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 > O O / DESIGN FOR A SIMPLE CIVIC CENTER (enter* by; /JcMs / 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. 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 REC'O LD-URI g.JANl52QB2 20n-7 A 000 595 025 8 ) j I HT W357r