 
 an acre a year. The proper cost for village 
 commons may be put at from $75 to $100 
 
 GOOD WELL-KEPT HOMES, THE GREATEST CIVIC ASSET 
 
 an acre a year. Where the areas are much 
 used the cost will rise. It may be easily 
 reckoned, therefore, that the village which 
 has a four-acre park or common near the 
 center of population where it receives con- 
 siderable use and should be kept up in good 
 
 241 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 order, should appropriate $300 to $400 an- 
 nually for that purpose. The customary 
 allowance is less than one-fourth of that 
 amount. 
 
 The cost of keeping streets clean has not 
 been so often computed, but it may be safely 
 
 >JT \V * ... Jtfi^M 
 
 ifeT^: 
 
 THE PICTURESQUENESS OF NEGLECT 
 
 said that, in the ordinary town or village of 
 2,000 to 5,000 inhabitants having ten to 
 thirty miles of street in constant use, the cost 
 of keeping them clean should be $10 to $20 
 a mile a year. This is entirely aside from 
 physical repairs. 
 
 242 
 
IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMS 
 
 The cost of Handling ashes, swill and 
 other garbage is usually taken out of the 
 private citizens. Each householder pays 
 for the removal of his own waste. It would 
 be cheaper for all and fairer to the poorer 
 classes if most towns would handle the gar- 
 bage at public expense. This part of the 
 municipal housekeeping should, then, cost 
 40 to 70 cents a year for each inhabitant 
 
 The maintenance work is the dullest and 
 most difficult part of civic art, as it is the 
 most essential. The real test of the village 
 improvement society comes on this point. 
 The best committee of the best men and 
 women should be assigned to this duty. 
 
 243 
 
// is probably true that the first and most 
 Important step in bringing about a federa- 
 tion of rural social forces is to educate all 
 concerned to the desirability of such a fed- 
 eration to sow the seeds of the idea. So 
 far as machinery is concerned it may not be 
 necessary to form any new organization. 
 Indeed, what is chiefly necessary is a sort of 
 clearing-house for an exchange of ideas and 
 plans among all who are at work on any 
 phase of the rural social problem. 
 
 KENYOX L. BUTTERFIELD, 
 "Chapters in Rural Progress." 
 
 244 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 ORGANIZATION AND MANAGE 
 MENT 
 
 THE typical agency of rural betterment 
 is the village improvement society. In 
 its modern form this seems to be an Ameri- 
 can invention, the first village improvement 
 society having been organized in Stock- 
 bridge, Mass., in 1853. The form of organ- 
 ization is usually very simple, with few ex- 
 ecutive officers, with scant legislative ma- 
 chinery and a general lack of red tape. 
 There are usually a president, a secretary 
 and a treasurer, while the active work of the 
 society is usually intrusted to committees, as 
 a committee on roads and streets, one on 
 parks and commons, one on school grounds, 
 one to look after the cemeteries, and other 
 committees, each one in charge of one of the 
 particular improvement enterprises adopted 
 by the society. The membership is always 
 voluntary, and the members usually pay a 
 
 245 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 small annual fee, which is a contribution to 
 the work in hand. In a few instances these 
 village improvement societies take on quali- 
 ties of greater dignity and permanency. 
 They become incorporated and acquire 
 titles to property and hold land or buildings 
 as trustees for the public. 
 
 While the village improvement society is 
 a very simple and informal organization, as 
 a rule and probably better so its place 
 in the community is frequently taken by 
 other organizations acting in still more in- 
 direct and informal fashion. Certainly the 
 commonest substitute of this kind is the 
 woman's club. Also it is one of the best. 
 In hundreds of fortunate towns an energetic 
 woman's club has laid aside the studying of 
 Browning and Grecian art for street clean- 
 ing, public playgrounds and better schools. 
 Or if the literary studies have not been 
 finally laid aside, they have been splendidly 
 supplemented by the study of conditions 
 nearer home and what is even more im- 
 portant by active efforts for the ameliora- 
 tion of those conditions. 
 
 246 
 
ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT 
 
 Sometimes the woman's club begins by 
 organizing a single committee on village 
 improvement, or by managing a campaign 
 for the preservation of some historic spot. 
 But once begun on concrete improvements 
 the club usually goes rapidly forward to the 
 organization of other committees for the ac- 
 complishment of other reforms. It may be 
 the planting of street trees, the laying of 
 sewers or the closing of saloons, for the 
 woman's club is apt to be the first group of 
 citizens to see that village improvement is 
 all of one piece, and that sanitary and es- 
 thetic reforms must go hand in hand with 
 political and moral reforms. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to advise women's 
 clubs embarking in these enterprises to call 
 to their aid the men of the community, for 
 the cases are rare in which they have 
 neglected so much available assistance. The 
 support and advice of the men citizens is 
 essential, but the ladies God bless them! - 
 frequently supply the real initiative and 
 bear the main burdens of the work. 
 
