Conservation

Garlands for the Garden Club on Its Anniversary

The sides of the weatherbeaten old mill at West Tisbury fairly bulged with the throng who gathered there to participate in the silver jubilee celebration of the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club on Tuesday afternoon. Including those who stood outside and listened through the windows, attendance at the meeting was close to the three hundred mark with others dropping in later at the Open House.
 

Editorial: Silver Anniversary

Twenty-five years of the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club leave us wondering a little what the Island would have been with­out this active force. It is easy to recall dozens of times when the traditional understanding as to billboards would have been broken, when trees would needlessly have been cut down, when road work would have ravaged the countryside without need, when many unforeseen contingencies of the kind have arisen, and the good sense and courteous firmness of the Garden Club have prevailed.
 

Wild Flower Sanctuary at Christiantown Planned

A Vineyard wild flower sanctuary, where native plants, flowers and shrubs will be planted and protected, under conditions which will allow the general public to see and enjoy them, is in the process of becoming a reality at Christiantown. Mrs. Wilfrid O. White of Vineyard Haven, president of the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club, has been given permission, and some financial aid, by the county board, with which to pit her plan into operation on the county-owned land adjacent to the Indian burying ground on this historic spot, and the initial survey has been made by Will C.

Investigate Purchase of Beach by the State

A representative of the state De­partment of Conservation made an in­vestigation on the Island on Friday, in company with Rep. Joseph A. Sylvia, in order to prepare a report on the matter of state purchase of the beach between Oak Bluffs and Edgartown. The sentiment of those who were approached was strongly in fa­vor of the project, which is for pur­chase of the beach with stipulations that no buildings shall be placed up­on it. There seemed no doubt that the preliminary report would be favorable.

Talks on Preservation of Wild Flowers

A talk on the preservation of wild flowers, with fascinating illustrations in water color, painted by the lecturer, was presented before the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club Tuesday afternoon by Miss Eloise L. Luquer. Miss Luquer charmed her audience by her personality and her interesting and constructive lecture, given with just the correct light and amusing touch which makes the acquirement of knowledge a pleasant and easy task. The water colors, about thirty in number, were hung on the walls of the garden club center.

West Tisbury’s Old Mill Reopened by Club

The structure on the Old Mill River, West Tisbury, had its second birthday on Tuesday. And this seems strange, for the building, staunch as the day it was built, and preceded on the site by other buildings devoted to the same purpose it fulfilled so long, has a long and honorable history.

Conservation Army, 219 Strong, Is Due

A conservation army, numbering 219 men, will arrive on the Island today to take up the work of reforestation in the state reservation under the federal plan for relieving unemployment. This army is one that has been through the preliminary course of training at Camp Devens, and will be in charge of a captain and two lieutenants of the regular army, besides a detail of military police.

The Vineyard Forest Reserve

With the latest acquisition of land by the state, the order of tak­ing of which by the Department of Conservation was published in last week’s paper, the forest reserve on Martha’s Vineyard comprises about 5000 acres. Encircling the heath hen reservation, which consists of 640 acres, this tract extends over the eastern plain lands, the least valuable of any land on the Island.
 

Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club

At the invitation of its vice president, Mrs. William M. Butler, the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club met at her summer home, “Mohu”, on August 12th.
 

Reforesting Begins On Vineyard

Over 700,000 two and three year seedlings of pine and poplar are to be planted on the State Reservation this summer. The work, which is now in progress, is being done under the state Bureau of Forestry.
 
The tiny trees are planted in beds at first, and then, as they grow larger and stronger, are transplanted, being placed in spots best calculated to insure rapid and healthy growth.
 

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