The prairie spirit in landscape gardening; what the people of Illinois have done and can do toward designing and planting public and private grounds for efficiency and beauty . every-where and forever. Shall we turn the whole outdoor world into a luubcum? Restoration of tlie River Banks E\ERY Illinoisan knows about tlie tlireegreat rivers in whicli we have a share,the Mississippi, Wabash, and Illinois, but torealize the wonderful possibilities of ourwater system for use, recreation, andbeauty one must see a map devoted entirelyto our watercourses, showing how few andsmall are the areas which t
The prairie spirit in landscape gardening; what the people of Illinois have done and can do toward designing and planting public and private grounds for efficiency and beauty . every-where and forever. Shall we turn the whole outdoor world into a luubcum? Restoration of tlie River Banks E\ERY Illinoisan knows about tlie tlireegreat rivers in whicli we have a share,the Mississippi, Wabash, and Illinois, but torealize the wonderful possibilities of ourwater system for use, recreation, andbeauty one must see a map devoted entirelyto our watercourses, showing how few andsmall are the areas which the people cannotreach by means of a ten-cent fare or anhours ride in an automobile or a farmbuggy. Many of these watercourses havebeen denuded or desecrated and all sorts ofrestorations have been made in variousparts of the state. Perhaps the largestand most consistent restoration is thePrairie River in Humboldt Park, Chicago,which aims to epitomize or suggest thecharacteristic beauty of the Illinois riversas a whole. See Fig. 3. The river, whichis man-made, is 1,650 feet long, and variesin width from 53 to 108 feet. It has severalbranches and some cascades, with rock-. work modeled afterthat of the Rockriver. See Circular170, Fig. 105. The de-signer deliberatelydiscarded all foreignmaterials (see , -16) because hewas attempting to re-create a pure Illinoislandscape. By so do-ing he denied him-self many showyflowers which he be-lieves are among the finest that can be usedin ordinary landscape gardening. For ex-ample, he would not use pink or yellow waterhlies in Fig. 2, because they would not be trueto nature. Fortunately, we can see these beauti-ful foreign plants in every park, but faithfulrestorations of by-gone scenery are property owner along a watercourse ordrainage ditch may restore some trees, shrubs, Mr. Corngrower, can you see beauty in your creek, even when there is nota single flower or striking form? If so, you understand why we swept awaythe show
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectlandsca, bookyear1915