 Other local groups not organized prima- 
 
 247 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 rily for village improvement work some- 
 times accept similar opportunities when 
 offered. For example, practical improve- 
 ment work has been taken up by the local 
 grange. Committees have been appointed, 
 money raised and important public works 
 directed. The grange has often been the 
 agent for renovating local politics, closing 
 saloons, toning up the schools, and less fre- 
 quently for improving roads, planting trees, 
 preserving picnic and pleasure grounds, 
 etc. 
 
 In rarer instances a local church has taken 
 the lead. In one-church towns or in homo- 
 geneous communities the way is easily open 
 for the church to assume such leadership 
 and it may be easily believed that the church 
 would be immensely strengthened in any 
 community where it would show itself capa- 
 ble of practical leadership in these indis- 
 pensable human concerns. 
 
 The masculine counterpart of the wom- 
 an's club is the board of trade or the cham- 
 ber of commerce. Even many small towns 
 have active boards of trade, and such socie- 
 
 248 
 
ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT 
 
 ties often undertake local improvement 
 work with vim and intelligence. The 
 methods of management are the same as in 
 other associations doing similar work. Com- 
 mittees are organized to collect funds and 
 to direct particular enterprises. Transpor- 
 tation facilities are improved, public build- 
 ings secured, parks and boulevards designed 
 and constructed and other public works of 
 all sorts put through. 
 
 In general it may be accepted as a sound 
 rule that, where some existing local society, 
 as a women's club, a board of trade, a grange 
 or a church, can undertake the direction of 
 village improvement work, it is better to 
 place it in such hands rather than to organ- 
 ize a new village improvement society for 
 the purpose. The undue multiplication of 
 societies is a characteristic weakness of 
 American life. Three men or six women 
 cannot meet twice anywhere for any pur- 
 pose without proceeding to write up a con- 
 stitution and by-laws and to elect one an- 
 other president, secretary and treasurer. 
 Much effort is spent in organization which 
 
 249 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 might better go to the actual work in view. 
 Where some further organization seems 
 desirable for the promotion of local im- 
 provements, it is often best to form a feder- 
 ation of existing societies. I recently as- 
 sisted at the organization of such a federa- 
 tion, which was brought about by associat- 
 ing two delegates elected by each of the 
 existing local organizations. Among the 
 societies represented were the church, the 
 Sunday School, the young people's society, 
 the grange, and the ancient order of United 
 Workmen. It is in the highest degree val- 
 uable, whenever it can be done, thus to en- 
 list the entire community, in all its groups, 
 in the work of village improvement. More 
 work is accomplished with less friction, be- 
 cause all the people work together; and the 
 social effects of such sympathetic co-opera- 
 tion are often quite as valuable and far- 
 reaching as the physical effects seen in clean 
 streets and new libraries. We may confi- 
 dently recommend the local federation as 
 the very best type of improvement organiza- 
 tion; and if such a federation requires a 
 
 250 
 
ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT 
 
 larger field for its activities than that occu- 
 pied for the village improvement society, 
 why so much the better. By all means let 
 literary entertainment, political reform, and 
 religious awakening be combined with the 
 campaign for a clean and orderly town and 
 country. 
 
 All these things naturally belong together. 
 They are fundamentally related and no one 
 of them can progress very far without the 
 support of the others. 
 
 Another general principle may be easily 
 brought to light for the guidance of im- 
 provement work, namely that the organiza- 
 tion which directs it should be a permanent 
 organization. Too often the citizens see 
 only one or two detached problems, and 
 complacently imagine that when these are 
 solved the work will be over. When the 
 new railroad station is built or the new park 
 dedicated, they think there will be nothing 
 further to do. Yet the most important ele- 
 ment in community improvement is its con- 
 tinuity. Nothing worth while can be 
 brought to pass in a day. It requires years 
 
 251 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 of sustained effort to do things on a neigh- 
 borhood scale. The bedrock idea of civic 
 improvement is to foresee the needs of the 
 community for a long period in the future 
 and to make wise provision for those needs. 
 The very name we use signifies that we have 
 a continuing work, for improvement is 
 possible forever. Village improvement is 
 better than social reform because improve- 
 ment has no end, while reforms are soon 
 over. 
 
