412 



Garden and Forest. 



[October 24, iS 



UnitedStatcs," showsan unmistakable westward advance of the 

 isohyetal lines over the western plains. By this method all of 

 the data up to 1855, consisting maiidy of the records at the 

 military posts, is utilized for the first period, and tlie Signal Ser- 

 vice records from 1871 to 1883 for the second period. The cer- 

 tainty of the conclusion seems, therefore, to depend mainly on 

 the degree of accuracy witli which the meagre data available in 

 1855 truly represent tlie average rainfall of so great a district, 

 and on the comparaliility of these cjuite different series of ob- 

 servations. As a test of the latter question I have examined the 

 contemporaneous records made at Fort Leavenworth and at 

 the Signal Service station in Leavenworth City for the twelve 

 years from 1871 to 1883, and find that the average annual rain- 

 fall observed at the fort was 33.0 inches, while that at the Sig- 

 nal Service station was 38.5 inches. To what this large dis- 

 crepancy between the two sets of observations is due is not 

 easily determined, but its most probable source apparently lies 

 in the greater care e.xerted by the Signal Service to measure 

 small rains and showers. If this be the true explanation, it 

 applies to the comparison of all fort records with Signal Ser- 

 vice records, and the conclusion of an increase of rainfall 

 obtained by Professor Harrington would be ciuite vitiated. 



The observations from Fort Leavenworth extend over nearly 

 fifty years, and tlius constitute the most valualjle series west of 

 tlie Mississippi River. This record exhibits an increase of two 

 inches in the mean of the last two decades over the mean of 

 the first two — an amount almost too small to l:ie considered as 

 giving evidence of any real or important climatic change. In 

 fact, the rainfall record in many eastern cities shows an increase 

 much greater than any that can be found in the West. In 

 Philadelphia during the past forty years the measured rainfall 

 has increased six inches, and at Providence and New Bedford 

 eight inches. Has cultivation of the soil, tree-planting, rail- 

 road building or settlement been the cause of this large in- 

 crease ? And if not in these eastern cities, why is it so certain 

 that they have been the cause of the possible increase of an 

 inch or two in Kansas ? 



If settlement and cultivation and forest-growing can measiu'a- 

 bly increase the rainfall, how is it to be brought about ? What 

 is the rationale of the process ? Who has shown that the as- 

 signed cause is adequate to produce the effect claimed for it ? 

 These important questions are seldom scjuarely faced. After 

 very careful study of all the arguments and data that I have 

 found it seems to me that the evidence of any material increase 

 of rainfall in the West is very inconclusive, and, second, that, 

 if such increase should occur, there would be, with our present 

 knowledge, no sufficient evidence of its being due to settle- 

 ment and cultivation. Geo. E. Curtiss. 



Parks and Squares of United States Cities. 



nPHE nineteenth volume of the Final Reports of the 

 -'■ Census of 1880, only lately distributed, completes tlie 

 "Statistics of the Cities of the United States," and enaliles us 

 to view the condition of 180 cities of the Union in respect to 

 those necessities of modern town life — public parks and 

 squares. 



Two hundred and ten cities are enumerated. Of these 

 thirty make no report concerning their public spaces, and may 

 perhaps be presumed to own none, while forty state outright 

 that they possess no public grounds whatever. Some sur- 

 prisingly large towns appear in this latter class; for instance, 

 Paterson, New Jersey (population, 51,000), Scranton, Penn- 

 sylvania (46,000), Wilmington, Delaware (42,500), Wheeling, 

 West Virginia (31,000), Trenton, New Jersey (30,000), and 

 many smaller but bustling places like Fort Wayne, Indiana, 

 Poughkeepsie, New York, and Topeka, Kansas. Since the 

 Census year several of these forty cities have taken steps to 

 provide themselves with public spaces of one sort or another. 



Turning now to the 140 cities which report one or more 

 public grounds, we notice first the universal abuse of the 

 word park. It is applied to every sort of public space, 

 from the minutest grass-plot to the race-track or the fair- 

 ground. The strict meaning of the word is completely lost. 

 Hereafter we shall have to speak of country-parks when 

 we wish to designate those public lands which the word 

 park alone ought by rights to describe — i.e., "lands in- 

 tended and appropriated for tlie recreation of the people by 

 means of their rural, sylvan and natural scenerv and 

 character." 



