The Prairie Farmer, Vol. 56, No. 2, January 12, 1884 | Page 3

make the most
money, providing the section he is in demands dairy work? It seems to
me so. And if we further place limit on the dairyman's work, we should
say he can not afford, with fifty or seventy-five cows, to give as much
attention to the manufacture of cheese and butter as that work
necessarily demands. Even though he employs a specialist in creamery
work, he himself must be a specialist to some extent. We say to
investing farmers do not put $500 into horses, $500 into fine cattle, and
$500 into swine, but concentrate on one class of stock, and give that
your time.

J.N. MUNCEY, Asst. Ag. Expts. Ag. Col., Ames, Iowa.

PUBLIC SQUARES IN SMALL CITIES.
BY H.W.S. CLEVELAND.
A respectable looking, middle-aged gentleman called upon me not long
since and told me he was a resident of an interior city of some eight or
ten thousand inhabitants, and at a recent public meeting had been
appointed chairman of a committee on the improvement of a small park,
which it was thought might be made an attractive ornamental feature of
the town.
On further inquiry I learned that the proposed park was simply a public
square with a street on each of its four sides, on which fronted the
principal public buildings, stores, etc. It was a dead level, with no
natural features of any kind to suggest the manner of its arrangement,
but they thought it might be made to add to the beauty of the town, and
he had called to ask my advice in regard to it.
As the arrangement of such areas had occupied my thoughts a good
deal in a general way, it occurred to me that this was a good
opportunity to ventilate some opinions I had formed in regard to
prevalent errors in their management, and accordingly I addressed him
substantially as follows:
"It is very rare that the people of any town show a just appreciation of
the value of such an area for ornamental use. Such a piece of ground as
you describe in the very business center of a town must of course
possess great pecuniary value, and the fact that it has been voluntarily
given up and devoted for all time to purposes of recreation and
ornament would lead us to expect that they would at least exercise the
same shrewdness in securing their money's worth, that they do in their
private transactions. They have given this valuable tract for the object
of ornamenting the town by relieving the artificial character of the
buildings and streets by the refreshing verdure of trees and grass and

shrubbery, and that it may afford a place for rest and recreation for tired
wayfarers and laborers, and nurses with their children, and a pleasant
resort for rest and refreshment when the labors of the day are at an end.
"Its arrangement, therefore, should be such as to set forth these objects
so obviously that no one could look upon the scene without perceiving
it. The trees should be so arranged in groups and in such varieties as
would afford picturesque effects when seen from the principal points of
approach. The paths and open areas should be so arranged as to prevent
the possibility of saving time by a short cut across, and so provided
with seats under the shade of the trees as to invite to repose, instead of
this, in nine cases out of ten, the trees (if any are planted) are simply set
in rows at equal distances, without the faintest attempt at picturesque
effect, and the paths are carried diagonally across from corner to corner
for the express purpose of affording an opportunity for a short-cut to
every one who is hastening to or from his business. The consequence is
that at certain hours the paths are filled by a hurrying throng whose
presence would alone suffice to banish the effect of repose which
should be the ruling spirit of the place, while at all other times it is
comparatively deserted.
"Perhaps these ideas might not be satisfactory to your people, and I
have therefore set them forth somewhat at length in order that you may
understand what I conceive should be the ruling principle of
arrangement."
I perceived that my visitor was somewhat disturbed and it was not till
he had told me, in a kind of half apologetic way, that he did not know
"but what I was pretty nigh right," that he finally informed me that the
square in question was already divided in the manner I described, by
diagonal paths, and moreover that the paths were lined on each side by
rows of well-grown trees.
I could not help inquiring what further laying out it required, and it then
came out that there