402 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 292. 



subject of interstate commerce, although its fruit may be, 

 and cions or nursery stock from it may be. In the same 

 way trees infested with insects are beyond the reach of 

 Federal authority, although fruit and cions from the same 

 trees may not be. It seems, therefore, that so far as remedial 

 law is concerned the state must be the active agent in sup- 

 pressing disease and insect attacks, and the United States 

 Government can only act efficiently as it is asked to co- 

 operate in preventing the spread of danger from state to 

 state. The Government can only prevent transmission ; the 

 states must assume the rights and power of extermination 

 within their respective borders. But who shall decide that 

 young nursery stock holds, or does not hold, the incipient 

 germ which will develop into disease.? California, for ex- 

 ample, may pass a law prohibiting the importation of any 

 affected nursery stock. If a nurseryman in this state makes 

 sale of stock to a customer in California which he claims to 

 be absolutely free from infection, the California authorities 

 may prohibit this importation simply because it came from 

 an infected district, just as states draw a quarantine line, 

 across which no animal during certain periods can be 

 brought from designated localities where disease prevails. 

 Who is to decide whether this stock is justly held or not.? 

 And if many states set up quarantines of this sort it may 

 compel an examination of all the nurseries in the land, and 

 the expense of inspection and examination would soon 

 become heavy enough to break down of its own weight. 



It would seem, then, that direct legislation for the extir- 

 pation of insect pests and plant diseases must come from 

 the states, and even then laws will be of little avail unless 

 there is a wholesome public sentiment behind them and a 

 high pubhc spirit in individuals which shall reconcile them 

 to the destruction of infected property. What the General 

 Government can do, and what the State Government can 

 do in the same direction, is to give liberal support to the 

 scientific study -of contagious diseases and pestiferous in- 

 sects and to experimentation as to the best methods of 

 eradicating them. 



It is not exhilarating work to keep on repeating, year 

 after year, that our forests are vanishing, and that unless 

 something is done to arrest the destruction, they will quite 

 disappear over large areas of what should always remain 

 wooded land. But there is still need of reiterating this un- 

 pleasant truth, and we, therefore, publish in another column 

 the view of a careful observer and a scientific man, Mr. H. 

 J. Elwes, of England, in order to show how the situation 

 presents itself to the eyes of one who is not an American. 

 Mr. Elwes is not only an expert observer, but he is familiar 

 with the forests and forest-conditions both of Europe and 

 of India. He has studied this question for many years ; 

 he has visited our country before, and carefully noted what 

 he saw then, and the letter he now writes is a record of 

 what he saw in crossing the continent for the fourth time. 



There seems to be little likelihood that Congress will be 

 in any hurry to take action on this subject, and, after all, 

 the best law would be of little value until there is a 

 strong' and living public sentiment behind it. The people 

 of the country themselves will one day realize how 

 closely their highest interests are m oven in with this ques- 

 tion, and, when they do, they will find men to make such 

 laws as they want, and find the power to enforce them. 



American Parks. 



LINCOLN PARK, CHICAGO. 



THE same resolute energy in copmg with physical obstacles, 

 which is shown by Chicago in Jackson Park, lias been 

 displayed in reclaiming the waste sand-dunes at the north of 

 the city, and making of tliem the cheerful pleasure-ground 

 known as Lincoln Park. The thin, poor soil liere prevents the 

 growth of any large trees, and tlie surface is but slightly varied, 

 but there is a compensation in the great expanse of lake 

 front, which gives an unrivaled approach to the park, as well 

 as the advantage of fresh breezes from the wide expanse of 

 water. 



Lakeside Avenue, which leads to this park, is a spacious 

 boulevard, bordered on one side by a handsome stone sea-wall 

 composed of granite concrete, agamst which the green curling 

 waves dash into foam, and on tiie other by dignified dwellings 

 standing apart, many of them encircled by lawns and trees 

 and shrubbery. Along this drive the fine equipages of the 

 city roll in gay procession of an afternoon, leaving behind the 

 heat and dust of the smoky town. However this air may seem to 

 the natives, it has to the sea-coast dweller the stimulating effect 

 of that of a hill-country, and accounts for the fact (hat a visit to 

 the World's Fair is not exhausting, but stimulating. Though 

 Chicago is on the level of the lake, it has a decided elevation 

 above the level of the Atlantic, since the journey to it is all 

 the way uphill from the mouth of the St. Lawrence ; and while 

 the city's smoke makes respiration rather difficult within its 

 confines, once outside of it the lift of the atmosphere is ap- 

 parent even in summer weather. 



