672 PARKS 



A hundred-acre park with lawns not too much cut up by walks and 

 other features and the plantings mainly of tree and shrub masses can often 

 be handled by eight men and a horse or gasoline power equipment for lawn 

 mowing. Rural and woodland parks can sometimes be handled by one or 

 two men per hundred acres in summer and one man to three or four hundred 

 acres in spring and fall. It all depends on the character of upkeep and 

 intensity of use. 



In a park system for a small town it is sometimes possible so to organ- 

 ize the work that one set of men goes from park to park doing all the grass 

 cutting, another set does the hoeing, and so on. In the present day of motor 

 transportation this may be the most efficient method. On the other hand 

 there is a protective influence that discourages vandalism if small groups 

 of men are working here and there throughout the parks, which often more 

 than compensates for an apparent lack of efficiency. Alert workmen are 

 often better protectors than police and certainly may be important aids to 

 the police in park protection. 



Equipment. The equipment requiring closest scrutiny is the lawn 

 mowers. The basis should be power mowers suited to the size of the areas 

 to be cut, supplemented by just enough sixteen-inch hand mowers to cut 

 about trees, along edges and at corners so that the power machine will 

 not need to jockey at corners to make a clean cut or run too close to trees 

 or plant groups, thus saving time. Only a competent mechanic should 

 ever be permitted to tamper with the adjustments. There should be enough 

 machines at hand so that if one becomes slightly out of adjustment another 

 is available until the mechanic has a chance to make the repairs. The 

 workmen usually hurt rather than help a machine. 



Another expensive item of equipment is the spray outfit. For tree 

 spraying, whether on city streets, in parks or in forests, a strong pump is 

 essential, one that can create a pressure of two hundred pounds per square 

 inch at the nozzle. For the spraying of low shrubbery a much lower pressure 

 is better. For spraying, the unit organization for the park system is prob- 

 ably best, even if the street trees of the city are included under the park 

 administration. 



As nearly a central location as possible should be selected for an admin- 

 istration unit where housing should be provided for trucks and automobiles 

 as well as spray outfits, lawn mowers and small tools of all kinds. Repair 

 shops may often be in common with other divisions of the department. 

 The propagating grounds should be near at hand. When there is a show 

 conservatory it should also be close by, if practicable, but the work yards 

 need to be well screened from the other portions of the parks. 



