(36) OUTDOOR ART IN SCHOOL AND COLLEGE
GROUNDS.

By W. J. BEAI., Professor of Botany and Forestry, Mich. Agricultural College,
Agricultural College P.O., Mich.

During the first fifteen years of the existence of the State
Agricultural College of Michigan there were four professors of
horticulture, who also had charge of such landscape work as
was supposed to be needed in those primitive days, - besides
the first president, who served in that capacity, - making one
person for each three years. Although the place was just
hewed out of the woods, it is said to be astonishing how much
dirt each of these five men found it advisable to move. Each
man had a plan entirely his own, and at the end of fifteen years
there was little to show for a good deal of hard work.

19
Before the writer, the sixth man, was to take charge of the
college campus, the State Board of Agriculture said, - and
wisely too, -" Let us employ a man of much experience and
skill, and have a plan made, and if we are suited it shall be
adopted with so much firmness that no one in the future shall
ever be permitted to change it. The gardener shall also mark
the spots for all buildings to be erected in the future, and indicate which buildings shall some day be moved, if they now
stand in unsuitable places."

The writer carried out that design to the letter, as well as
means would permit, and looked after the place for nine years,
with meagre allowance for improvements, and then the college
work was subdivided and the care of grounds passed into other
hands, three of them, one after the other in somewhat rapid
succession.

Nine different men have undertaken this work during forty-
two years. With this example fresh in mind, I am firmly impressed with the idea that with lack of stability in management
and in money very much cannot be expected of a college
campus as a model. It would be well in most cases, after
adopting a good plan, if two or more members of some firm of
experience could at least be employed to advise the man in
charge, in case changes of much importance were contemplated.

In these days colleges and universities grow so rapidly that,
with few exceptions, no one can be relied on to predict what
changes will be imperative during the next decade, to say
nothing of later periods. More land will be added buildings
are to be enlarged and many new ones erected, involving
numerous changes in drives and paths, removal of choice trees,
and planting of others.

In too many cases a college president or some member of
the trustees, who delights to be called " a practical man," has
some plans to be carried out. Many a Yankee thinks he can
do well anything he undertakes, because he has been successful
in securing some high position and in accumulating some
money.

20
At a large and well-known university in a distant State there
never was any attention given to graceful curves for beauty, but
everything went in straight lines and straight rows and by
couples. In time the trees became much crowded and in
places began to tower up forest-like. What was to be done,
remove a portion of them and let the rest spread themselves,
instead of growing tall and slim? Oh, no! One of the practical men among the trustees knew a thing or two on this
subject, and finally he was permitted and encouraged by the
others to have the ends of the branches of many trees all cut
severely back, remarking that "they will look bad for a while,
but in time they will be delightful to behold." The stubs called
forth the animadversions of saint and sinner, scholar and day-
laborer alike for a few years, till they became accustomed to
the change and nature had enabled the trees to make some
amends.

The results you can all see in your mind's eye. The graceful elm, the stately ash, the ovoid maple, the open-topped birch,
the sturdy oak, the conical evergreen were all reduced, as in a
vice, to the same rounded form.

At the Agricultural College, near the capital of Michigan, the
authority for superintending the outdoor planting is divided,
the professor of horticulture having general charge of the
grounds, including greenhouses, while the professor of botany
is permitted to occupy three acres in two isolated places for a
small botanic garden, consisting mainly of about two thousand
hardy species of herbaceous plants and shrubs, with a very few
trees.

Among other things, the department of botany teaches classes
to know trees and shrubs as botanists and foresters do. The professor of horticulture teaches landscape gardening. The teacher
of botany believes it would be very well and convenient for all
concerned if portions of the campus here and there were gradually transformed in such manner that one or two good samples
of each species should be arranged in families as far as practicable, as pupils study these plants mainly a family at a time.

21
Trees in good variety are already found on the campus, but
they are not planted with the view of getting maples together
in one place, oaks in another, elms in still another, and so on,
with all sorts of woody plants. A committee consisting of a
member of the Board of Agriculture, the professor of horticulture, and the professor of botany agreed to undertake the
transformation, but very little has yet come of it. Considerable
shrubbery has been placed in families, and the advantages for
teaching are already apparent. For over twenty-five years one
or more specimens of each kind of tree on the campus has been
labelled, usually selecting those accessible to paths, drives, and
buildings.

While mastering forestry and a botanical knowledge of trees
and shrubs, for a time each student was supplied with a popular
description of each sort, designating where a good specimen
could be seen.

The college campus consists of about sixty acres of gently
rolling land, where portions of the virgin forest are preserved,
and numerous other sorts planted. Trees are now thick enough
and large enough for illustrations.

Besides the students, great numbers of visitors see this
campus each year. With all its imperfections, this natural and
artificial mixture of trees and other plants is exerting an influence for good and becoming a useful object lesson, for professors from other colleges, directors of normal schools, superintendents of public schools, and others have come to study the
collections and make notes, and have asked for and acted upon
our advice in regard to their own grounds.

Some years ago the State Horticultural Society made a start
toward trying to induce teachers and children to plant flower
gardens near the school-house. In certain instances some
measure of success was attained, but I think the main reason
for the lack of interest was the fact that the long vacation often
came in summer, and that in many places there was a change of
teachers between winter and summer. Again, most teachers
didn't know how nor care to undertake the work.

22
At college or university it is probably best to give considerable attention to putting in woody plants on steep slopes, low
and broken grounds-places not likely to be sought for new
buildings. By this means a greater degree of permanence is
likely to be secured. Nearer buildings, shrubbery and quick-
growing trees can be used, till it is finally decided where neighboring buildings are to be erected.

We must remember that most of our country is still young,
and few persons have given any serious thought to outdoor art.
I look with considerable confidence to the land-grant colleges to
educate young men in this line of work. And since attending
this meeting I see that this organization, The American Park
and Outdoor Art Association, is likely to do much in this line of
education. Our people travel considerably and are ready to
pick up ideas regarding home ornamentation, provided there
are a good number of well-kept grounds scattered about the
country; a few in each State will exert a wonderful influence.

Discussion.
President LORING, in his remarks upon this paper, said:
Who of us is not acquainted with the man who knows everything? In a little near-by park, planted with tall silver maples,
an expert "tree-trainer," so called, cut the tops off level and so
ruined the trees as to make it desirable, if not necessary, to cut
out every one and replant. In the grounds of an orphan
asylum the same kind of an expert cut off all the tree-tops
there, with the same sad result. The college campus and
public-school grounds should be a model for the people in all
that makes for truly artistic planting and proper care of trees
and shrubs. Professor Beal's paper should go to every college in the land.