To the poor this easy access by car and steamboat to such a 

 great draught of freshness as Lincoln Park affords, is of untold 

 value. They throng hither in great numbers on Sundays and 

 holidays to look at the animals, of which there is a fine collec- 

 tion, or to wander under the trees, or along the stone-paved 

 beach with fishing-rods and picnic baskets. 



With great foresight the city of Chicago reserved to itself 

 before 1850 a large tract of land along the lake, which it laid 

 out in cemetery lots. In 1864 these were abandoned at 

 the sug^gestion of the residents and property-owners of 

 north Chicago, and in 1865 the land was set apart by an 

 ordinance for use as a public park, to be called by the name 

 of the martyred President. An appropriation of $10,000 

 was made for its improvement, followed by additional sums 

 in succeeding years. In 1867 all the land owned by the city 

 north of Fullerton Avenue and east of Lakeview Avenue was 

 added to Lincoln Park, and in 1869 five commissioners were 

 appointed for a term of five years, one of whom. General 

 Joseph Stockton, still holds the position, after nearly a quarter 

 of a century's service. From time to time more land was ac- 

 quired and improved, until now, upon the completion of the 

 outer drive, from Fullerton Avenue to Diversy Avenue, there 

 is a total of foiir liundred acres, with a frontage upon Lake 

 Michigan of two miles and a quarter. Smaller lakes diversify 

 its surface, covering over twenty acres of it ; and there are 

 ten miles of drives and eighteen miles of walks, while a hun- 

 dred and forty acres of submerged land have been reclaimed, 

 to be utilized in drives, lawns and boating-course. Some of 

 the little ponds are planted with Water-lilies and other aquatic 

 plants, among them the Victoria Regia. 



The dunes form slight and pleasing variations of surface, 

 and there is an elevation in Lakeview section known as 

 Mount Prospect, which has been carefully treated with land- 

 scape-effects, a drive leading to its summit, and a winding 

 bridle-path encircling its base, while two groves of Lindens, 

 one of White Birch and one of Elm and Ash have been planted 

 recently in its neighborhood. 



As one enters the park from the Lake-shore drive the noble 

 bronze statue of Lincoln, by Augustus St. Gaudens, bids fitting 

 welcome to the visitor. No statue that I know has a more dig- 

 nified approach and surrounding than this. It stands upon a 

 low pedestal of granite in the centre of an elliptical stone plat- 

 form sixty by thirty feet in area, partly surrounded by a granite 

 bench and balustrade, so that it can be viewed from all sides, 

 the platform being approached on the open side by six broad 

 low granite steps. The familiar figure, in his habit as he lived, 

 stands in front of a massive chair, sculptured on the back witti 

 the American eagle ; one hand behind his back, the other 

 grasping his coat in a natural attitude, and he seems to be ad- 

 dressing with great thoughtfulness and seriousness a listening 

 audience. Upon the encircling wall of the platform are 

 chiseled the solemn words of his last inaugural, " With 

 malice toward none, with charity toward all," etc. And 

 so life-like is the figure, so grand the character of the sad 

 powerful face, that one almost seems to hear the words uttered 

 by living lips. The trees rise behind the statue, and make a 

 fine background harmonious with its dusky bronze and the 

 soft gray of the granite accessories. The whole effect is of 

 great dignity and impressiveness. 



Other bronze statues are one of Schiller, erected by the resi- 

 dents of Chicago of German descent, a duplicate of the one 

 standing at Marbach, in Wurtemberg, where he was born ; a 

 spirited figure of heroic size of La Salle ; one of Linnaeus, a 

 gift of the Swedish-American citizens, and an equestrian statue 

 of Grant, mounted on a pretentious construction like a 

 fragment of a castle, overlooks the lake. There are sev- 

 eral fountains, around one of which in an open part of the park 

 is a pretty French parterre and a garden partly laid out in set 



