294 CITY PARKS. 



on account of the heat and dust, but it can be done by con- 

 tinual watering, cleaning, and cultivating. Canal Street 

 Park, New York, is situated in perhaps the most difficult 

 position in the city of which it is possible to conceive. 

 The surrounding houses are tenements, produce stores, and 

 the like, and the incessant traffic consists largely of trucks 

 and carts, laden with coal, refuse, vegetables, and the 

 roughest material. Dirt is ubiquitous, and the heat at 

 times is great. And yet the grass is always green here, 

 and the shrubs, trees, and bedding plants, always thriving. 

 The park is only 195 feet long by 69 feet wide, but it 

 occupies the entire attention of one gardener, and two police 

 officers, either one of whom is on guard at night and during 

 the day. 



It is a pleasure to see the mothers with their children 

 gather here on the settees throughout the long sultry sum- 

 mer nights, and realize that this unspeakable boon can be 

 secured at such comparatively low cost. Every city should 

 seek to adorn these small greens, to increase their number, 

 and to enlarge their boundaries. 