 At this point it is highly important to 
 urge the need of expert assistance in village 
 improvement and all affairs of similar char- 
 acter. It may be laid down as a rule, sub- 
 ject only to the rarest exceptions, that the 
 improvements in any town or neighborhood 
 should be carried forward in accordance 
 with some well-settled plan, and that this 
 plan should be the work of an expert. City 
 planning is now recognized as a profession 
 in itself, a branch of landscape architecture. 
 The public is coming to recognize also that 
 
WILD RAMBLE IN THE NATIVE WOODS BETTER THAN A 
 MANUFACTURED PARK 
 
ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT 
 
 the planning of small cities, of villages and 
 of rural communities, is just as much a mat- 
 ter of professional experience, as it is 
 equally a matter of public importance. 
 Each community, therefore, at the very 
 moment when it first becomes aroused to the 
 need of its own betterment, should consult 
 some expert in such matters. Usually the 
 first and best expert to be called is the land- 
 scape architect with experience in civic 
 planning. He should study the neighbor- 
 hood, its topography, its industries, its his- 
 tory and its people carefully, and in view of 
 all conditions should prepare a comprehen- 
 sive plan for the district. This plan 
 should be given the greatest possible public- 
 ity in the neighborhood affected. Every 
 man, woman and child ought to see, study 
 and understand the plan. Every detail 
 ought to have the utmost discussion, exam- 
 ination, friendly criticism. If the civic 
 planner is a fit sort of man, he will be able 
 to profit by the views of the citizens, he will 
 gain valuable suggestions from them, and 
 these he will freely incorporate into his de- 
 
 253 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 sign. After such a design has undergone 
 such discussion and improvement, and after 
 disputed matters have been settled by neigh- 
 borhood vote if necessary, the whole scheme 
 ought to be adopted and generally ratified 
 as the plan of the town, village, neighbor- 
 hood or city; and thereafter the community 
 should give itself unanimously and in good 
 faith to carrying out the adopted plan. 
 
 Based on such a plan, there should be 
 adopted a set program of improvements. 
 The library is to be secured this year, the 
 new high school two years hence, the new 
 park in four years, a regular tree warden 
 and park manager in five years, and so on. 
 The community, knowing when these 
 changes are due and what each one is ex- 
 pected to cost, will find the problems more 
 than half solved. It is well known every- 
 where that the accomplishment of such im- 
 provements waits chiefly for the clearing up 
 of the public mind. 
 
 Other experts beside the landscape archi- 
 tect may often he consulted to advantage. 
 As a rule, all communities, and especially 
 
 254 
 
ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT 
 
 small villages and country neighborhoods, 
 suffer for want of such expert help. A 
 transportation expert can help in solving 
 railroad and trolley troubles. A sanitary 
 engineer can help plan a sewer system. 
 Should the schools appear to be giving un- 
 satisfactory results, it will be best to secure 
 the unprejudiced opinion of some expert 
 educator from quite outside the neighbor- 
 hood. The disregard of expert advice is 
 widely known as a peculiar and persistent 
 sin in our democratic form of government, 
 and one of the soundest of civic improve- 
 ments lies in the overcoming of this very sin. 
 
 FINANCIAL RESOURCES 
 
 Local improvement societies generally 
 raise money in small amounts by various 
 methods to carry out the schemes which 
 they deem most valuable to their communi- 
 ties. The annual membership fee is some- 
 times the whole source of revenue. Occa- 
 sionally some rich resident of the place or 
 some well-to-do corporation will be com- 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 mitted to an annual gift of a considerable 
 amount for improvement purposes. Often 
 a subscription paper is circulated and citi- 
 zens are invited to contribute. When the 
 work is promoted by a woman's club or 
 church, or grange, it is rather the usual pro- 
 cedure to supplement such sources of in- 
 come by fairs, dances and other more or less 
 direct means of assessing public tribute. All 
 these methods are legitimate enough; but 
 they are seldom adequate and are morally 
 unsound. The only honest way is for the 
 community to pay for its own improve- 
 ments. Public works should be carried out 
 at public charge and under the authority of 
 public vote and subject to public inspection. 
 The improvement society should supply 
 only the initiative, should see that farsighted 
 plans are made, that experts are placed in 
 charge of works requiring professional ad- 
 vice, should bring a well-informed public 
 opinion and a sound moral and esthetic 
 sense to bear on all public questions, but 
 should not, in general, attempt to pay the 
 bills. 
 
