Milford chronicle., 1914-02-27

Improvement.
I'VE will start from the railroad sta
ton, but before starting just look across
the tracks toward DR.. Layton Grier's.
We see well kept grounds, but the de-
sire to critieise, rather than to admire,
takes hold Of US, because our eyes must
first pass over a lot of railroad ties,
which are heaped on the railroad prop
erty, almost against the public road and
directly between the station and DR..
Grier' S residence. Therailroad officials
have expressed a desire to do all they
can for Milford Then, why not ask cur
Town Council to request the company to
keep their ties, logs. etc, further away
from the public road
Now we start on our walk, first of
all, going up Causey Avenue. We are
delighted with what we find First, well
kept business houses and lumber yards,
I1hen, fine residences, with attractive
shaded lawns. As we come to Walnut
Street we admire the beautiful Post
office and its ample lawn. al, her indi-
cation Of the thrift and refinement OF
Milford S citizens. We are certainly
pleased with Milford.
'Now lets go down town. We pass a
number of up-to date business houses
then come to the river Here we have
to stop, but not to admire. No matter
whether we look to the east or to the
west, We see broken bulk heading and
the banks of the river strewn with de-
/ caying paper, tin cans and paste-board
boxes. Beyond all this we see ill-kept
back yards and unsightly out-buildings
/ What shame that Milford should have
such display right in its midst. Ger
tainlv the better people. especially the
! owners of some of these properties, do
not realize how they are hurting the
town.
The remedy Concrete bulkheads or,
at least, substantial wooden ones. Only
clean material against these bulkheads.
either soil or ashes. An occasional will
low or magnolia to screen the outbuild-
lngs; some hardy grasses and weeping
shrubs planted near the water, and this
part of our town would be transformed
from an eye-sore to a veritable thing of
beauty. What an asset to any town to |
have a stream of water flowing directly |
through it but how far from an asset |
It can become Is eXemplified in our town. |
we walk on and find nothing more /
in the town proper but commendable |
conditions. AS we reach Pratt's drug
store, we decide to turn to our right, SO I
walk along East Front street. We are
anxious to see what the outskirts of the
town look like. We pass some cozy
dwellings, some not so cozy, but not so
very bad. Then we come to marsh
On the left the ground is quite low, but
we see nothing Objectionable; but look
on the right. A dumping ground for
all sorts of rubbish. Twenty-Five years
ago such conditions were common, but
now we know they do not have to be
tolerated. If an owner has piece Of
that is naturally low and de-
sires to have it filed in, it is to the ad-
of the community to have that
done, but only ashes and soil should be
permitted To be thrown there What
a breeding place for the malarial mos
quito our jumping grounds must be,
with the tin cans. partially filled with
water, and decaylng vegetation.
I'VE retrace our steps, going along
Front street until we come to Peabody
Avenue Here we turn toward the sta
ton. As We approach the river we pass
a billboard. which many progressive
towns no longer tolerate. Bill-boards
nay be all right in their proper places,
out would II not please our citizens if
he Town Council should pass an ordi-
nance prohibiting any bill-bOards within
he town limits After passing the bill
BOARD we come to another Objectionable
ground, misleading advertise / ,
nent of Milford to passengers on the ,
rains, to wnom this spot must be very
Should a person be seated A
m the west side of the train, he un- /;
loubtedly would think Milford the most
town south of Philadelphia, Z
Dut should he be seated on the other side,
le would have a different impression al
ogether. This spot can be remedied in n
.ither of two ways. Either by dredg-
ng part of this marsh, filling in the bal :,
nee with the material obtained by this a
or (Which is probably more \
,racticaD by having it entirely filled in,
,ut only with clean materials. One +,
more way suggests itself and that is, :
o plant a number of cheap widow trees :
long the boundaries Of this marsh and =,
ONE in its midst. Trees of this family a
re capable Of drying up a marsh, by
taking up such great guam a
itie of water and by making such masses n
f roots. These trees would also screen
be few unattractive buildings seen from 4
he railroad. h
In taking our walk we have seen n
adly infested with scale, mostly San
ose. The majority of these infested
rees are silver naples. As this variety al
f tree is undesirable, it5being also sub e,
sct to the attacks of bOrers, in addition al
} many other weaknesses, it would be ki
ell for US to resolve not to plant this =
zee in the future, but rather sugar ma
les, sycamores, oaks, etc.
LAS the offspring from one San Jose
Gale can amount to over two billions y
one year, would it not be well to start
rigid system of spraying before this
est becomes so prevalent that we can
)t control it
Where owners refuse to spray or re-
owe infested trees, experience has
lown that the town officials must use
rceable measures to have this work
me, and the same might be said re-
lrding eye-sores, such as dumping Cl
'ounds in the town. Where the whole
immunity is affected by the indiffer- =,
ice of few citizens, certainly COM y
llsory methods should be adopted.