1802 LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



size, leaving the lesser 

 spaces to be called 

 squares, gardens, play- 

 grounds, places, and so 

 on. Another special use 

 of the word in America is 

 its application to tracts 

 of land in the West, 

 many square miles in 

 extent, either set apart 

 by the government, as 

 Yellowstone Park, or 

 naturally distinguished 

 by the presence of com- 

 paratively gentle graz- 

 ing-land in the midst of 

 rougher country . "Park" 

 is also used in a more 

 general way to indicate 

 the general purpose of 

 any open land devoted 

 to public recreation, or 

 of the organization con- 

 trolling it, as "park sys- 

 tem," "park depart- 

 ment," and the like. 



A large city park sys- 

 tem usually contains 

 parks of varying size and 

 character and many 

 smaller pleasure- 

 grounds. No rigid classi- 

 fication can be made, 

 but the following may 

 be regarded as reason- 

 ably distinct types, each 

 having its own field of 

 usefulness, its own 

 merits, and its own 

 limitations. In practice, 

 the lines between these 

 types cannot be dis- 

 tinctly drawn, but poor 

 results are often due to 

 losing sight of the dis- 

 tinct and often conflict- 

 ing motives whch have 

 given rise to these types. 



1. The large rural park 

 (Figs. 2096, 2099, 2100), 

 generally from 200 to 

 1,000 acres, is in most 

 cases the chief feature of 

 a city park system. It is 

 seldom undertaken ex- 

 cept by large cities or 

 cities so rapidly growing 

 that the need of such 

 provision can be clearly 

 foreseen. Its main object 

 is to provide conve- 

 niently in some degree for 

 the inhabitants of large 

 cities that sort of recre- 

 ation which is to be ob- 

 tained by strolling or 

 driving in a pleasant 

 country district. There is 

 no doubt that the enjoy- 

 ment of beautiful natu- 

 ral scenery is to most 

 city dwellers one of the 

 most refreshing anti- 

 dotes for the wearing 

 influences of crowded 

 city life. When cities 



5TREET 



2095. Completed plan ready for execution, developed from a 

 sketch plan. The numbers refer to a planting-list which should 

 accompany the plan. Pages 1797-1800. 



are of moderate size and 

 are surrounded by a 

 beautiful country dis- 

 trict, this enjoyment is 

 readily accessible to the 

 mass of the population, 

 and it has fortunately 

 become mere so in pro- 

 portion to the size of 

 the cities within the gen- 

 eration embracing the 

 transition from the nine- 

 teenth to the twentieth 

 century, through the 

 development of trolley 

 car lines and the use of 

 the bicycle and the auto- 

 mobile; but this in- 

 creased accessibility of 

 the country has been in 

 part offset by the growth 

 of the cities during the 

 same period, and by the 

 serious impairment of the 

 rural quiet of the sub- 

 urban regions through 

 the same cause im- 

 proved cheap transpor- 

 tation. It is therefore 

 necessary, if the people 

 of large cities are to have 

 easy access to refreshing 

 rural scenery, that the 

 municipality should 

 withdraw from its tax- 

 able area a tract suffici- 

 ently large to provide 

 such scenery within its 

 own limits. The cost, 

 both directly in money 

 and indirectly through 

 interference with the 

 street system and with 

 the normal commercial 

 development of the land, 

 is necessarily very great, 

 and only the purpose of 

 providing beautiful 

 scenery, thoroughly con- 

 trasting with the city 

 life and measurably 

 sequestered from all its 

 sights and sounds, can 

 justify this cost, because 

 almost all the other pur- 

 poses served in public 

 recreation grounds can 

 be met more economi- 

 cally and far more con- 

 veniently in smaller 

 areas distributed at fre- 

 quent intervals through- 

 out the city. The essen- 

 tial characteristics of a 

 well-designed and well- 

 managed park of this 

 class are, therefore, that 

 all of the numerous other 

 objects which it may 

 serve are subordinated 

 to the provision of beau- 

 tiful scenery and to 

 rendering this scenery 

 accessible and enjoyable 

 by large numbers of 

 persons, and that the 