 256 
 
ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT 
 
 Certainly it seems mean and vicious for 
 a town to require its women to beg from 
 house to house to pay for clean streets. The 
 original building of the streets is every- 
 where recognized as a public charge. Civic 
 improvement consists largely in making 
 the community realize that they are respon- 
 sible for parks, playgrounds, street trees 
 and street cleaning, as they are for road 
 building, street lighting and police protec- 
 tion. 
 
 At this point it is well to recognize the 
 important fact that a large proportion of 
 the customary expenditures from public 
 funds goes to projects which properly come 
 within the interest of any village or rural 
 improvement society. The appropriations 
 for streets, sewers, lights and water supply 
 are indubitably of this order, and it is just 
 as important, therefore, for a public im- 
 provement society to see that reasonable 
 public appropriations for streets are made 
 and wisely expended as to raise money from 
 private sources to be spent in street improve- 
 ments. In other words, the first business of 
 
 2.57 
 
RURAL IMPROVEMENT 
 
 an improvement organization is not to raise 
 money on its own account, but to see that the 
 fund raised by taxation is honestly and 
 effectively used. The entire business of the 
 village, the town or the county should be, 
 in a large and important sense, a work of 
 public improvement. 
 
 The work of an improvement society in 
 this matter will be in seeing that suitable 
 and relatively large appropriations are made 
 for works of permanent improvement. Too 
 frequently the stingy feeling prevails and 
 the community spends money only for these 
 things which cannot be foregone for police 
 to look after the drunks and for a poorhouse 
 for the wrecks, but never a cent for the boys 
 and the girls and the sane and the sober, 
 never a cent for anything which makes the 
 town clean and beautiful and pride-worthy, 
 never a cent for anything that lasts. 
 
 Any corporate community may properly 
 borrow money to carry out permanent im- 
 provements. Indeed, the only correct test 
 of a proposed municipal loan is whether the 
 money is to be spent for the enrichment of 
 
 258 
 
ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT 
 
 the future or for current expenses. Running 
 expenses can be met honestly only from cur- 
 rent taxes ; but permanent works, the bene- 
 fits of which are to be shared by coming 
 generations, may rightfully be charged in 
 part to those future taxpayers. The pur- 
 chase and equipment of parks and public 
 reservations constitute the very best possi- 
 ble form of community investment, and 
 offer the best possible occasion for the issue 
 of bonds. Such bonds should usually be 
 drawn to run 25 or 30 years, and in every 
 case a sinking fund for their retirement 
 should begin to accumulate on the day of 
 their issue. Or the bonds may be issued in 
 serial form, in which case those maturing 
 first should fall due within ten years at lat- 
 est. While posterity may be asked to pay 
 its due proportion of such charges, posterity 
 should not be asked to pay it all. In any 
 case of doubt the present generation should 
 pay more than its exact share, thus con- 
 tributing something to posterity. 
 
 259 
 
INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Advertising nuisance 220 
 
 Agricultural improvement ;: 228 
 
 Ailanthus tree __. 73 
 
 American methods 122 
 
 Anderson, W. L., quoted i 
 
 Andre, Ed., quoted 135 
 
 Arbor day 60 
 
 Architecture 181 
 
 Art in America 2 
 
 Ash trees 7 
 
 Bailey, L. H., quoted 31 
 
 Basswood tree 69 
 
 Black locust 72 
 
 Board of trade 248 
 
 Bridges 200 
 
 Bungalow 184 
 
 Burnt clay roads 47 
 
 Butterfield, Kenyon L., quoted 244 
 
 California trees 79 
 
 Canadian farm layout 138 
 
 Cemeteries ill, 214 
 
 Central states' trees 76 
 
 Checkerboard road system 36 
 
 Church work 248 
 
 Civic art 4 
 
 Civic centers 83 
 
 Collections of plants 127 
 
 Colonial country house type 183 
 
 Community improvement societies 9 
 
 Community planning 160 
 
 26l 
 
INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Co-ordination of community improvement 16 
 