Country parks are sometimes of small area, as when some 

 striking gien, or river-bank, or caflon is preserved in its natural 

 state (would this were oftener done !) — but generally an area of 

 at least fifty or one hundred acres is required to provide a 

 natural aspect. Smaller spaces can satisfy manv of the de- 



sires of the crowded city people — can supply fresh air and 

 ample play-room, and shade of trees and brightness of grass 

 and fiowers — but tlie occasionally so jjressing want of that 

 quiet and peculiar refreshment which comes from contempla- 

 tion of scenery — the want which the rich satisfy by fleeing 

 from town at certain seasons, but which the poor (who are 

 trespassers in the country) can seldom fill — is only to be met 

 liy the country park. If a few of the twenty-six cities which 

 reported themselves in 1880 as possessed of large tracts of 

 land have put these lands to uses for which small areas would 

 have served as well or l.ietter — if they have given them over to 

 decorative gardening, to statuary and buildings, or to other 

 town-like things — they have made (unless the circumstances 

 are peculiar) an extravagant mistake. For large open spaces 

 close to cities are excessively costly, and one such interferes 

 with traffic in far greater degree than ilo many small areas, so 

 that no town can properly afford to own a large tract unless 

 for the express purpose of providing refreshing natural 

 scener}'. 



The accompanying table of the twenty-six cities which re- 

 ported park lands of fifty acres and upwards presents curious 

 contrasts. The first column gives the number of inhabitants 

 per acre of park — which is the basis of the order of the names 

 — the other columns the population and the park acreage ; 



18 Macon, . . 



22 Council Blufl's, 

 166 Detroit, . . 

 172 St. Paul, . . 



175 New Britain, 



176 St. Louis, . . 

 182 Binghamtoii, 

 222 San Francisco, 



280 Bridgeport, . 



281 Chicago, . 



309 Philadelphia, 



310 Baltimore, . 

 410 San Antonio, 

 417 Omaha, . . 

 442 Buflalo, . . 

 508 New Orleans, 

 680 Portland, Me., 

 685 Cincinnati, . 

 833 Indianapolis, 

 907 Fall River, . 

 940 Allegheny, . 



1019 Providence, 

 1 122 Brooklyn, 

 1 2 13 Albany, . . 

 1400 New York, . 

 3424 Boston, . . 



Little Macon's large park was the gift of the State. It is 

 mostly in large forest trees. Boston, at the other end of the 

 list, boasts uncommonly attractive suburlis, which have 

 served some of the purposes of a park ; Liut she has lately 

 liegun work upon a real park of more than 600 acres. 



Of small public grounds there appears to be an equally 

 various provision. In New England many cities possess the 

 remains of old town commons — for instance, Nashua (13,000) 

 has forty acres in North and South Commons, and New- 

 buryport (13,500) has the same ; while Boston, Salem, Lynn 

 and other places own larger or smaller areas of like origin. 



At the founding of Philadelphia, five public squares of 

 about six acres each were carefully reserved ; but the exam- 

 ple of the founders has been wofully forgotten by the 

 builders of the great city of to-day. Savannah has done bet- 

 ter, for she has continued tlie city-plan devised by her first 

 colonists, and in 1880, with a population of 31,000, she had 

 thirty acres in twenty-three public spaces, besides a ten-acre 

 park and a twenty-acre parade ground. About the worst 

 case reported is thiit of Pittsburgh, a city of 156,000 inhabitants 

 and possessed of less than one and one-third public acres — a 

 contrast to Buffalo (population, 155,000) which reported, in 

 addition to the Park, fifty-six acres in the Parade, thirty-two 

 acres in the Front and forty-two acres in eight pieces. Com- 

 l^are also the following : 



Troy, New York (57,000), one acre. Richmond (64,000), 

 sixty-five acres in five pieces. 



Kansas City (56,000), two acres. Akron, Ohio (16,500), 

 twenty-five acres in seven pieces. 



Auburn, New York (22,000), one acre. Salt Lake (21,000), 

 forty acres in four pieces. 



And the remarkable case of Lawrence, Kansas (8,500), 

 seventy-three acres in five pieces. 



We have no fixed rule tor the proper ratio to population of 



13,000 



720 



18,000 



600-)- 1044-90 



1 16,500 



700 



41,500 



240 



13,000 



74 



350,500 



1,372-1-276-1-180-1-158 



17,500 



96 



234,000 



1,050 



28,000 



5o-f5o 



503,500 



5<-)3+372 + 25o-f-2oo-|-i85-f-i 



847,000 



2,740 



232,500 



693+56 



20,500 



50 



30,500 



73 



155,000 



330 



216,000 



250 I-175 



34,000 



50 



255,000 



206 f 1 64 



75,000 



90 



4g,ooo 



54 



79,000 



84 



105,000 



103 



567,000 



50s 



91,000 



75 



206,500 



862 



363,000 



106 



