36 
Annual Report 
Since the play instinct of a group of boys eight years of age 
is entirely different from those of a group of fourteen years of 
age, provision ought to be made for the following three distinct 
groups of playground patronage : 
1. There should be a place for the exclusive use of young 
boys and girls up to approximately ten years of age. Equipment : 
Sand court, wading pool, swings, tilts, suspending parallel bars, 
flying rings, etc. 
2. There should be a place for the exclusive use of girls 
more than ten years of age. Equipment : Flying rings, horizon- 
tal ladder, traveling rings, giant stride, etc. 
3. There should be a place for the exclusive use of boys 
more than ten years of age. Equipment : Horizontal bars, par- 
allel bars, flying rings, climbing poles, etc. 
Swimming pools are essential in every playground and should 
be used on separate days by group two and three. 
A playground should be within five minutes' walk of every 
child, and if we allow a playground for every twenty thousand 
of our city's population, we may find a standard to distribute the 
playgrounds in the different districts. Better three small play- 
grounds than one large one. 
Each playground should have a playfield, also a field-house 
equipped with baths, dressing-rooms, assembly hall, reading- 
rooms, etc. 
Conscious of the fact that these conditions can not materialize 
at once, I take the liberty to call your attention to the following 
improvements : 
1. To resurface the playgrounds similar to the Inwood 
grounds. 
2. To rearrange the apparatus for separate departments for 
boys and girls, and enclose these departments. 
3. To eliminate such apparatus from the grounds which 
endanger the safety of the children, such as wipple ladder or 
tilt ladder. 
4. To install such apparatus which will offer the utmost 
opportunity for good all-round bodily exercise, such as horizontal 
ladder, flying rings, etc. 
5. To erect field and shelter-houses, so the work may be 
carried on in inclement weather. 