 Country Life Commission, quoted S4 
 
 County supervision of roads 52 
 
 Davy, D. A. Burt, quoted 79 
 
 Definitions and principles 2 
 
 Earle, Mrs. Alice Morse, quoted ng 
 
 Earth roads 45 
 
 Economical foundation 227 
 
 Eliot, Chas., quoted 223 
 
 Elm tree 66 
 
 Entrances and approaches 19 
 
 Expert assistance 253 
 
 Farm architecture 181 
 
 Farm buildings and arrangement 145 
 
 Farm buildings and location 142 
 
 Farm center 142 
 
 Farm deeds and surveys 141 
 
 Farm hauling, cost of 34 
 
 Farm industries 230 
 
 Farm planning 137 
 
 Farm power 194 
 
 Farm subdivision 144 
 
 Farmhouse, model 185 
 
 Farmhouse types 182 
 
 Federation of societies 250 
 
 Financial resources 255 
 
 Front yard vs. back yard , 122 
 
 Garden styles 129 
 
 Grange hall 9 2 
 
 Grange work 248 
 
 Gravel roads 46 
 
 Gridiron street system 162 
 
 Gulf states' trees 76 
 
 Hackberry 73 
 
 Hardy plants 131 
 
 262 
 
INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Hartlib, Samuel, quoted 136 
 
 Heating systems 191 
 
 Home garden I2O 
 
 Honey locust ; 73 
 
 Horse chestnut 70 
 
 Improvement of existing towns 175 
 
 Improvement plan 236 
 
 Improvement problems 5 
 
 Improvement program 237 
 
 Improvement programs 224 
 
 Incidental problems 205 
 
 Leadership 224 
 
 Lewis, Prof. C. I., quoted 78 
 
 Lighting systems 190 
 
 Litchfield, Connecticut, common 84 
 
 Local parks 106 
 
 Macadam roads 49 
 
 Main roads 38 
 
 Maintenance 132, 239 
 
 Maple tree 67 
 
 Means of access 19 
 
 Mielke, Robert, quoted 57, 180 
 
 Modern conveniences in farmhouses 189 
 
 Muir, John, quoted 102 
 
 National parks 103 
 
 National roads 53 
 
 Native plants I3 1 
 
 Natural vs. formal styles 129 
 
 New England farm buildings 146 
 
 New England trees 75 
 
 Nolen, John, quoted 159 
 
 Nuisances 219 
 
 Oak trees _ 7 1 
 
 Oiling the roads 48 
 
 Organization and management 245 
 
 263 
 
INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Ornamental treatment of farm grounds 149 
 
 Parkinson, John, quoted 118 
 
 Park treatment of farm grounds 151 
 
 Planning home gardens 122 
 
 Planting home gardens 130 
 
 Playgrounds 115, 21 1 
 
 Pole and wire nuisance, The 220 
 
 Poplar trees 72 
 
 Postoffice location 86 
 
 Prairie states' trees 75 
 
 Principles of road location 38 
 
 Programs of improvement 224 
 
 Public buildings 196 
 
 Public centers 87 
 
 Public grounds 103 
 
 Public monuments and memorials 200 
 
 Public roads in the United States 32 
 
 Quadrangular building arrangement 147 
 
 Radiating road system 41 
 
 Railroad stations 21 
 
 Relocation of roads 43 
 
 Rest rooms 217 
 
 Road and street planning 36 
 
 Road construction 44 
 
 Road management 5 1 
 
 Road taxes 50 
 
 Roads and streets 32 
 
 Roadside trees 58 
 
 Robinson, Chas. M., quoted I 
 
 Rocky Mountain states' trees 75 
 
 Roman farm layout 138 
 
 Rural architecture 181 
 
 Rural community center 99 
 
 Scenic roadways 109 
 
 School gardens 212 
 
 264 
 
INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 School grounds 109, 205 
 
 Sewage disposal 193 
 
 Simplicity 126 
 
 Sitte, Camillo, quoted 18 
 
 Social improvement 231 
 
 Social survey 232 
 
 State improvement campaigns II 
 
 State parks 105 
 
 State-wide improvement work 10 
 
 Stone-clay roads 47 
 
 Stone roads 49 
 
 Street intersections 168 
 
 Survey 225, 235 
 
 Sycamore tree 69 
 
 Temporary decorations 202 
 
 Time element 14 
 
 Town common 94 
 
 Town commons 113 
 
 Trees, best varieties of 66 
 
 Trees, care of 62 
 
 Trees for special locations 74 
 
 Trees for street planting 58 
 
 Tree wardens 63 
 
 Trolley stations 26, 215 
 
 Ventilation 189 
 
 Village architecture 195 
 
 Village church 88 
 
 Village home 195 
 
 Village home garden 120 
 
 Village improvement society 245 
 
 Village improvement societies 9 
 
 Waring, George E., Jr., quoted 204 
 
 Willis, K. P., quoted 82 
 
 Women's clubs 246 
 
 Zueblin, Chas., quoted I 
 
 265 
 
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