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112 MINNESOTA STATE HOKTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



AN IDEAL PUBLIC PARK. 



FRED NUSSBAUMER, SUPT. OF PARKS, ST. PAUL,. 



In the course of the following short notes it is intended to 

 emphasize the principles of a public recreation ground for the 

 masses, no "keep off the grass" signs or other restraining rules 

 to be enforced except as pertaining to good order. An ideal park 

 must ahvavs be kept clean, neat and tidy; a dignified appearance 

 of the grounds will invariably appeal to human sense for respect, 

 and appeal to its appreciation for preservation of the beautiful. 



As to the planting of parks, while it is not intended to give 

 a list of the trees and shrubs suitable for the purpose, it will be 

 proper to impress upon the minds of the planters that the most 

 successful results, both as to beauty and economy, can be produced 

 by the use of our native trees, shrubs and vines, and why? Sim- 

 ply because they are in harmony with our climate, with the hue and 

 tint of our clouds and sky line, and nature helps to supply its ele- 

 ments. This is the reason why we cannot delight in exotic out- 

 door embellishment of our pleasure grounds. 



Parks or gardens were established in early times. We find in 

 Yager's "Gartenkuanrst and Gaerten" a description of the gardens 

 of the Romans. In Gibbons' "Decline and Fall of the Roman 

 Empire" we find how in the sixth century B. C. the troops of 

 Belisarius entered Grasse, where they found a palace of a vandal 

 king surrounded by villas and gardens which Procopius describes 

 as Paradise, but in those mediaeval times their extent was lim- 

 ited to walled enclosures, necessitated by constant hatred during 

 these unsettled centuries and until civilization took a foothold 

 among the peoples. 



The infancy of civilization was cradled in cities. In the ear- 

 lier ages they were built with walls around them for defense against 

 their foes in the frequently recurring wars of those periods of civil 

 strife. The walls remained long after settled governments had 

 brought internal peace and order to the nations. The populations, 

 crowded in narrow and dirty .streets in the narrow circuit of their 

 walls, without sewers or supplies of pure water, or open spaces 

 for the play of fresh air, were subject to annual devastations by 

 diseases and plagues unknown to civilized countries in modern 

 times, at least since Cuba was purged of the Spanish poison. To 

 escape the filth and pestilential odors of the cities their wealthier 

 people moved outside of the walled inclosure, where they could 

 enjoy the pure air and the beauty of fields and gardens, and live 

 in health amid the refreshing influences of rural scenery. These 



